Parse XML data from a column in SQL Server - sql

Question

I'm trying to put together a report for a badge program. Some the data for custom fields we created are stored in a single column in the table as XML. I need to return a couple of the items in there to the report and am having a hard time getting the proper syntax to get it to parse out.
Aside from the XML, the query itself is simple:
SELECT
Person1.firstName
,Person1.lastName
,Person1.idNumber
,Person1.idNumber2
,Person1.idNumber3
,Person1.status
,Person1.customdata
FROM
Person1
the field "customdata" is the XML field that I need to pull Title, and 2 different dates out of. This is what the XML looks like:
<person1_7:CustomData xmlns:person1_7="http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7">
<Title>IT Director</Title>
<Gaming_x0020_Level>Level 1</Gaming_x0020_Level>
<Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
<Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
<Betting_x0020_Level>Level 1</Betting_x0020_Level>
<Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
<Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
<BadgeType>Dual Employee</BadgeType>
<Gaming_x0020_Status>TEMP</Gaming_x0020_Status>
<Betting_x0020_Status>TEMP</Betting_x0020_Status>
</person1_7:CustomData>
I have tried a couple of different methods trying to follow the advice from How to query for Xml values and attributes from table in SQL Server? and then tried declaring a XML namespace with the following query:
WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7' as X)
SELECT
Person1.firstName
,Person1.lastName
,Person1.idNumber
,Person1.idNumber2
,Person1.idNumber3
,Person1.status
,Person1.customdata.value('(/X:person1_7:customdata/X:Title)[1]', 'varchar(100)') AS Title
FROM
Person1
So far all of my results keep returning "XQuery [Person1.customData.value()]: ")" was expected.
" I'm assuming I have a syntax issue that I'm overlooking as I've never had to manipulate XML with SQL before. Thank you in advance for any help.

Answer 1

Please try the following solution.
Notable points:
XQuery .nodes() method establishes a context so you can access any
XML element right away without long XPath expressions.
Use of the text() in the XPath expressions is for performance
reasons.
SQL
-- DDL and sample data population, start
DECLARE #person1 TABLE (firstname varchar(50), customdata xml);
INSERT INTO #person1(firstname, customdata) VALUES
('John', '<person1_7:CustomData xmlns:person1_7="http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7">
<Title>IT Director</Title>
<Gaming_x0020_Level>Level 1</Gaming_x0020_Level>
<Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
<Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
<Betting_x0020_Level>Level 1</Betting_x0020_Level>
<Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
<Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
<BadgeType>Dual Employee</BadgeType>
<Gaming_x0020_Status>TEMP</Gaming_x0020_Status>
<Betting_x0020_Status>TEMP</Betting_x0020_Status>
</person1_7:CustomData>');
-- DDL and sample data population, end
WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7' as person1_7)
SELECT firstName
, c.value('(Title/text())[1]', 'VARCHAR(100)') AS Title
, c.value('(Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date/text())[1]', 'DATETIME') GamingIssueDate
FROM #person1
CROSS APPLY customdata.nodes('/person1_7:CustomData') AS t(c);
Output
+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+
| firstName | Title | GamingIssueDate |
+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+
| John | IT Director | 2021-02-18 12:00:00.000 |
+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+