May I only parse one node in xml at one time in sql server?

Question

If I have following xml:

<Main>
  <Group>
    <Insert />
  </Group>

  <Group>
    <Insert />
  </Group>

  ...
</Main>

I know that if I use openxml(@xml, 'Main/Group/Insert',1) , I will parse all <Insert> .

Is there a way I can read only one group node, parse its Insert node and then read the next group node and parse its Insert node?

Answer 1

The OpenXML or newer XML datatype and XPath treat the XML as a table, extracting and treating the results as multiple rows in one go.

What you are asking is equivalent to, for a normal SQL Server table, can you select one record, then read the next record? Of course - such as using cursors or WHILE loop - , but why?

Consider what you want to do with it, and you will soon come around to treating it properly as a dataset and getting the parsed results as records, and applying SET logic to the values you retrieve from it.