Question

I’ve the following SELECT Query:

SELECT
'2012' 'period',
Person.Name 'users/person'
FROM Person
FOR XML PATH(''), ROOT ('company')

this gives me the following XML:

<company>
  <period>2012</period>
  <users>
    <person>Dubach</person>
  </users>
  <period>2012</period>
  <users>
    <person>Pletscher</person>
  </users>
  <period>2012</period>
  ....

I would like to have the “period”-tag just once at the beginning of the result XML. how can I achieve this?

Answer 1

DECLARE @period XML = '<period>2012</period>'
DECLARE @xml XML = (
        SELECT 
        Person.Name 'users/person'
        FROM Person
        FOR XML PATH(''), ROOT ('company')
    )

SET @xml.modify('insert sql:variable("@period") as first into (/company)[1]')

SELECT @xml