SQL/XML (SQLX) : Generating XML using SQL in

Oracle
SQL/XML is an emerging part of the ANSI and ISO SQL standard, describing the
ways the Database Language SQL can be used in conjunction with XML. The
definition of SQL/XML is driven in part by the SQLX Group. Oracle 9i Release 2
supports several SQL/XML features which are subject to change as the standard
evolves.

 The Past
 SQL/XML Functions
o XMLELEMENT
o XMLATTRIBUTES
o XMLFOREST
o XMLAGG
o XMLROOT
o XMLCDATA
 Putting It Together

Related articles.

 XML Generation in Oracle9i Using DBMS_XMLQUERY, DBMS_XMLGEN,

SYS_XMLGEN and SYS_XMLAGG
 XMLSEQUENCE

The example code in this article assumes you have access to the SCOTT schema.

The Past
In Oracle 9i Release 1 it was necessary to use several database object types to
create complex XML documents using SQL.

CREATE TYPE emp_row AS OBJECT (

EMPNO NUMBER(4),
ENAME VARCHAR2(10),
JOB VARCHAR2(9),
MGR NUMBER(4),
HIREDATE DATE,
SAL NUMBER(7,2),
COMM NUMBER(7,2)
);
/

CREATE TYPE emp_tab AS TABLE OF emp_row;

/

CREATE TYPE dept_row AS OBJECT (

DEPTNO NUMBER(2),
DNAME VARCHAR2(14),
LOC VARCHAR2(13),
EMP_LIST emp_tab
);
/

SELECT SYS_XMLAGG (
SYS_XMLGEN(
dept_row(
d.deptno, d.dname, d.loc,
CAST(MULTISET(SELECT e.empno, e.ename, e.job, e.mgr,
e.hiredate, e.sal, e.comm
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = d.deptno) AS emp_tab)
),
SYS.XMLGENFORMATtYPE.createFormat('DEPT')
)
) AS "XML_QUERY"
FROM dept d
WHERE d.deptno = 10;

XML_QUERY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ROWSET>
<DEPT>
<DEPTNO>10</DEPTNO>
<DNAME>ACCOUNTING</DNAME>
<LOC>NEW YORK</LOC>
<EMP_LIST>
<EMP_ROW>
<EMPNO>7782</EMPNO>
<ENAME>CLARK</ENAME>
<JOB>MANAGER</JOB>
<MGR>7839</MGR>
<HIREDATE>09-JUN-1981 00:00:00</HIREDATE>
<SAL>2450</SAL>
</EMP_ROW>
<EMP_ROW>
<EMPNO>7839</EMPNO>
<ENAME>KING</ENAME>
<JOB>PRESIDENT</JOB>
<HIREDATE>17-NOV-1981 00:00:00</HIREDATE>
<SAL>5000</SAL>
</EMP_ROW>
<EMP_ROW>
<EMPNO>7934</EMPNO>
<ENAME>MILLER</ENAME>
<JOB>CLERK</JOB>
<MGR>7782</MGR>
<HIREDATE>23-JAN-1982 00:00:00</HIREDATE>
<SAL>1300</SAL>
</EMP_ROW>
</EMP_LIST>
</DEPT>
</ROWSET>

1 row selected.

SQL>

This may cause administration problems as the number of database object types will
increase drastically as the number of XML extracts increase.

SQL/XML Functions
The SQL/XML functions present in Oracle9i Release 2 allow nested structures to be
queried in a standard way with no additional database object definitions. In this article
I will only present those I use most frequently.

XMLELEMENT
The XMLELEMENT function is the basic unit for turning column data into XML fragments.
In the following example, the first parameter specifies the tag name to be used and
the second specifies the column that will supply the data contained within the tag.

SELECT XMLELEMENT("name", e.ename) AS employee

FROM emp e
WHERE e.empno = 7782;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<name>CLARK</name>

1 row selected.

SQL>

The XMLELEMENT function can also be used to group together and place a tag around
existing XML fragments.

SELECT XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLELEMENT("works_number", e.empno),
 XMLELEMENT("name", e.ename)
) AS employee
FROM emp e
WHERE e.empno = 7782;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee><works_number>7782</works_number><name>CLARK</name></employee
>

1 row selected.

SQL>

XMLATTRIBUTES
The XMLATRIBUTES function converts column data into attributes of the parent
element. The function call should contain one or more columns in a comma
separated list. The attribute names will match the column names using the default
uppercase unless an alias is used.

SELECT XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLATTRIBUTES(
e.empno AS "works_number",
e.ename AS "name")
) AS employee
FROM emp e
WHERE e.empno = 7782;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee works_number="7782" name="CLARK"></employee>
1 row selected.

SQL>

The parent XMLELEMENT can contain both attributes and child tags.

SELECT XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLATTRIBUTES(e.empno AS "works_number"),
XMLELEMENT("name",e.ename),
XMLELEMENT("job",e.job)
) AS employee
FROM emp e
WHERE e.empno = 7782;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee
works_number="7782"><name>CLARK</name><job>MANAGER</job></employee>

1 row selected.

SQL>

XMLFOREST
Using XMLELEMENT to deal with lots of columns is rather clumsy. Like XMLATTRIBUTES,
the XMLFOREST function allows you to process multiple columns at once.

SELECT XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
e.ename AS "name",
e.job AS "job")
) AS employee
FROM emp e
WHERE e.empno = 7782;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee><works_number>7782</works_number><name>CLARK</name><job>MANAG
ER</job></employee>

1 row selected.

SQL>

XMLAGG
So far we have just looked at creating individual XML fragments. What happens if we
start dealing with multiple rows of data?

SELECT XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
e.ename AS "name")
) AS employees
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = 10;

EMPLOYEES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee><works_number>7782</works_number><name>CLARK</name></employee
>
<employee><works_number>7839</works_number><name>KING</name></employee>
<employee><works_number>7934</works_number><name>MILLER</name></employe
e>
3 rows selected.

SQL>

We got the XML we wanted, but it is returned as three fragments in three separate
rows. The XMLAGG function allows is to aggregate these separate fragments into a
single fragment. In the following example we can see the three fragments are now
presented in a single row.

SELECT XMLAGG(
XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
e.ename AS "name")
)
) AS employees
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = 10;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employee><works_number>7782</works_number><name>CLARK</name></employee
><employee><works_number>7839
</works_number><name>KING</name></employee><employee><works_number>7934
</works_number><name>MILLER</
name></employee>

1 row selected.

SQL>

Without a root (base) tag, this is not a well formed document, so we must surround it
in an XMLELEMENT to provide the root tag.
SELECT XMLELEMENT("employees",
XMLAGG(
 XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
e.ename AS "name")
)
)
) AS employees
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = 10;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<employees><employee><works_number>7782</works_number><name>CLARK</name
></employee><employee><works_
number>7839</works_number><name>KING</name></employee><employee><works_
number>7934</works_number><na
me>MILLER</name></employee></employees>

1 row selected.

SQL>

XMLROOT
The XMLROOT function allows us to place an XML tag at the start of our XML
document.

SELECT XMLROOT(
XMLELEMENT("employees",
XMLAGG(
XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
 e.ename AS "name")
)
)
)
) AS employees
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = 10;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<employees>
<employee>
<works_number>7782</works_number>
<name>CLARK</name>
</employee>
<employee>
<works_number>7839</works_number>
<name>KING</name>
</employee>
<employee>
<works_number>7934</works_number>
<name>MILLER</name>
</employee>
</employees>

1 row selected.

SQL>

XMLCDATA
The XMLCDATA function surrounds column data with a CDATA tag.

SELECT XMLROOT(
XMLELEMENT("employees",
XMLAGG(
XMLELEMENT("employee",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "works_number",
XMLCDATA(e.ename) AS "name")
)
)
)
) AS employees
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = 10;

EMPLOYEE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<employees>
<employee>
<works_number>7782</works_number>
<name><![CDATA[CLARK]]></name>
</employee>
<employee>
<works_number>7839</works_number>
<name><![CDATA[KING]]></name>
</employee>
<employee>
<works_number>7934</works_number>
<name><![CDATA[MILLER]]></name>
</employee>
</employees>

1 row selected.

SQL>

Putting It Together
The following example shows something a little more complex, including a nested
query.

SELECT XMLROOT(
XMLELEMENT("dept_list",
XMLAGG (
XMLELEMENT("dept",
XMLATTRIBUTES(d.deptno AS "deptno"),
XMLFOREST(
d.deptno AS "deptno",
d.dname AS "dname",
d.loc AS "loc",
(SELECT XMLAGG(
XMLELEMENT("emp",
XMLFOREST(
e.empno AS "empno",
e.ename AS "ename",
e.job AS "job",
e.mgr AS "mgr",
e.hiredate AS "hiredate",
e.sal AS "sal",
e.comm AS "comm"
)
)
 )
FROM emp e
WHERE e.deptno = d.deptno
) "emp_list"
)
)
)
)
) AS "depts"
FROM dept d
WHERE d.deptno = 10;

depts
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<dept_list>
<dept deptno="10">
<deptno>10</deptno>
<dname>ACCOUNTING</dname>
<loc>NEW YORK</loc>
<emp_list>
<emp>
<empno>7782</empno>
<ename>CLARK</ename>
<job>MANAGER</job>
<mgr>7839</mgr>
<hiredate>1981-06-09</hiredate>
<sal>2450</sal>
</emp>
<emp>
<empno>7839</empno>
 <ename>KING</ename>
<job>PRESIDENT</job>
<hiredate>1981-11-17</hiredate>
<sal>5000</sal>
</emp>
<emp>
<empno>7934</empno>
<ename>MILLER</ename>
<job>CLERK</job>
<mgr>7782</mgr>
<hiredate>1982-01-23</hiredate>
<sal>1300</sal>
</emp>
</emp_list>
</dept>
</dept_list>

1 row selected.

SQL>

For more information see:

 Oracle9i XML Database Developer's Guide - Oracle XML DB Release 2 (9.2)

 SYS_XMLAGG
 SYS_XMLGEN
 XMLElement
 XMLForest
 XMLAgg
 XML Generation in Oracle9i Using DBMS_XMLQUERY, DBMS_XMLGEN,
SYS_XMLGEN and SYS_XMLAGG
 XMLSEQUENCE

Oracle 11gR2 Links:

 Generating XML Data from the Database

 XMLROOT
 XMLAGG
 XMLELEMENT including XMLATTRIBUTES
 XMLFOREST
 XMLCDATA