Question

I am new to C# so I apologize if this is a simple task. What I would like to do open an XML file whose root node is a table name and the children of the root node are field names and values. I would then like to map the fields to the root node’s table in a SQL Server database and update or insert as needed. Does anyone know if there is a more elegant way to do this than looping through the node tree and building out the SQL string? It seems like there should be a way to bind the fields as if the XML document were a form, only it would only exist in memory. Again, sorry if this question has an obvious answer. Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

I use OPENXML method to solve such tasks. There is example from BOL how to select the data from XML:

DECLARE @idoc int
DECLARE @doc varchar(1000)
SET @doc ='
<ROOT>
<Customer CustomerID="VINET" ContactName="Paul Henriot">
   <Order OrderID="10248" CustomerID="VINET" EmployeeID="5" 
           OrderDate="1996-07-04T00:00:00">
      <OrderDetail ProductID="11" Quantity="12"/>
      <OrderDetail ProductID="42" Quantity="10"/>
   </Order>
</Customer>
<Customer CustomerID="LILAS" ContactName="Carlos Gonzlez">
   <Order OrderID="10283" CustomerID="LILAS" EmployeeID="3" 
           OrderDate="1996-08-16T00:00:00">
      <OrderDetail ProductID="72" Quantity="3"/>
   </Order>
</Customer>
</ROOT>'
--Create an internal representation of the XML document.
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @idoc OUTPUT, @doc
-- SELECT stmt using OPENXML rowset provider
SELECT *
FROM   OPENXML (@idoc, '/ROOT/Customer/Order/OrderDetail',2)
         WITH (OrderID       int         '../@OrderID',
               CustomerID  varchar(10) '../@CustomerID',
               OrderDate   datetime    '../@OrderDate',
               ProdID      int         '@ProductID',
               Qty         int         '@Quantity')

So, you can use INSERT .. SELECT FROM OPENXML statement to insert this data to DB.