SQL Server XML Column - Result free of Concat - sql

Question

I have an xml column in my SQL Server database that has records in the following format
<items>
<item>
<data alias="Number">123N</data>
<data alias="Description">4 sq.mm Feed Through Terminal block in Grey colour</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Number">234N</data>
<data alias="Description">Toy</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Number">579N</data>
<data alias="Description">Doll</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Catalouge Number">234</data>
<data alias="Description">Vehicle</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">324234</data>
</item>
</items>
So to extract the data here I use:
SELECT
CatalogueNo,Description,StdPackingQty
from
(select
CAST(xml as xml).query('//data alias=''Description'']').value('.','nvarchar(225)') [Description],
CAST(xml as xml).query('//data [#alias=''Catalouge Number'']')
.value('.','nvarchar(225)')[CatalogueNo],
CAST(xml as xml).query('//data [#alias=''Standard Packing Quantity'']').value('.','nvarchar(225)')[StdPackingQty]
from [dbo].[cmsContentXml] )as hierarchy
Where CatalogueNo is not null
The problem I face is that the data that is extracted is all concatenated.
I need data in separate rows for each item,so the data needs to be in 3
columns and 4 rows.
Kindly help me resolve the issue asap and help write a query that would fetch data
free of concat

Answer 1

You can use Cross Apply to breakdown the XML into separate data rows, and pull the data from those:
SELECT
CatalogueNo,Description,StdPackingQty
from (
select
i.value('data[#alias="Description"][1]','nvarchar(225)') [Description],
i.value('data[#alias="Catalouge Number"][1]','nvarchar(225)') [CatalogueNo],
i.value('data[#alias="Standard Packing Quantity"][1]','nvarchar(225)') [StdPackingQty]
from [Connectwell].[dbo].[cmsContentXml]
cross apply xml.nodes('/items/item') x(i)
) as hierarchy
--Where CatalogueNo is not null
Note: I've remmed out the where clause at the end as it will reduce you to just one row, whereas the question state you want 4 rows as the result.

Answer 2

If you know that the order of your elements always are the same you can use position() to get the values:
select X.N.value('data[1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Number,
X.N.value('data[2]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Descritpion,
X.N.value('data[3]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Quanatity
from #T as T
cross apply T.XMLColumn.nodes('/items/item') as X(N)
Otherwise you need to get the value using alias. Your fourth row has an alias "Catalouge Number" that is different from the other rows so you can either have that as a separate column:
select X.N.value('data[#alias="Number"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Number,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Catalouge Number"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as CatalougeNumber,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Description"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Descritpion,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Standard Packing Quantity"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Quanatity
from #T as T
cross apply T.XMLColumn.nodes('/items/item') as X(N)
Or you can combine the two in the same column:
select X.N.value('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Number,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Description"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Descritpion,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Standard Packing Quantity"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Quanatity
from #T as T
cross apply T.XMLColumn.nodes('/items/item') as X(N)
Your where clause can be added to the queries like this:
where X.N.exist('data[#alias="Catalouge Number"]') = 1
Or if you want to check against both number aliases:
where X.N.exist('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")]') = 1
Test data:
declare #T table(XMLColumn xml)
insert into #T values
('<items>
<item>
<data alias="Number">123N</data>
<data alias="Description">4 sq.mm Feed Through Terminal block in Grey colour</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Number">234N</data>
<data alias="Description">Toy</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Number">579N</data>
<data alias="Description">Doll</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">100</data>
</item>
<item>
<data alias="Catalouge Number">234</data>
<data alias="Description">Vehicle</data>
<data alias="Standard Packing Quantity">324234</data>
</item>
</items>
')
Edit:
I see that you cast your XML column to XML. That is not necessary if the column already is of data type XML so I guess you have a varchar(max) or something in there. If so you need to do like this to cast the to XML before applying .nodes() function:
select X.N.value('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Number,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Description"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Descritpion,
X.N.value('data[#alias="Standard Packing Quantity"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Quanatity
from #T as T
cross apply (select cast(XMLColumn as xml)) as X1(XMLColumn)
cross apply X1.XMLColumn.nodes('/items/item') as X(N)
where X.N.exist('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")]') = 1
Edit 2
select xml.value('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Number,
xml.value('data[#alias="Description"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Descritpion,
xml.value('data[#alias="Standard Packing Quantity"][1]', 'nvarchar(255)') as Quanatity
from [dbo].[cmsContentXml] as Hierarchy
cross apply (select cast(xml as xml)) as X1(xml)
cross apply X1.xml.nodes('/items/item') as xml(N)
where xml.N.exist('data[#alias=("Number","Catalouge Number")]')=1