Unpivoting data in PostgreSQL

A while ago we demonstrated how to create cross tabulation tables using tablefunc extension aka (Pivot Tables) (basically collapsing rows into columns). Recently someone asked me how to do the reverse (convert columns to rows). He found a solution to the problem here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1128737/unpivot-and-postgresql using a combination of array and unnest. That approach is very similar to SQL Server's built-in Pivot SQL predicate. The solution seemed nice enough except similar to the SQL Server Unpivot, it required knowing the column names beforehand so very hard to genericize. So would it be possible to accomplish this feat without knowing the columns names (except for the key) and be able to do it with one SQL statement. I realized that the PostgreSQL hstore extension fit the bill nicely. In this article I'll demonstrate both approaches by creating a view using both.