openxml with asynchron structure - sql

Question

I am working with MS SQL Server 2012.
I am trying to use the function openxml with the following statement / xml data:
DECLARE #XML AS XML, #hDoc AS INT, #SQL NVARCHAR (MAX)
SET #SQL = '<master>
<List>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Peter</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>Yes</string>
</Value>
</Col>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Tom</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>No</string>
</Value>
</Col>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Numerics</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>50 </string>
<string>100 </string>
<string>150 </string>
<string>200 </string>
</Value>
</Col>
</List>
</master>'
SELECT #XML = CONVERT(XML,#SQL)
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument #hDoc OUTPUT, #XML
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML(#hDoc, '/master/List/Col/Value',3)
WITH
(
string [varchar](max)
)
EXEC sp_xml_removedocument #hDoc
The result is this:
string
1 Yes
2 No
3 50
I understand why this happens, but actually I would like to display just all numerical values (50,100,150,200) or at least all values in the field (Yes, No, 50, 100, 150, 200) which also would be sufficient.

Answer 1

FROM OPENXML is outdated and should not be used any more (There are some rare exceptions...)
You should rather use the XML-methods like .value(),.nodes(),.query() and .exist().
Give this a try: It is fully inlined (ad-hoc), easier to read and maintain - and much faster:
DECLARE #XML AS XML;
SET #XML = '<master>
<List>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Peter</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>Yes</string>
</Value>
</Col>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Tom</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>No</string>
</Value>
</Col>
<Col>
<DisplayFieldName>Numerics</DisplayFieldName>
<Value>
<string>50 </string>
<string>100 </string>
<string>150 </string>
<string>200 </string>
</Value>
</Col>
</List>
</master>';
SELECT C.value('DisplayFieldName[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS DisplayFieldName
,V.value('.','nvarchar(max)') AS string
FROM #XML.nodes('/master/List/Col') AS A(C)
CROSS APPLY C.nodes('Value/string') AS B(V);
The result
DisplayFieldName string
----------------------------
Peter Yes
Tom No
Numerics 50
Numerics 100
Numerics 150
Numerics 200
UPDATE
If you need the numerics only, you could append the same XQuery-filter to the .nodes() XPath, as pointed by Alex: /master/List/Col[DisplayFieldName="Numerics"]

Answer 2

You can give this a try, might return more than what you are expecting:
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML(#hDoc, '/master/List/Col/Value/*', 3)
WITH
(
string [varchar](max) '.'
)

Answer 3

Make xpath deeper. Filter data. Something like this.
SELECT text string
FROM OPENXML(#hDoc, '/master/List/Col[DisplayFieldName="Numerics"]/Value/string',3)
--WITH
--(
--string [varchar](max)
--)
where text is not null
update
You can also use native xml methods.
select t.v.value('.','varchar(100)') x
from #xml.nodes('master/List/Col[DisplayFieldName="Numerics"]/Value/string') t(v)
In my experience openxml works faster with large texts.