Here is an illustration of what I think you're talking about. If my assumptions are wrong, please change the code up to illustrate generally what your tables and data look like, and what you would expect the results to look like given the sample data you supply.

declare @descriptions table (code int identity primary key, code_description varchar (50))

insert into @descriptions

select 'small' union all

select 'medium' union all

select 'large' union all

select 'red' union all

select 'green' union all

select 'blue' union all

select 'stock' union all

select 'custom'

select * from @descriptions

declare @items table (itemNumber int , code int )

insert into @items

select 1,3 union all

select 1,6 union all

select 1,7

-- one join gets the descriptions

select itemnumber, i.code, d1.code_description, row_number() over(order by (select Null)) as rowID

from @items i

join @descriptions d1 on d1.code = i.code

where itemNumber = 1

-- this code cross-tabs the rows into columns

;with cte as (

select itemnumber, i.code, d1.code_description, row_number() over(order by (select Null)) as rowID

from @items i

join @descriptions d1 on d1.code = i.code

where itemNumber = 1

)

select itemnumber

, max(case when rowID = 1 then code_description else null end) as Col1

, max(case when rowID = 2 then code_description else null end) as Col2

, max(case when rowID = 3 then code_description else null end) as Col3

from cte

group by itemnumber