Chapter 8. OPENXML

There's one more Microsoft Extension to Sql that we need to cover: OPENXML. Use of the OPENXML keyword causes an XML document to be presented as a data source similar to a view or a table. This is accomplished in memory by making the XML document appear as a relational rowset. Because the data now appears as a rowset, it can be stored into database tables.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• The OPENXML keyword greatly enhances SQL Server's capabilities by utilizing XML documents to write data to database tables.

• The edge table format can offer several advantages when processing XML documents that you would not normally have.

• Metadata is data about data. Metaproperties enable us to obtain more information about a document than what is normally obtainable from just the textual representation of the XML document.

• OPENXML allows writing data to a database table from an XML document.