Question

I am using SQL Server 2008 and I’m trying to produce a custom xml using EXPLICIT mode with FOR XML.

I have the one to many relation having following query

select  
    p.personid, p.firstname, a.P_City 
from 
    tblPeople p with (nolock) 
left outer join 
    tblAddresses a with (nolock) on p.personid = a.personid 
where 
    p.personid = 120773

I want person as parent and address as child may be multiple because people to address having one to many relation.

I wrote the following query

 select 1 as TAG,
        null as parent, 
        p.personid as [person!1!personid],
        p.FirstName as [person!1!firstname],

        null as [addr!2!] 
        from tblPeople p with (nolock) where p.PersonID in (120773,117396)

        union all 

select 2,1, 
        p.PersonID, p.FirstName, a.P_City from tblAddresses a with(nolock), tblPeople p 
        where p.PersonID=a.PersonID and p.PersonID in (120773,117396)

        for xml explicit

Output as follows, it is broken xml with person nested there is some thing wrong with my code for sure.

<person personid="117396" firstname="David"/>
    <person personid="120773" firstname="Doyle">
        <addr>Mount Rainier</addr>
        <addr>Annapolis</addr>
</person>

Can some one please help me out !!!

Answer 1

I would recommend to ditch FOR XML EXPLICIT and use FOR XML PATH/ROOT instead.

Using this query here:

select  
    p.personid AS "@ID", 
    p.firstname, p.LastName,
    (
        SELECT AddressID AS "@ID", City
        FROM dbo.Address a 
        WHERE a.PersonID = p.PersonID
        FOR XML PATH('addr'), TYPE
    ) AS Addresses
from 
    Person p with (nolock) 
where 
    p.personid = 120773
FOR XML PATH('Person'), ROOT('People')

you’ll get this output XML:

<People>
  <Person ID="120773">
    <firstname>John</firstname>
    <LastName>Doyle</LastName>
    <Addresses>
      <addr ID="1">
        <City>Annapolis</City>
      </addr>
      <addr ID="2">
        <City>Mount Rainier</City>
      </addr>
    </Addresses>
  </Person>
</People>

Tweak it as necessary. Read more details about FOR XML PATH on MSDN.