Add attribute with colon to xml node with FOR XML PATH - sql

Question

I am trying to modify a stored proc to contain the following:
SET #XML = (
SELECT Category.Title,
(
SELECT 'true' AS [#json:Array], Book.Name, Book.Value
FROM #Book Book
WHERE Category.CategoryID = Book.CategoryID
FOR XML PATH('Values'), ROOT('Book'), TYPE
)
FROM #Category Category
FOR XML PATH('Category'), ROOT('Response')
)
The "SELECT 'true' AS [#json:Array]" is there to force the xml to add "json:Array='true' to the values node so that even if there's only one child element it will be contained in an array. But, the #json:Array throws an error: "XML name space prefix 'json' declaration is missing for FOR XML column name '#json:Array'."
I've looked at links like this but they all seem to deal with adding attributes that don't include a colon. I've also tried adding "WITH NAMESPACES..." but couldn't get the syntax right.
Can someone tell me how to modify the SQL to have this work?

Answer 1

If you do it like this:
DECLARE #XML XML;
WITH XMLNAMESPACES('xmlns:json' AS json)
SELECT #XML=
(
SELECT 'YourTitle',
(
SELECT 'true' AS [#json:Array], 'BookName', 'BookValue'
FOR XML PATH('Values'), ROOT('Book'), TYPE
)
FOR XML PATH('Category'), ROOT('Response')
)
SELECT #xml
... you'll get the attribut. But the price is a repeated namespace in all of your root nodes (in nested too).
This might be a trick, but you'll have to declare your namespace in the top element:
DECLARE #XML XML;
SELECT #XML=
(
REPLACE(REPLACE(
(
SELECT 'YourTitle',
(
SELECT 'true' AS [#jsonArray], 'BookName', 'BookValue'
FOR XML PATH('Values'), ROOT('Book'), TYPE
)
FOR XML PATH('Category'), ROOT('Response')
),'jsonArray','json:Array'),'<Response','<Response xmlns:json="urnJson"')
);
SELECT #xml