I mentioned using the XML datatype for sparse column support in my recent post on some of the Useful Features in SQL Server 2008. Until today I had never had an opportunity to actually use this feature. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use, especially with some help from Itzik Ben-Gan’s Inside SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming.

Problem: I’ve begun using data-driven subscriptions in SQL Server Reporting Services. I want to create one table to house subscription data. Various reports will have different parameters, both in number and kind. It is impractical to create one column for each possible parameter, and seems senseless to create a separate table for every report.

Solution: Create a single XML column that can hold any data. Each report will get its own schema for specifying the subscription parameters. To demonstrate the SQL, let’s create a temporary table and some useful queries:

create table #sub (id int identity, xval XML)

Now add a few records to it, assuming that the report has two parameters: one called myID and a list of recipients (note the user of N' for nvarchar):

insert into #sub (xval) values (N'
<subscription>
     <myID>12345</myID>
     <recipients>s1@donotreply.com</recipients>
</subscription>
')
insert into #sub (xval) values (N'
<subscription>
     <myID>23456</myID>
     <recipients>s234234@donotreply.com</recipients>
</subscription>
')

Retrieve the values, separating the myID and recipient nodes into two separate columns using XPATH queries:

select id,
xval.value('(/subscription/myID)[1]', 'varchar(9)') as myID,
xval.value('(/subscription/recipients)[1]', 'varchar(500)') as recipients
from #sub

How about searching for a specific record?

select id, xval from #sub where xval.value('(/subscription/myID)[1]','varchar(9)') = N'12345'

The performance of that query will be improved with addition of proper XML indexes, which require that the table have a primary key:

alter table #sub add constraint pk_sub primary key clustered (id);
create primary xml index IX_XML_Primary ON #sub(xval)
create xml index IX_XML_Property on #sub(xval) using xml index ix_xml_primary for property

Posted with : Tech, Microsoft SQL Server and other databases, SQL Server