Question

I have the following XML:

<help>
  <item field="field1" help="helptext" />
  <item field="field2" help="helptext" />
  <item field="field3" help="helptext" />
</help>

I have this stored in an XML DataType in SQL server and would like to pull out the fields and help text seperately. I.e a results set similar to:

 | field1 | helptext |  
 | field2 | helptext |  
 | field3 | helptext |

Does anybody know how to achieve this?

Kindest Regards,

Adam

Answer 1

DECLARE @xml AS XML = '<help>
  <item field="field1" help="helptext" />
  <item field="field2" help="helptext" />
  <item field="field3" help="helptext" />
</help>'

select c.value('@field', 'varchar(max)') field, c.value('@help', 'varchar(max)') help
from @xml.nodes('/help/item') T(c);

To achieve the same when xml data is in a table field use:

SELECT c.value('@field', 'varchar(max)') field, c.value('@help', 'varchar(max)') help
FROM MyTable A CROSS APPLY A.MyXmlField.nodes('/help/item') T(c)

Where MyTable is the table with field MyXmlField containing xml data.