Question

I have xml column in a table and I want to parse the xml and insert the values into new table

How to insert the xml values into table?

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[PubmedMeshDescriptors](
    [ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [PMID] [int] NULL,
    [Descriptor] [nvarchar](400) NULL,
    [DescriptorIsMajor] [char](1) NULL,
    [Qualifier] [nvarchar](400) NULL,
    [QualifierIsMajor] [char](1) NULL
)

and the xml column in another table looks like this

<MedlineCitation Owner="NLM" Status="MEDLINE">
  <PMID Version="1">1</PMID>
  <MeshHeadingList>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Aldehyde Oxidoreductases</DescriptorName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">metabolism</QualifierName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Animals</DescriptorName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Carbon Dioxide</DescriptorName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">blood</QualifierName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Formates</DescriptorName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">blood</QualifierName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="Y">poisoning</QualifierName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Haplorhini</DescriptorName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Hydrogen-Ion Concentration</DescriptorName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Methanol</DescriptorName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">blood</QualifierName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Methods</DescriptorName>
    </MeshHeading>
    <MeshHeading>
      <DescriptorName MajorTopicYN="N">Pseudomonas</DescriptorName>
      <QualifierName MajorTopicYN="N">enzymology</QualifierName>
    </MeshHeading>
  </MeshHeadingList>
</MedlineCitation>

how can I do that using sql query?

Answer 1

Put the xml into an xml variable and try something like this:

INSERT PubmedMeshDescriptors (PMID, Descriptor, DescriptorIsMajor, Qualifier, QualifierIsMajor)
SELECT 
    PMIDNode.value('.', 'int') as PMID,
    DescriptorNode.value('.', 'nvarchar(400)') as Descriptor,
    DescriptorNode.value('(./@MajorTopicYN)[1]', 'char(1)') as DescriptorIsMajor,
    QualifierNode.value('.', 'nvarchar(400)') as Qualifier,
    QualifierNode.value('(./@MajorTopicYN)[1]', 'char(1)') as QualifierIsMajor
FROM @xml.nodes('/MedlineCitation') AS citation(citationNode)
CROSS APPLY 
    citationNode.nodes('./PMID')
    AS PMID(PMIDNode)
CROSS APPLY 
    citationNode.nodes('./MeshHeadingList/MeshHeading')
    AS MeshHeading(MeshHeadingNode)
OUTER APPLY 
    MeshHeadingNode.nodes('./DescriptorName')
    AS Descriptor(DescriptorNode)
OUTER APPLY 
    MeshHeadingNode.nodes('./QualifierName')
    AS Qualifier(QualifierNode)