SQL/XML for Developers

Lewis Cunningham Senior Solutions Architect EnterpriseDB Lewis.cunningham@enterprisedb.com

Postgres Rocks!
Agenda
What is XML?
What is the XML data type?

What is SQL/XML?
What should(nt) I do with XML?

What is XML?

<?XML?>

What is XML?
Semi-Structured Not relational Not freeform

Markup Language Tags Identify Data <NAME>Lewis</NAME>

Human AND machine readable

What is XML?
Elements Root Element Child Elements

Elements are nodes Some nodes contain elements Some nodes contain character data A node can contain both

What is XML?
Simple Example
Element/Tag Childnode1 Child to rootnode

<rootnode> <childnode1>Some Data</childnode1> Childnode1 is Sibling to <childnode2>Some more childnode2 <additional>data</additional></childnode2> <emptytag /> Closing </rootnode> Empty Tag
Tag

What is the XML data type?

Postgres 8.3 Data Type

Text based
Well formed check

Non-validating

What is the XML data type?

XML Document

<onlyoneroot> data goes here </onlyoneroot>

XML Content (fragment) <name>Lewis</name><sex>yes</sex>

What is the XML data type?

Declare a column as XML

create table xml_tab ( id integer, data XML );

Declare a variable as XML DECLARE v_xml XML; BEGIN

What is SQL/XML?

SQL/ XML

What is SQL/XML?
SQL/XML (or SQL/X) is standards based

Combines XML and SQL

IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Sybase all played a large

part in defining SQL/XML

Home on the web: www.sqlx.org

What is SQL/XML?
SQL/XML defines a set of mappings and a

set of functions
Based on XQuery and XPath

Postgres 8.3 implements the core functions

of SQL/XML
XQuery is not yet supported in Postgres

What is SQL/XML?
SQL/X Functions XMLParse XMLSerialize XMLElement XMLForest XMLAttributes XML Comment XMLConcat Xpath

What is SQL/XML?
Sample data
CREATE TABLE EMP ( LAST_NAME text, EMP_ID integer NOT NULL, FIRST_NAME text, DEPT_ID integer, SALARY integer, CONSTRAINT EMP_pkey PRIMARY KEY (EMP_ID) ) WITH (OIDS=FALSE);

What is SQL/XML?
Sample table
INSERT INTO EMP( LAST_NAME, EMP_ID, FIRST_NAME, DEPT_ID, SALARY) VALUES ('Blow', 1, 'Joe', 1, 10000), ('Head', 2, 'Helmut', 1, 12000), ('Jack', 3, 'Noe', 1, 12000), ('Hard', 4, 'Blow', 2, 20000), ('First', 5, 'Hugo', 2, 21000), ('Spaem',6, 'Kingoof', 2, 20000), ('Ventura', 7, 'Ace', 3, 35000), ('Nickleby', 8, 'Nick', 3, 400000), ('Budd', 9, 'Billy', 4, 99000), ('Cleaver', 10, 'Wally', 4, 100000) ;

What is SQL/XML? - XML Parse

XMLParse turns text into XML
vXMLVar := XMLParse(CONTENT <root>data</root>); vXMLVar := XMLParse(DOCUMENT <root>data</root>);

What is SQL/XML? - XMLSerialize

XMLSerialize turns XML into text

vString := XMLSerialize( DOCUMENT v_xml AS TEXT);

vString := XMLSerialize( CONTENT v_xml AS TEXT);

What is SQL/XML? - XMLElement

SELECT XMLElement(name main, last_name) from emp; <main>Blow</main> <main>Head</main> <main>Jack</main> <main>Hard</main> <main>First</main>

What is SQL/XML? XMLElement Contd

SELECT XMLElement(name main, last_name), XMLElement(name main, first_name) FROM emp;
<main>Blow</main> <main>Head</main> <main>Jack</main> <main>Hard</main> | | | | <main>Joe</main> <main>Helmut</main> <main>Noe</main> <main>Blow</main>

What is SQL/XML? - XMLForest

SELECT XMLForest(last_name, first_name) FROM emp;
<last_name>Blow</last_name><first_name>Joe</f irst_name> <last_name>Head</last_name><first_name>Helmut </first_name>

What is SQL/XML? XMLForest Contd

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLForest(last_name, first_name) ) FROM emp;
<main> <last_name>Blow</last_name> <first_name>Joe</first_name> </main> <main> <last_name>Head</last_name> <first_name>Helmut</first_name> </main>

What is SQL/XML? - XMLAttributes

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLAttributes(nextval('t_seq') AS rownum) ) FROM emp; <main <main <main <main rownum="1"/> rownum="2"/> rownum="3"/> rownum="4"/>

What is SQL/XML? XMLAttributes Contd

CREATE TEMP SEQUENCE t_seq;

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLAttributes(nextval('t_seq') AS rownum), XMLForest(last_name, first_name) ) FROM emp;

DROP SEQUENCE t_seq;

What is SQL/XML? XMLAttributes Contd

<main rownum="1"> <last_name>Blow</last_name> <first_name>Joe</first_name> </main> <main rownum="2"> <last_name>Head</last_name> <first_name>Helmut</first_name> </main>

What is SQL/XML? Concatenating Columns

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLForest(last_name || ',' || first_name AS fullname, salary) ) FROM emp;
<main> <fullname>Blow,Joe</fullname> <salary>10000</salary> </main> <main> <fullname>Head,Helmut</fullname> <salary>12000</salary> </main>

What is SQL/XML? Concat and Attributes

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLElement(name fullname, XMLAttributes(dept_id), last_name || ',' || first_name ), XMLForest(salary) ) FROM emp;

<main> <fullname dept_id="1"> Blow,Joe</fullname> <salary>10000</salary> </main>

What is SQL/XML? - XMLComment

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLComment('Comment goes here'), XMLForest(last_name, first_name)) FROM emp; <main> <!Comment goes here--> <last_name>Blow</last_name> <first_name>Joe</first_name> </main>

What is SQL/XML? - XMLConcat

SELECT XMLElement(name lastname, last_name), XMLElement(name firstname, first_name) FROM emp;
<lastname>Blow</lastname> | <firstname>Joe</firstname> <lastname>Head</lastname> | <firstname>Helmut</firstname>

What is SQL/XML? XMLConcat Cont'd

SELECT XMLConcat( XMLElement(name lastname, last_name), XMLElement(name firstname, first_name) ) FROM emp;
<lastname>Blow</lastname><firstname>Joe</firs tname> <lastname>Head</lastname><firstname>Helmut</f irstname>

What is SQL/XML? XMLConcat Cont'd

SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLConcat( XMLElement(name lastname, last_name), XMLElement(name firstname, first_name) ) ) FROM emp; <main> <lastname>Blow</lastname> <firstname>Joe</firstname> </main>

What is SQL/XML? XML Tables

CREATE TABLE xmltab (col1 XML);

INSERT INTO xmltab ( SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLConcat( XMLElement(name lastname, last_name), XMLElement(name firstname, first_name) ) ) FROM emp);

What is SQL/XML? XML Table

SELECT * FROM xmltab;
<main><lastname>Blow</lastname><firstname>Joe </firstname></main> <main><lastname>Head</lastname><firstname>Hel mut</firstname></main> <main><lastname>Jack</lastname><firstname>Noe </firstname></main> <main><lastname>Hard</lastname><firstname>Blo w</firstname></main>

What is SQL/XML? - XPath

XPath is a language for navigating through nodes in

an XML document XPath is hierarchical Think of XPath like navigating directories in a file system An XPath expression may point to

A Node (like a directory) Data (like a file) Functions (like file properties or file values)

What is SQL/XML? Xpath Cont'd

SELECT Xpath('/main/firstname/text()', col1)

FROM xmltab;
xpath ----------{Joe} {Helmut} {Noe} {Blow} {Hugo}

What is SQL/XML? Xpath Cont'd

SELECT textcol[1] FROM ( SELECT xpath('/main/firstname/text()', col1) AS textcol FROM xmltab ) AS xmlsource;
textcol --------Joe Helmut Noe Blow Hugo

What is SQL/XML? XML from a Query

select query_to_xml('select * from emp', TRUE, TRUE, '');
<row xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <last_name>Blow</last_name> <emp_id>1</emp_id> <first_name>Joe</first_name> <dept_id>1</dept_id> <salary>10000</salary> </row>

What is SQL/XML? XML from a Table

select table_to_xml('emp', TRUE, TRUE, '');
<emp xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <last_name>Blow</last_name> <emp_id>1</emp_id> <first_name>Joe</first_name> <dept_id>1</dept_id> <salary>10000</salary> </emp>

What should(nt) I do with XML?

XML

What should(nt) I do with XML?

PostgreSQL is a RELATIONAL database

Store your data relationally, unless Your XML is read only Your XML is transient Your XML is fairly static Your XML is very small You have a discrete key external to the XML Preserved white space is critical

What should(nt) I do with XML? Cont'd

Convert your XML to Relations by Shredding Map your relational schema to the XML by its Schema or DTD Use XPath to extract columnar data

Use SQL/XML to recreate the original XML

document

What should(nt) I do with XML? Cont'd

Relational data is much easier to Index Update Manipulate XML data is better for Use by some programming languages CMS systems Very unstructured data For reporting

SQL/XML for Developers

Lewis Cunningham Senior Solutions Architect EnterpriseDB Lewis.cunningham@enterprisedb.com