TSQL Parse XML in Stored Procedure

Question

I have 4 tables which contain various pieces of data.

Table 1 contains Questions Table 2 contains Groups Table 3 contains Options Table 4 contains job applications with a column for Profile Data

The profile data is generated and converted to XML and stored in the profileData column on table 4. Its format is as so:

<proficiencies>
<question>
  <questionID>2</questionID>
  <questionGroup>2</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>19</option>
     <option>20</option>
     <option>31</option>
  </questionOptions>
</question>
<question>
  <questionID>1</questionID>
  <questionGroup>1</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>20</option>
     <option>29</option>
     <option>21</option>
  </questionOptions>
 </question>
 <question>
  <questionID>3</questionID>
  <questionGroup>2</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>18</option>
     <option>29</option>
  </questionOptions>
 </question>
</proficiencies>

Now, I am creating a page where I need to re-create the job application with all of the settings those chose. When I create the XML, I am using the ID numbers that are tied to the actual question and information.

What is the best way to be able to find out what those ID numbers are now? I figured it would be best to do this in the stored procedure because If i did it while parsing it in javascript, it would have a lot of database calls.

Just not sure how to best go about this or change the structure of my database.

In the example, I need to find out what the question is where question ID = 2 etc.

Is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

I think you are looking for XQuery .

Example below parses out your XML and joins to a questions table. It uses the nodes() , query() , and value() methods.

with MyXML
as
(
select
1 as MyXMLDataID
,cast('
<proficiencies>
<question>
  <questionID>2</questionID>
  <questionGroup>2</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>19</option>
     <option>20</option>
     <option>31</option>
  </questionOptions>
</question>
<question>
  <questionID>1</questionID>
  <questionGroup>1</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>20</option>
     <option>29</option>
     <option>21</option>
  </questionOptions>
 </question>
 <question>
  <questionID>3</questionID>
  <questionGroup>2</questionGroup>
  <questionOptions>
     <option>18</option>
     <option>29</option>
  </questionOptions>
 </question>
</proficiencies>' as xml) as MyXMLData),
MyQuestionGroups
as
(
select 1 as questionGroup, 'Education' as questionGroup_description
union
select 2 as questionGroup, 'Experience' as questionGroup_description
),
MyQuestions
as
(
select 1 as questionGroup, 1 as questionID, 'High school attendance' as question
union
select 2 as questionGroup, 2 as questionID, 'Alchemy experience' as question
union
select 2 as questionGroup, 3 as questionID, 'Arbitrage experience' as question
),
MyOptions
as
(
select 18 as optionID, '1 year' as option_description
union
select 19 as optionID, '2 year' as option_description
union
select 20 as optionID, '3 years' as option_description
union
select 21 as optionID, '4 year' as option_description
union
select 29 as optionID, '5 year' as option_description
union
select 31 as optionID, '6 years' as option_description
)
SELECT MyXML.MyXMLDataID
      ,t1.questionID.query('.') as questionID_node
      ,q.question
  FROM   MyXML
 CROSS APPLY MyXMLData.nodes('/proficiencies/question/questionID') as t1(questionID)
 INNER JOIN MyQuestions q 
         on q.questionID = t1.questionID.value('.', 'int')

It returns this result:

-----------------------------------------------
MyXMLDataID questionID_node question
-----------------------------------------------
1   <questionID>2</questionID>  Alchemy experience
1   <questionID>1</questionID>  High school attendance
1   <questionID>3</questionID>  Arbitrage experience