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Parse XML in PL/SQL

This blog explores a few methods for handling XML data in Oracle® PL/SQL. Learn more about our database services.

If you want to convert XML data from an XML file into Oracle PL/SQL rows and columns, the following options are available:

  • Load the XML file into an XML table and then parse it.
  • Directly parse the XML file without loading into an XML table.

To load the XML data into an Oracle table, use options such as SQLLOADER, utl_file, or XML CLOB. After you load the data into a table, you need to extract values from each XML tag. To extract the XML data, use the built-in functions provided by Oracle, such as XMLELEMENT, XMLAGG, XMLTABLE, XMLSEQUENCE, and EXTRACTVALUE.

The main built-in function used is EXTRACT, which is shown in the following image:

Parse XML in PL/SQL

Image Source: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/img/extract_xml.gif

Example file

To explore these options in detail, the example in this post uses the file, Test.xml. To access the file in the database, use the DBA directory, which is defined in Oracle. The examples use XX_UTL_DIR as the reference directory. You can use your own directory of choice instead.

Test.xml has the following contents:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8'?>
<UANotification xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification">
    <NotificationHeader>
    <Property name="ErrorMessage" value="User Data Invalid"/>
            <Property name="SPSDocumentKey" value="11111111111"/>
            <Property name="AppKey" value="22222222"/>
            <Property name="FileName" value="SH201701181418.61W"/>
            <Property name="SenderName" value="Test"/>
            <Property name="ReceiverName" value="Integrated Supply Network"/>
            <Property name="DocumentType" value="856"/>
            <Property name="SourceDataType" value="XML"/>
            <Property name="DestinationDataType" value="FEDS"/>
            <Property name="XtencilNet" value="shFedsWrite"/>
            <Property name="PreviousMaps" value="shFedsWrite]"/>
    </NotificationHeader>
    <FINotification xmlns="https://www.test.com/fileIntegration">
            <ServiceResult>
                    <DataError>
                            <Message>Invalid data test 1</Message>
                    </DataError>
                    <DataError>
                            <Message>Invalid data test 2</Message>
                    </DataError>
            </ServiceResult>
    </FINotification>
</UANotification>

First approach: Load the XML file into an XML table and then parse it

First, create a table in Oracle that includes a column with data type XMLTYPE.

For example, use the following code to create the table:

CREATE TABLE xml_tab (
  File_name  varchar2(100),
  xml_data  XMLTYPE
);

Next, insert data from Test.xml into xml.tab by using the following command:.

INSERT INTO xml_tab
VALUES ( ‘Test.xml’,
XMLTYPE (BFILENAME ('XX_UTL_DIR', ‘Test.xml’),
NLS_CHARSET_ID ('AL32UTF8')
));

The preceding INSERT statement inserts the data of file Test.xml into the field xml_data of the table xml_tab. After the INSERT completes, the XML data is available in table xml_tab. To read the data in a SELECT query, use the SELECT statements described next.

To read the text of the tag Message that is available under the parent tag DataError, use the following SQL command:

SELECT EXTRACT (VALUE (a1),
            '/DataError/Message/text()',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/fileIntegration')
      msg
 FROM xml_tab,
   TABLE (
      XMLSEQUENCE (
         EXTRACT (
            xml_data,
            '/UANotification/ns2:FINotification/ns2:ServiceResult/ns2:DataError',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification" xmlns:ns2="https://www.test.com/fileIntegration"'))) a1
WHERE file_name = 'Test.xml';

To read property name and its value, use the following SQL command:

SELECT EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (a1),
                 '/Property/@name',
                 'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification')
      attribute,
   EXTRACTVALUE (VALUE (a1),
                 '/Property/@value',
                 'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification')
      VALUE
 FROM xml_tab,
   TABLE (
      XMLSEQUENCE (
         EXTRACT (
            xml_data,
            '/UANotification/NotificationHeader/Property',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification" xmlns:ns2="https://www.test.com/fileIntegration"'))) a1
 WHERE file_name = 'Test.xml';

Second approach: Directly parse the XML file without loading it into an XML table

If you want to directly parse Test.xml without loading it into the Oracle table, then you might use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT EXTRACTvalue (VALUE (a1),
            '/Property/@name',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification') attribute,
             EXTRACTvalue (VALUE (a1),
            '/Property/@value',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification') value
 FROM
   TABLE (
      XMLSEQUENCE (
         EXTRACT (
            xmltype(BFILENAME ('XX_UTL_DIR', 'Test.xml'),NLS_CHARSET_ID ('AL32UTF8')),
            '/UANotification/NotificationHeader/Property',
            'xmlns="https://www.test.com/UANotification" xmlns:ns2="https://www.test.com/fileIntegration"'))) a1

Wrap up

Both of the methods to parse XML data described in this post give you the same final output. The first approach is a three-step process, which requires the following pieces of code:

  1. Create the Oracle table.
  2. Insert the data of the XML file into the created table.
  3. Write a SELECT statement to extract values from the table.

The second option is a single-step process where you write a SELECT statement and get the desired result.

Conclusion

Either option works, but if you need to store the XML file in Oracle for future reference, then you should use the first approach because the data persists in the table for future reference and you can access it any time.

By choosing the second approach, you can directly parse the data. However, with this option, the original XML file data can’t be accessed in the future because this option never stores the content of XML file in Oracle.

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