Question

I have some html content in a SQL Server column, I want to read the content from the html.

For example:

<ektdesignns_choices ektdesignns_nodetype="element" title="How many gigs do you play each month?" ektdesignns_caption="How many gigs do you play each month?" name="ektpoll1303074024421" ektdesignns_name="ektpoll1303074024421" id="ektpoll1303074024421">
  <ol contenteditable="false" onkeypress="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, 'Options are required.')" onclick="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, 'Options are required.')" onblur="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, 'Options are required.')" ektdesignns_validation="choice-req" ektdesignns_maxoccurs="1" ektdesignns_minoccurs="1" unselectable="on" title="How many gigs do you play each month?" class="design_list_vertical">
    <li>
      <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="1 or fewer_1" title="1 or fewer" id="ID2504263" />
      <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID2504263">1 or fewer</label>
    </li>
    <li>
       <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="2-4_2" title="2-4" id="ID5115606" />
       <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5115606">2-4</label>
    </li>
    <li>
        <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="5-7_3" title="5-7" id="ID477116" />
        <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID477116">5-7</label>
    </li>
    <li>
        <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="8 or more_4" title="8 or more" id="ID5515606" />
        <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5515606">8 or more</label>
    </li>
  </ol>
</ektdesignns_choices><input type="submit" value="Vote" />

I want read all the labels in this html. Anyone have any idea, how shall I go about it?

Answer 1

If your HTML is indeed XHTML compliant, and if you have the HTML stored in a XML column in your SQL Server table, then you could retrieve your labels from it in T-SQL using XQuery:

DECLARE @HtmlTbl TABLE (ID INT IDENTITY, Html XML)

INSERT INTO @HtmlTbl(Html) VALUES('<ektdesignns_choices ektdesignns_nodetype="element" title="How many gigs do you play each month?" ektdesignns_caption="How many gigs do you play each month?" name="ektpoll1303074024421" ektdesignns_name="ektpoll1303074024421" id="ektpoll1303074024421">
  <ol contenteditable="false" onkeypress="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, ''Options are required.'')" onclick="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, ''Options are required.'')" onblur="design_validate_choice(1, -1, this, ''Options are required.'')" ektdesignns_validation="choice-req" ektdesignns_maxoccurs="1" ektdesignns_minoccurs="1" unselectable="on" title="How many gigs do you play each month?" class="design_list_vertical">
    <li>
      <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="1 or fewer_1" title="1 or fewer" id="ID2504263" />
      <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID2504263">1 or fewer</label>
    </li>
    <li>
       <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="2-4_2" title="2-4" id="ID5115606" />
       <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5115606">2-4</label>
    </li>
    <li>
        <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="5-7_3" title="5-7" id="ID477116" />
        <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID477116">5-7</label>
    </li>
    <li>
        <input type="radio" ektdesignns_nodetype="item" name="ektpoll1303074024421" value="8 or more_4" title="8 or more" id="ID5515606" />
        <label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5515606">8 or more</label>
    </li>
  </ol></ektdesignns_choices><input type="submit" value="Vote" />')

This will retrieve all <label> elements from your (X)Html as a single XML string:

SELECT
    Html.query('//label')
FROM @HtmlTbl 
WHERE ID = 1

Output:

<label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID2504263">1 or fewer</label>
<label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5115606">2-4</label>
<label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID477116">5-7</label>
<label contenteditable="true" unselectable="off" for="ID5515606">8 or more</label>

Or this will select all the contents of the <label> tags, one per row:

SELECT
    C.value('(.)[1]', 'varchar(1000)')
FROM @HtmlTbl 
CROSS APPLY Html.nodes('//label') AS T(C)
WHERE ID = 1

Output:

1 or fewer
2-4
5-7
8 or more