SQL XML Output with PDFs Attached - sql

Question

I have a SQL Server procedure written that exports data in XML format. In the database, I also have PDFs that have been stored as BLOB files that I need to export with the data. Is it possible to convert these to PDF as I export?

Answer 1

This is really easy...
I assume, that the BLOBs live in a table column of type VARBINARY(MAX). Including such a column into a SELECT ... FOR XML PATH will implicitly do the conversion for you.
In this example I use three tiny binary BLOBs, put them into a XML-variable and re-read them. There should be not difference with your PDF BLOBs:
DECLARE #tbl TABLE(ID INT,Content VARBINARY(MAX));
INSERT INTO #tbl VALUES
(1,0x101010101010101010101)
,(2,0x110011001100110011001100)
,(3,0x111000111000111000111000);
DECLARE #xml XML=
(
SELECT ID AS [#ID]
,Content
FROM #tbl
FOR XML PATH('myData'),ROOT('root')
);
SELECT #xml;
The result as XML (implicit conversion to base64)
<root>
<myData ID="1">
<Content>AQEBAQEBAQEBAQE=</Content>
</myData>
<myData ID="2">
<Content>EQARABEAEQARABEA</Content>
</myData>
<myData ID="3">
<Content>ERAAERAAERAAERAA</Content>
</myData>
</root>
Now I read the data from the XML
SELECT B.value('Content[1]','varbinary(max)') AS BackToVarbinary
FROM #xml.nodes('/root/myData') AS A(B)
The result
BackToVarbinary
0x0101010101010101010101
0x110011001100110011001100
0x111000111000111000111000