Question

I cannot seem to get a [comma-]delimited string out of an XML doc using just SQL Server 2005 XQuery.

I have:

<AAA>
  <Name>Name_A</Name>
  <Value>Val_A</Value>
</AAA>
<AAA>
  <Name>Name_B</Name>
  <Value>Val_B</Value>
</AAA>
<AAA>
  <Name>Name_C</Name>
  <Value>Val_C</Value>
</AAA>
... (etc.)

… and would like to get Val_A,Val_B,Val_C... – a comma-delimited string.

I can convert to a table then back to string with FOR XML, but thought there is a direct way.

Thank you.

Answer 1

How about this – this will work for any number of <AAA> nodes in an XML variable:

DECLARE @Input XML = '<AAA>
  <Name>Name_A</Name>
  <Value>Val_A</Value>
</AAA>
<AAA>
  <Name>Name_B</Name>
  <Value>Val_B</Value>
</AAA>
<AAA>
  <Name>Name_C</Name>
  <Value>Val_C</Value>
</AAA>'

SELECT
    STUFF(
    (SELECT 
        ',' + AAA.value('(Value)[1]', 'varchar(20)')
     FROM
        @Input.nodes('/AAA') AS Node(AAA)
     FOR XML PATH('')
    ), 1, 1, '')

Output is:

Val_A,Val_B,Val_C