Question

How to select file names from this kind of XML in a SQL Server column?

1. file name is in attribute VALUE only if high level tag is object with name File
   like this

   <Object NAME="File">
       <Parameter ID="1" NAME="Name" VALUE="\\mysvr\fiels\readme1.txt" />
   </Object>
   

2. This sub-hierarchy can be placed on any level of xml (see example below)

3. XML column can contain 0-N file names, I need list like this:

   id, filename
   --- ------------------------
    1  \\mysvr\fiels\readme1.txt
    1  \\mysvr\fiels\readme2.txt
    2  \\mysvr\fiels\readme3.txt
    2  \\mysvr\fiels\readme4.txt
   

Example of XML contents:

declare @t1 table
(   id int,
   x XML
)

insert into @t1 (id, x)
select 1,N'<root name="name" id="12">
<class1>
  <Object NAME="File">
              <Parameter ID="1" NAME="Name" VALUE="\\mysvr\fiels\readme1.txt" />
   </Object>
</class1>
<class1>
<subclass1>
<Object NAME="File">
              <Parameter ID="10" NAME="Name" VALUE="\\mysvr\fiels\readme2.txt" />
</Object>
<Object NAME="bitmap">
              <Parameter ID="11" NAME="my1" VALUE="bmp" />
</Object>
</subclass1>
</class1>
</root>'
union 
select 2,N'<root name="name" id="12">
<class1>
  <Object NAME="File">
              <Parameter ID="13" NAME="Name" VALUE="\\mysvr\fiels\readme3.txt" />
  </Object>
  <Object NAME="Font">
              <Parameter ID="22" NAME="Tahoma" VALUE="11" />
  </Object>
</class1>
<class1>
<subclass1>
  <Object NAME="File">
              <Parameter ID="14" NAME="Name" VALUE="\\mysvr\fiels\readme4.txt" />
  </Object>
</subclass1>
</class1>
</root>'

Answer 1

Try this:

SELECT
    id,
    Filename = ObjPrm.value('@VALUE', 'varchar(100)')
FROM @t1
CROSS APPLY x.nodes('//Object[@NAME="File"]/Parameter') AS Tbl(ObjPrm)

Gives me an output of: