Summary

In this chapter you learned that:

• The XMLType data type is a specialized data type, used for storing XML documents within an Oracle database.

• XMLType methods include EXISTSNODE and EXTRACT , used for pulling data from XML documents stored in an Oracle database.

• The EXISTSNODE XMLType method verifies if a node exists.

• The EXTRACT XMLType method retrieves a node including all subtree elements.

• There are various other XMLType methods, such as for finding a namespace, an XML root element, XSL transformations, and fragment verification.

• XML documents can be created from Oracle Database relational table data using SQL/XML, the DBMS_XMLGEN package, the SYS_XMLGEN function, and the XSH utility.

• SQL/XML is The SQL Standard for XML.

• SQL/XML is a standard created and supported by INCITS (International Committee for Information Technology Standards).

• SQL/XML contains basic functions to create elements (XML tags) and assign attributes to elements (attributes within individual tags), amongst other functionality.

• The Oracle Database DBMS_XMLGEN is a complex set of built-in tools used for creating an XML document based on an entire query.

• The SYS_XMLGEN function is another option in Oracle Database that creates an XML document for each record, as retrieved by a query to an Oracle database.

• The XSU utility is specifically built for Oracle Database, using Java.

• XMLType data can be scanned and extracted using specialized extraction functions.

• Pattern matching characters are used in extraction functions to find specific nodes and values in XMLType data.

• XMLType data can be changed in an Oracle database using the UPDATEXML function.