Importing XML to SQL Server - sql

Question

I am wondering how I can insert an XML file into a SQL Server DB. Below is the XML I have but I am unsure how to do this in a way that will scale. My thought is a Insert Into Select statement but I do not know if that is going to work as the data increases. Thank you in advance!
<Records>
<Record>
<ID SpecNum="5069580" IssueNum="001" SpecStatus="Pre-Approved">
<NutritionDetails>
<NutrientFacts>
<NutrientNameId>ENERC_KCAL</NutrientNameId>
<NutrientName>ENERC_KCAL</NutrientName>
<NutrientPer100gUnrounded>1.91</NutrientPer100gUnrounded>
<NutrientPer100gRounded>191</NutrientPer100gRounded>
</NutrientFacts>
</NutritionDetails>
</ID>
</Record>
</Records>

Answer 1

Once you've successfully created a proper, valid XML - you should be able to use this T-SQL code to grab the details:
SELECT
-- get the attributes from the <ID> node
IDSpecNum = XC.value('(ID/#SpecNum)[1]', 'int'),
IDIsseNum = XC.value('(ID/#IssueNum)[1]', 'int'),
IDSpecStatus = XC.value('(ID/#SpecStatus)[1]', 'varchar(100)'),
-- get the element values from the children of the <NutrientFacts> node
NutrientNameId = NUT.value('(NutrientNameId)[1]', 'varchar(100)'),
NutrientName = NUT.value('(NutrientName)[1]', 'varchar(100)'),
NutrientPer100gUnrounded = NUT.value('(NutrientPer100gUnrounded)[1]', 'decimal(20,4)'),
NutrientPer100gRounded = NUT.value('(NutrientPer100gRounded)[1]', 'decimal(20,4)')
FROM
dbo.YourTable
CROSS APPLY
-- get one XML fragment per <Record>
XmlData.nodes('/Records/Record') AS XT(XC)
CROSS APPLY
-- get one XML fragment per <NutrientFacts> inside
XC.nodes('ID/NutritionDetails/NutrientFacts') AS XT2(NUT)
The first CROSS APPLY basically get an "inline pseudo table" with one XML fragment for each <Record> node in your XML in the XmlData column of your table (this is just an assumption on my part - adapt to your reality!). These XML fragments are referenced as "pseudo-table" XT with a single column XC.
With that XC column's XML fragment, you can "reach in" and grab the attribute values from the <ID> node in the <Record> - that's the first three values.
Then, based on the XT pseudo table, I apply another CROSS APPLY to get all the <NutrientFacts> nodes inside <ID> / <NutritionDetails> - those are referenced as pseudo-table XT2 with column NUT, which again holds an XML fragment for each <NutrientFacts> node; I reach into that XML node and extract the values from the sub-elements of that node - those are the four additional values that are shown in the select.
Now that you have a SELECT that returns all the values - you can easily get those bits you need and use them in a INSERT INTO dbo.MyTable(list-of-columns) SELECT list-of-columns :...... scenario. Enjoy!
UPDATE: to import an XML file from disk (local disk on your SQL Server machine's file system) into your table - use something like this:
INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(XmlData)
SELECT
CONVERT(XML, BulkColumn) AS BulkColumn
FROM
OPENROWSET(BULK 'C:\temp\records.xml', SINGLE_BLOB) AS x;
Again: adapt to your needs - I don't know if you want to insert additional information into dbo.YourTable - and I don't even know your table name; you can load one XML at a time from disk