how to fetch '/' separated node/tag name from a given xml in sql - sql

Question

i want to fetch '/' separated node name from a given xml such that only node/tag name are getting fetched instead of node/tag value from a given xml.
Suppose if i have below xml :
<ns:manageWorkItemRequest>
<ns:wiFocus>
<act:orderDate>2020-03-16T10:30:56.000Z</act:orderDate>
<act:orderItem>
<agr:instance>
<spec1:customerServiceIdentifier>ETHA15302121</spec1:customerServiceIdentifier>
<spec1:instanceCharacteristic>
<spec1:action>
<spec1:code>Modify</spec1:code>
</spec1:action>
<spec1:instanceIdentifier>
<spec1:value>OS014-AHEFV5T9</spec1:value>
</spec1:instanceIdentifier>
</agr:instance>
</act:orderItem>
<act:orderVersion>1</act:orderVersion>
</ns:wiFocus>
<ns:wiAction>Create</ns:wiAction>
<ns:wiVersion>1</ns:wiVersion>
</ns:manageWorkItemRequest>
I want result as :
ns:manageWorkItemRequest/ns:wiFocus/act:orderItem/agr:instance/spec1:customerServiceIdentifier/ETHA15302121
actually the requirement is if i get this "ETHA15302121" value in above xml then i should show the path i.e. where exactly in xml that value is in '/' separated format.

Answer 1

Your XML was not well-formed (missing closing tag in the middle and missing namespace declarations.
After adding the missing parts it looks as so and you might try something along this route (warning: this won't be fast...):
Your XML
DECLARE #xml XML=
N'<root xmlns:ns="dummy1" xmlns:act="dummy2" xmlns:agr="dummy3" xmlns:spec1="dummy4">
<ns:manageWorkItemRequest>
<ns:wiFocus>
<act:orderDate>2020-03-16T10:30:56.000Z</act:orderDate>
<act:orderItem>
<agr:instance>
<spec1:customerServiceIdentifier>ETHA15302121</spec1:customerServiceIdentifier>
<spec1:instanceCharacteristic>
<spec1:action>
<spec1:code>Modify</spec1:code>
</spec1:action>
<spec1:instanceIdentifier>
<spec1:value>OS014-AHEFV5T9</spec1:value>
</spec1:instanceIdentifier>
</spec1:instanceCharacteristic>
</agr:instance>
</act:orderItem>
<act:orderVersion>1</act:orderVersion>
</ns:wiFocus>
<ns:wiAction>Create</ns:wiAction>
<ns:wiVersion>1</ns:wiVersion>
</ns:manageWorkItemRequest>
</root>';
--the query
WITH AllNamespaces As
(
SELECT CONCAT('ns',ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY (B.namespaceUri))) Prefix
,B.namespaceUri
FROM #xml.nodes('//*') A(nd)
CROSS APPLY(VALUES(A.nd.value('namespace-uri(.)','nvarchar(max)')))B(namespaceUri)
WHERE LEN(B.namespaceUri)>0
GROUP BY B.namespaceUri
)
,recCte AS
(
SELECT 1 AS NestLevel
,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY A.nd) AS ElementPosition
,CAST(REPLACE(STR(ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY A.nd),5),' ','0') AS VARCHAR(900)) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT AS SortString
,CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)'),'[',ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')) ORDER BY A.nd),']') AS FullName
,CAST(CONCAT('/',ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)'),'[',ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')) ORDER BY A.nd),']') AS NVARCHAR(MAX)) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT AS XPath
,A.nd.value('text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS NodeValue
,A.nd.query('./*') NextFragment
FROM #xml.nodes('/*') A(nd)
LEFT JOIN AllNamespaces ns ON ns.namespaceUri=A.nd.value('namespace-uri(.)','nvarchar(max)')
UNION ALL
SELECT r.NestLevel+1
,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY A.nd)
,CAST(CONCAT(r.SortString,REPLACE(STR(ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY A.nd),5),' ','0')) AS VARCHAR(900)) COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT
,CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)'),'[',ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')) ORDER BY A.nd),']') AS FullName
,CONCAT(r.XPath,'/',ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)'),'[',ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY CONCAT(ns.Prefix+':',A.nd.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')) ORDER BY A.nd),']') AS FullName
,A.nd.value('text()[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS NodeValue
,A.nd.query('./*') NextFragment
FROM recCte r
CROSS APPLY NextFragment.nodes('*') A(nd)
OUTER APPLY(SELECT Prefix FROM AllNamespaces ns WHERE ns.namespaceUri=A.nd.value('namespace-uri(.)','nvarchar(max)')) ns
)
SELECT XPath
,NodeValue
,NestLevel
,ElementPosition
,SortString
FROM recCte
--WHERE NodeValue IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY SortString;
--The result
/*
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| XPath | NodeValue | NestLevel | ElementPosition | SortString |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderDate[1] | 2020-03-16T10:30:56.000Z | 4 | 1 | 00001000010000100001 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:customerServiceIdentifier[1] | ETHA15302121 | 6 | 1 | 000010000100001000020000100001 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:instanceCharacteristic[1]/ns4:action[1]/ns4:code[1] | Modify | 8 | 1 | 0000100001000010000200001000020000100001 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:instanceCharacteristic[1]/ns4:instanceIdentifier[1]/ns4:value[1] | OS014-AHEFV5T9 | 8 | 1 | 0000100001000010000200001000020000200001 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderVersion[1] | 1 | 4 | 3 | 00001000010000100003 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiAction[1] | Create | 3 | 2 | 000010000100002 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
| /root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiVersion[1] | 1 | 3 | 3 | 000010000100003 |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+------------------------------------------+
*/
--just to show, that the created XPath is working as expected:
WITH XMLNAMESPACES('dummy1' AS ns1,'dummy2' AS ns2,'dummy3' AS ns3,'dummy4' AS ns4,'dummy5' AS ns5)
SELECT #xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderDate[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:customerServiceIdentifier[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:instanceCharacteristic[1]/ns4:action[1]/ns4:code[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderItem[1]/ns3:instance[1]/ns4:instanceCharacteristic[1]/ns4:instanceIdentifier[1]/ns4:value[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiFocus[1]/ns2:orderVersion[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiAction[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,#xml.value('/root[1]/ns1:manageWorkItemRequest[1]/ns1:wiVersion[1]','nvarchar(max)');
The idea in short:
The namespace prefixes can be defined by your own. The underlying URI is important.
The first cte will create a set of all occuring URIs and return this together with a prefix.
The recursive CTE will traverse deeper and deeper into the XML. This will continue as long as APPLY with .nodes() can return nested nodes.
The full name is concatenated as well as the full XPath.
The CASTs and COLLATEs help to avoid data type mismatch (recursive CTEs are very picky with this).
The concatenated SortString is needed to ensure the same order in your output.
UPDATE: You might think about FROM OPENXML
Just to mention it: There is the absolutely outdated FROM OPENXML, which is - afaik - the only way to get literally everything back:
DECLARE #xml XML=
N'<root xmlns="default" xmlns:ns="dummy">
<a ns:test="blah">blub</a>
<ns:b test2="hugo">blubber</ns:b>
</root>';
DECLARE #DocHandle INT;
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument #DocHandle OUTPUT, #xml;
SELECT * FROm OPENXML(#DocHandle,'/*');
EXEC sp_xml_removedocument #DocHandle;
the result
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| id | parentid | nodetype | localname | prefix | namespaceuri | datatype | prev | text |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 0 | NULL | 1 | root | NULL | default | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 2 | 0 | 2 | xmlns | xmlns | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 10 | 2 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | default |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 3 | 0 | 2 | ns | xmlns | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 11 | 3 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | dummy |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 4 | 0 | 1 | a | NULL | default | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 5 | 4 | 2 | test | ns | dummy | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 12 | 5 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | blah |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 6 | 4 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | blub |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 7 | 0 | 1 | b | ns | dummy | NULL | 4 | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 8 | 7 | 2 | test2 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 13 | 8 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | hugo |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
| 9 | 7 | 3 | #text | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | blubber |
+----+----------+----------+-----------+--------+--------------+----------+------+---------+
As you can see, this result contains namespaces, prefixes and content. But it is very clumsy and far away from "today" :-)