Question

I have a table that contains content (like blog posts, so fairly long text) that I want to export to a xml file.

So I want it like:

<table>
  <column1>1231</column1>
  <column2>January 1, 2001</column2>
  <column3>some very long text will all types of characters in it</column3>
</table>

Is there a built in way to do this?

Basically each column will have its own element.

The content should ideally be CDATA since the content can contain any type of character potentially.

I have sql server 2008 express.

Answer 1

From SQL Server 2005, the FOR XML clause provides a way to convert the results of an SQL query to XML.

E.g.
Consider a table building with Blgd, Suit, SQFT, PDate columns.

SELECT * FROM building FOR XML AUTO

will convert the contents of table to the following XML:

<building Bldg="1" SUit="1" SQFT="1000" PDate="2012-09-24T00:00:00" />
<building Bldg="1" SUit="1" SQFT="1500" PDate="2011-12-31T00:00:00" />

If you want the columns to be elements, then

SELECT * FROM building FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS

would convert the contents to following XML:

<building>
  <Bldg>1</Bldg>
  <SUit>1</SUit>
  <SQFT>1000</SQFT>
  <PDate>2012-09-24T00:00:00</PDate>
</building>
<building>
  <Bldg>1</Bldg>
  <SUit>1</SUit>
  <SQFT>1500</SQFT>
  <PDate>2011-12-31T00:00:00</PDate>
</building>

If you want to model your text fields as CDATA sections, then you should use the FOR XML EXPLICIT clause and define your XML schema as per the guidelines here.

If the above Building table has a text_col column of type TEXT that should be modeled as CDATA section in the generated XML, then the SELECT query would be as follows:

SELECT 
    1 as Tag,
    NULL as Parent,
    Bldg AS [Building!1!Bldg!ELEMENT],
    text_col AS [Building!1!!CDATA]
FROM Building 
WHERE text_col IS NOT NULL
FOR XML EXPLICIT

The results would be as follows:

<Building><Bldg>1</Bldg><![CDATA[From SQL Server 2005, the FOR XML clause provides a way to convert the results of an SQL query to XML.

E.g. Consider a table building with Blgd, Suit, SQFT, PDate columns.

SELECT * FROM building FOR XML AUTO

will convert the contents of table to the following XML:

<building Bldg="1" SUit="1" SQFT="1000" PDate="2012-09-24T00:00:00" />
<building Bldg="1" SUit="1" SQFT="1500" PDate="2011-12-31T00:00:00" />
If you want the columns to be elements, then

SELECT * FROM building FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS
would convert the contents to following XML:

<building>
  <Bldg>1</Bldg>
  <SUit>1</SUit>
  <SQFT>1000</SQFT>
  <PDate>2012-09-24T00:00:00</PDate>
</building>
<building>
  <Bldg>1</Bldg>
  <SUit>1</SUit>
  <SQFT>1500</SQFT>
  <PDate>2011-12-31T00:00:00</PDate>
</building>]]></Building>