Working with the XML Data Type of SQL Server

With the growing use of XML data, the need for the coexistence of relational data and XML data is also growing. The classic approach of storing XML data as physical disk files is unsuitable and tedious in many situations. No wonder modern database engines are geared to store XML documents right along with the rest of the relational data. To that end, the XML data type introduced in SQL Server 2005 is a great addition to the database engine. Prior to SQL Server 2005, developers often used VARCHAR or TEXT column types to store XML documents and fragments. Although this approach served well as far as data storage is concerned, it proved to be poor in terms of querying and manipulating the XML data. This article will give you a jump start in using the XML data type of SQL server and will teach you how XML data can be manipulated with the help of new XML Data Modification Language (XML DML).