PIVOT in SQL Server

Prior to SQL 2005 I have to explicitly define a query to do a pivot like below

select work_group, sum(case when days <= 10 then 1 else 0 end) as LT3,sum(case when days > 10 and days <15> 15 then 1 else 0 end) as [GT 15] from view_1 group by work_group

In SQL 2005 there is another way to do it.

select work_group,LT3,[3 to 15],[GT 15] from (

SELECT case_id,work_group, CASE WHEN days <= 10 THEN 'LT3' WHEN days >10 and days < 15 THEN '3 to 15' when days >15 then 'GT 15' END AS days

FROM view_1 ) as rawdata

pivot (

count(case_id) for days in (LT3,[3 to 15],[GT 15])) as pvt

The latter looked more complicated but both worked exactly the same. However, the latter is sorted on work_group automatically.

The example is more interesting when "days" is already parsed according to its grouping. You just need to define "select case_id, work_group, days from view_1". Coupled with the fact that "select work_group,LT3,[3 to 15],[GT 15]" can be shortened to just "select *". You get the following

select * from ( SELECT case_id,work_group, days FROM view_1 ) as rawdata pivot ( count(case_id) for days in (LT3,[3 to 15],[GT 15])) as pvt

Don't you think that the above code is much simpler to write than prior SQL 2005 codes? You just can't make it simpler with the prior SQL2005 series.