Add rows to SQL Server database from xml file

Question

I'm busy converting a website from xml file base to a SQL Server 2012 express database, now I've managed to get most of the tags from the xml to import into SQL Server without hassle

My issue now lies with a particular section of these xmls

This is the section I'm having issues with

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<License xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

<Reference>00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2</Reference>
 <MacAddresses>
  <string>00:0D:87:FE:9A:21</string>
  <string>00:20:ED:14:47:64</string>
  <string>00:13:D3:11:7C:D2</string>
  <string>00:13:D3:11:7C:D8</string>
  <string>00:19:D1:04:12:98</string>
  <string>00:19:66:C0:7F:AF</string>
 </MacAddresses>
</License>

I have a reference for each license and the MAC Addresses that are assigned to that license.
Now i want it to import it into sql as follows:

Reference                               MACAddress
---------                               ----------
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:0D:87:FE:9A:21
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:20:ED:14:47:64
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:13:D3:11:7C:D2
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:13:D3:11:7C:D8
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:19:D1:04:12:98
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:19:D1:04:12:98
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2    00:19:66:C0:7F:AF

I would do it manually but I have 700+ license to import and it would take far too long to do it manually.

help would be appreciated

Answer 1

If you're using SQL Server 2005 or newer, you can use the native XQuery support to extract the data you want from that XML with this:

DECLARE @input XML = '<License xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

<Reference>00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2</Reference>
 <MacAddresses>
  <string>00:0D:87:FE:9A:21</string>
  <string>00:20:ED:14:47:64</string>
  <string>00:13:D3:11:7C:D2</string>
  <string>00:13:D3:11:7C:D8</string>
  <string>00:19:D1:04:12:98</string>
  <string>00:19:66:C0:7F:AF</string>
 </MacAddresses>
</License>'

SELECT
    Reference = License.value('(Reference)[1]', 'varchar(50)'),
    MacAddress = MacAddr.value('.', 'varchar(50)')
FROM
    @input.nodes('License') AS XTbl1(License)
CROSS APPLY
    License.nodes('MacAddresses/string') AS XTbl2(MacAddr)

Gives output of:

Reference                              MacAddress
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:0D:87:FE:9A:21
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:20:ED:14:47:64
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:13:D3:11:7C:D2
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:13:D3:11:7C:D8
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:19:D1:04:12:98
00b2d4cf-699c-4427-bcf0-a0ca456654c2   00:19:66:C0:7F:AF

And of course, you can also use an INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(Reference, MacAddress) .... before the SELECT to automatically insert this data into the table