Transact-SQL Reference


SQL Server 2008 Books Online (October 2009)
xml (Transact-SQL)

Is the data type that stores XML data. You can store xml instances in a column, or a variable of xml type. For more information, see Implementing XML in SQL Server.

Topic link icon Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

xml ( [ CONTENT | DOCUMENT ] xml_schema_collection )
Arguments

CONTENT

Restricts the xml instance to be a well-formed XML fragment. The XML data can contain multiple zero or more elements at the top level. Text nodes are also allowed at the top level.

This is the default behavior.

DOCUMENT

Restricts the xml instance to be a well-formed XML document. The XML data must have one and only one root element. Text nodes are not allowed at the top level.

xml_schema_collection

Is the name of an XML schema collection. To create a typed xml column or variable, you can optionally specify the XML schema collection name. For more information about typed and untyped XML, see Typed XML Compared to Untyped XML.

Remarks

The stored representation of xml data type instances cannot exceed 2 gigabytes (GB) in size. For more information, see Implementing XML in SQL Server.

The CONTENT and DOCUMENT facets apply only to typed XML. For more information see Typed XML Compared to Untyped XML.

Examples

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
DECLARE @y xml (Sales.IndividualSurveySchemaCollection)
SET @y =  (SELECT TOP 1 Demographics FROM Sales.Individual);
SELECT @y;
GO
See Also

Reference

Data Types (Transact-SQL)

Other Resources

Data Type Conversion (Database Engine)
Implementing XML in SQL Server
xml Data Type Methods
XQuery Language Reference (Database Engine)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2008 Assistance
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