XML formatting in SQL Server xml path - sql

Question

I am trying to get a particular XML format by querying SQL Server.
My nested query looks like this:
SELECT
#xml = (SELECT
AdmissionID AS "#encounter_number",
'NDIS' AS organisation_code,
'NDIS' AS encounter_type,
(SELECT 'true' as "#delete",
(SELECT 'NDIS' AS class_type, AdmissionDate AS start_date_time
FOR XML PATH ('financial_class'), TYPE)
FOR XML PATH('financial_classes'), TYPE),
(SELECT URNumber AS 'payor/#entity_number', 'Patient' AS slot, CONVERT (varchar(10), AdmissionDate, 126) AS start_date
FOR XML PATH('payor'), ROOT ('payors'), ELEMENTS, TYPE),
URNumber AS "recipient/#entity_number",
'H' AS referral_source,
'H' AS separation_status,
AdmissionDate AS start_date_time
FROM
HMS
FOR XML PATH('encounter'), ROOT ('pbrc'), TYPE)
which returns this output:
<pbrc>
<encounter encounter_number="525241">
<organisation_code>NDIS</organisation_code>
<encounter_type>NDIS</encounter_type>
<financial_classes delete="true">
<financial_class>
<class_type>NDIS</class_type>
<start_date_time>2018-06-26T00:00:00</start_date_time>
</financial_class>
</financial_classes>
<payors>
<payor>
<payor entity_number="4208151" />
<slot>Patient</slot>
<start_date>2018-06-26</start_date>
</payor>
</payors>
<recipient entity_number="4208151" />
<referral_source>H</referral_source>
<separation_status>H</separation_status>
<start_date_time>2018-06-26T00:00:00</start_date_time>
</encounter>
</pbrc>
But I am trying to achieve the following format for payor with proper payor closing tag and not the short form,
-<payors>
-<payor>
<payor entity_number="8195991"> </payor>
<slot>Patient</slot>
<start_date>2019-06-01</start_date>
</payor>
</payors>
Any suggestion please?

Answer 1

This was a comment, but I shifted it into the answer:
Are you aware of the fact, that - semantically - there's no difference
between <SomeElement /> and <SomeElement></SomeElement>? Is the
blank between <payor> and </payor> important? In fact, it is up
to the presenting engine, how this will be looking. The same XML might
appear in different shape depeding on the viewer...
You can try something along this:
DECLARE #mockPayor TABLE(enitityNumber INT,slot VARCHAR(100));
INSERT INTO #mockPayor VALUES(123,'slot123')
--This will return the self-closed payor element
SELECT p.enitityNumber AS [payor/#entityNumber]
,p.slot
FROM #mockPayor p
FOR XML PATH('payor')
The result
<payor>
<payor entityNumber="123" />
<slot>slot123</slot>
</payor>
And this will return the proper payor closing tag:
SELECT p.enitityNumber AS [payor/#entityNumber]
,' ' AS [payor]
,p.slot
FROM #mockPayor p
FOR XML PATH('payor');
The result
<payor>
<payor entityNumber="123"> </payor>
<slot>slot123</slot>
</payor>
Some background:
The engine works this down and thinks:
Okay, there is an entityNumber attribute living within a payor element. Well I have to open the payor element and insert the entitiyNumber.
Now there is a slot element. So I have to close the payor without any content and open the slot element.
In the second statement the engine thinks:
Same as above
Now there is some content to be placed into the payor element
Same as above, but replace the bold part with after the content