Picking strings out of XML-like text
I have some XML-like data that is stored as nvarchar(max). A cell from the table in which it is stored, looks a bit like this:
123
5
fcd13330-4983-4402-b27c-ab01e1a2438e
234
5
90873135-15a7-40e9-bf0d-7152300b66e5
I want to be able to split the string up and only pick bits of the data out (and dump the results into a table) so that it looks (for example) like this.
Item_name Item_type
Fred 5
Boo 5
I should probably add that some of the elements I want to split out could easily be over 8000 characters in length in their "post-split" state.
Best Answer
Seems pretty straight forward to me OR Am I missing something?
DECLARE @xmltable TABLE
(
ID INT IDENTITY,
XMLCOL NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
INSERT @xmltable
(
[XMLCOL]
)
SELECT '<Items>
<Item Name="Fred">
<ItemReference>123</ItemReference>
<ItemType>5</ItemType>
<ItemID>fcd13330-4983-4402-b27c-ab01e1a2438e</ItemID>
</Item>
<Item Name="Boo">
<ItemReference>234</ItemReference>
<ItemType>5</ItemType>
<ItemID>90873135-15a7-40e9-bf0d-7152300b66e5</ItemID>
</Item>
</Items>'
SELECT Item_name
, Item_type
FROM ( SELECT CAST(XMLCOL AS XML) XMLCOL
FROM @xmltable
) xmltable
CROSS APPLY XMLCOL.nodes('./Items/Item') x ( col )
CROSS APPLY ( SELECT x.col.value('@Name', 'varchar(50)')
, x.col.value('(./ItemType)[1]', 'varchar(50)')
) ColumnAlias ( Item_name, Item_type )
BTW, why are you keeping xml column as a NVARCHAR field? Is it to keep it available across multiple servers? If you cannot change it then for future work, you can make a VIEW which would have this field CASTed as XML.
;-) "....pretty straight forward..." Looks like I'm going to need the "for dummies" primer in that XML querying language! I don't get it at all.
"...why are you keeping xml column as a NVARCHAR field?..." It's a vendor's database. Who know why they do what they do.
hmmm...but still Are you not one of the stakeholders ;). As far as the straightforwardness was concerned, I meant it should be treated as reading the xml. The words like "could easily be over 8000 characters in length in their "post-split" state" were making me think that may be I have not understand the question properly :) But, rest assured me too is not an expert in XML. I have seen people doing some crazy stuff with that, and I never seem to have the time to understand ;)
