Getting Started With XML Indexes

XML Indexes make a huge difference to the speed of XML queries, as Seth Delconte explains; and demonstrates by running queries against half a million XML employee records. The execution time of a query is reduced from two seconds to being too quick to measure, purely by creating the right type of secondary index for the query.

Stairway to XML: Level 6 - Inserting Data into an XML Instance

The modify method lets you manipulate XML data using XML DML. It can insert, alter or delete data. In this level, Robert shows how to use the method to insert a node into an XML instance.

Stairway to XML: Level 5 - The XML exist() and nodes() Methods

The XML exist() method is used, often in a WHERE clause, to check the existence of an element within an XML document or fragment. The nodes() method lets you shred an XML instance and return the information as relational data.

Stairway to XML: Level 4 - Querying XML Data

You can extract a subset of data from an XML instance by using the query() method, and you can use the value() method to retrieve individual element and attribute values from an XML instance.

Stairway to XML: Level 3 - Working with Typed XML

You can enforce the validation of an XML data type, variable or column by associating it with an XML Schema Collection. SQL Server validates a typed XML value against the rules defined in the schema collection so that INSERT or UPDATE operations will succeed only if the value being inserted or updated is valid as per the rules defined in the Schema Collection.

Stairway to XML: Level 2 - The XML Data Type

Robert Sheldon describes SQL Server's XML Data Type, and shows that it is as easy to configure a variable, column, or parameter with the XML data type as configuring one of these objects with any other datatype

Stairway to XML: Level 1 - Introduction to XML

In this level, Rob Sheldon explains what XML is, and describes the components of an XML document, Elements and Attributes. He explains the basics of tags, entity references, enclosed text, comments and declarations

Stairway to XML

XML has been part of the SQL Standard since 2003, and it is also essential for any DBA because so many of the dynamic management views return XML data. Now that the industry is more used to data defined by document markup, it is becoming more important than ever for Database Developers and DBAs to understand the technology and to know where it makes sense to use XML. In this series of articles, Robert Sheldon flexes his talent to make the complicated seem simple.
Note: This series of articles is now available as an eBook.

SQL Server 2008 and XML

XML index