SQL XML Namespaces

Question

I've been using a sql query to generate an xml output. I have set WITH XMLNAMESPACES(DEFAULT 'http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamla', 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' as xs) to set the namespaces.

WITH XMLNAMESPACES(DEFAULT 'http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamla', 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' as xs)  
SELECT CAST(getdate() as date) AS export_datuma
  ,@noOfResults AS export_szla_db
  ,@fromDate AS kezdo_ido
  ,@toDate AS zaro_ido
  ,@minInvoiceNo AS kezdo_szla_szam
  ,@maxInvoiceNo AS zaro_szla_szam
  ,@transactionXml AS [*]
FOR XML PATH('szamlak');

This works fine so far, but in this query above, the variable @transactionXml is already an xml datatype. So the output of this query above looks like this:

<szamlak xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamla">
  <export_datuma>2018-01-12</export_datuma>
  <export_szla_db>21</export_szla_db>
  <kezdo_ido>2018-01-01</kezdo_ido>
  <zaro_ido>2018-01-12</zaro_ido>
  <kezdo_szla_szam>40003753</kezdo_szla_szam>
  <zaro_szla_szam>70000219</zaro_szla_szam>
  <szamla xmlns="">
    <fejlec>
      <szlasorszam>40003753</szlasorszam>
      <szlatipus>Rechnung</szlatipus>
      <szladatum>2018-01-02</szladatum>
      <teljdatum>2017-12-21</teljdatum>
    </fejlec>
    ...

My question is now, how can I avoid, that each szamla entry gets the property xmlns=""

<szamla xmlns="">

It should look like this:

<szamla>

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

I have solved it with the not recommended way by casting the complete xml string to nvarchar(max) and then replaced the <szamlak> tag with the namespaces. In the output, the xml text is being casted to back to xml datatype. I have found no better solution yet.

DECLARE @xml nvarchar(max)
SET @xml = (
        CAST(
            (SELECT 
                CAST(getdate() as date) AS export_datuma
                ,@noOfResults AS export_szla_db
                ,@fromDate AS kezdo_ido
                ,@toDate AS zaro_ido
                ,@minInvoiceNo AS kezdo_szla_szam
                ,@maxInvoiceNo AS zaro_szla_szam
                ,@transactionXml AS [*]
            FOR XML PATH('szamlak')
            ) as nvarchar(max))
        )
SET @xml = REPLACE(@xml,'<szamlak>', '<szamlak xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamla">')
SELECT cast(@xml as xml) 

Answer 2

One way is to simply load it in an xml variable, then remove that unwanted property from it

For example:

declare @noOfResults int = 12;
declare @fromDate date = '2018-01-01';
declare @toDate date = '2018-01-12';
declare @minInvoiceNo int = 40003753;
declare @maxInvoiceNo int = 70000219;
declare @transactionXml xml = '<szamla>
    <fejlec>
      <szlasorszam>40003753</szlasorszam>
      <szlatipus>Rechnung</szlatipus>
      <szladatum>2018-01-02</szladatum>
      <teljdatum>2017-12-21</teljdatum>
    </fejlec>
</szamla>';

declare @xml xml;

WITH XMLNAMESPACES (DEFAULT 'http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamlas', 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema' as xs)
select @xml = (
    SELECT
    CAST(getdate() as date) AS export_datuma
    ,@noOfResults AS export_szla_db
    ,@fromDate AS kezdo_ido
    ,@toDate AS zaro_ido
    ,@minInvoiceNo AS kezdo_szla_szam
    ,@maxInvoiceNo AS zaro_szla_szam
    ,@transactionXml [*]
    FOR XML PATH('szamlak')
);

set @xml = cast(replace(cast(@xml as nvarchar(max)),'xmlns=""','') as xml);

select @xml;

Returns:

<szamlak xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.nav.gov.hu/2013/szamlas">
  <export_datuma>2018-01-12</export_datuma>
  <export_szla_db>12</export_szla_db>
  <kezdo_ido>2018-01-01</kezdo_ido>
  <zaro_ido>2018-01-12</zaro_ido>
  <kezdo_szla_szam>40003753</kezdo_szla_szam>
  <zaro_szla_szam>70000219</zaro_szla_szam>
  <szamla>
    <fejlec>
      <szlasorszam>40003753</szlasorszam>
      <szlatipus>Rechnung</szlatipus>
      <szladatum>2018-01-02</szladatum>
      <teljdatum>2017-12-21</teljdatum>
    </fejlec>
  </szamla>
</szamlak>