Question

This is the stored procedure I’m using to get 5 digits from an xml:

    CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[SP_KINGPRICE_InsertJournalFromPost]
    (
        @ResponseID bigint,
        @TransactionDetailID bigint
    )
    AS
    BEGIN
    DECLARE @info as varchar(max) = '', @Reference as varchar(max) = ''
    SET @info = (SELECT SUBSTRING(Response, CHARINDEX('<GlJournal>',Response) + 11,5) 
                 FROM SysproIntegration..ifmTransactionDetailResponse 
                 WHERE TransactionDetailResponseID = @ResponseID)
    SET @Reference = (SELECT DISTINCT Reference 
                      FROM GenJournalDetail 
                      WHERE Journal = CAST(@info as DECIMAL(5,0)))
    INSERT INTO ZJournalRecords
    (JournalNumber,Reference)

    VALUES (@info,@Reference)
    END

The XML has a tag like this:

    <GLJournal>12345</GLJournal>

If the XML document has only one of these tags, I have no worries. The SP works fine. The problem comes in when there are two nested <GLJournal> tags. The xml would then look something like:

    <GLJournal>
        <SomeTag/>
        <SomeTag2/>
        <GLJournal>12345</GLJournal>
    </GLJournal>

How can I get the 5 digit value of the nested tag? (It will always be 5 digits)
I have thought of using a try catch, but that doesn’t seem like an elegant solution.

EDIT:
Also, part of the problem is, I don’t know when there will be one GlJournal tags, or two.

Answer 1

I decided to count the number of occurrences of the tag, and based on that, substring a certain position.

DECLARE @info as varchar(max) = '', @Reference as varchar(max) = '', @inputString as varchar(max), @searchString as varchar(max), @numberOfTags as int

SET @searchString = '<GlJournal>'
SET @inputString = (SELECT Response FROM SysproIntegration..ifmTransactionDetailResponse WHERE TransactionDetailResponseID = @ResponseID)
SET @numberOfTags = (LEN(@inputString) - 
                 LEN(REPLACE(@inputString, @searchString, ''))) /
                 LEN(@searchString)

IF @numberOfTags = 1 
BEGIN
SET @info = (SELECT SUBSTRING(Response, CHARINDEX('<GlJournal>',Response) + 11,5) FROM SysproIntegration..ifmTransactionDetailResponse WHERE TransactionDetailResponseID = @ResponseID)
SET @Reference = (SELECT DISTINCT Reference FROM GenJournalDetail WHERE Journal = CAST(@info as DECIMAL(5,0)))
END
ELSE
BEGIN
SET @info = (SELECT SUBSTRING(Response, CHARINDEX('<GlJournal>',Response) + 69,5) FROM SysproIntegration..ifmTransactionDetailResponse WHERE TransactionDetailResponseID = @ResponseID)
SET @Reference = (SELECT DISTINCT Reference FROM GenJournalDetail WHERE Journal = CAST(@info as DECIMAL(5,0)))
END