How can I query a value in SQL Server XML column
I have following XML stored in a XML column (called Roles
) in a SQL Server database.
<root>
<role>Alpha</role>
<role>Beta</role>
<role>Gamma</role>
</root>
I'd like to list all rows that have a specific role in them. This role passed by parameter.
select
Roles
from
MyTable
where
Roles.value('(/root/role)[1]', 'varchar(max)') like 'StringToSearchFor'
In case your column is not XML
, you need to convert it. You can also use other syntax to query certain attributes of your XML data. Here is an example...
Let's suppose that data column has this:
<Utilities.CodeSystems.CodeSystemCodes iid="107" CodeSystem="2" Code="0001F" CodeTags="-19-"..../>
... and you only want the ones where CodeSystem = 2
then your query will be:
select
[data]
from
[dbo].[CodeSystemCodes_data]
where
CAST([data] as XML).value('(/Utilities.CodeSystems.CodeSystemCodes/@CodeSystem)[1]', 'varchar(max)') = '2'
These pages will show you more about how to query XML in T-SQL:
Querying XML fields using t-sql
Flattening XML Data in SQL Server
EDIT
After playing with it a little bit more, I ended up with this amazing query that uses CROSS APPLY. This one will search every row (role) for the value you put in your like expression...
Given this table structure:
create table MyTable (Roles XML)
insert into MyTable values
('<root>
<role>Alpha</role>
<role>Gamma</role>
<role>Beta</role>
</root>')
We can query it like this:
select * from
(select
pref.value('(text())[1]', 'varchar(32)') as RoleName
from
MyTable CROSS APPLY
Roles.nodes('/root/role') AS Roles(pref)
) as Result
where RoleName like '%ga%'
You can check the SQL Fiddle here: http://sqlfiddle.com/#!18/dc4d2/1/0
declare @T table(Roles xml)
insert into @T values
('<root>
<role>Alpha</role>
<role>Beta</role>
<role>Gamma</role>
</root>')
declare @Role varchar(10)
set @Role = 'Beta'
select Roles
from @T
where Roles.exist('/root/role/text()[. = sql:variable("@Role")]') = 1
If you want the query to work as where col like '%Beta%'
you can use contains
declare @T table(Roles xml)
insert into @T values
('<root>
<role>Alpha</role>
<role>Beta</role>
<role>Gamma</role>
</root>')
declare @Role varchar(10)
set @Role = 'et'
select Roles
from @T
where Roles.exist('/root/role/text()[contains(., sql:variable("@Role"))]') = 1
if your field name is Roles and table name is table1 you can use following to search
DECLARE @Role varchar(50);
SELECT * FROM table1
WHERE Roles.exist ('/root/role = sql:variable("@Role")') = 1
I came up with a simple work around below which is easy to remember too :-)
select * from
(select cast (xmlCol as varchar(max)) texty
from myTable (NOLOCK)
) a
where texty like '%MySearchText%'