Question

I’ve got a table called StoreFolder that contains an XML field called FolderXml.
Each row contains an XML value like the following:

<Folder FolderName="test" StoreName="TestStore" />

I need to get the Folders in the following XML format:

<Folders>
  <Folder FolderName="test1" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  <Folder FolderName="test2" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  <Folder FolderName="test3" StoreName="TestStore1" />
</Folders>

I’ve tried using the following SQL statement:

SELECT   FolderXml
FROM     StoreFolder
FOR XML PATH(''), ROOT('Folders')

But it outputs the following XML:

<Folders>
  <FolderXml>
    <Folder FolderName="test1" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  </FolderXml>
  <FolderXml>
    <Folder FolderName="test2" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  </FolderXml>
  <FolderXml>
    <Folder FolderName="test3" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  </FolderXml>
</Folders>

Can someone please show me how to get the XML in the following format (using T-SQL):

<Folders>
  <Folder FolderName="test1" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  <Folder FolderName="test2" StoreName="TestStore1" />
  <Folder FolderName="test3" StoreName="TestStore1" />
</Folders>

Many thanks

Answer 1

You are simply missing a convert/cast operation :

select Convert(Xml, FolderXml)
  from StoreFolder
for xml path(''), root('Folders')

Your FolderXml field is being treated as a varchar/nvarchar field, and then added inside an Xml node. Converting it to Xml beforehand ensure that it won’t be wrapped in a parent tag.