Parse XML data from a column in SQL Server

Question

I'm trying to put together a report for a badge program. Some the data for custom fields we created are stored in a single column in the table as XML. I need to return a couple of the items in there to the report and am having a hard time getting the proper syntax to get it to parse out.

Aside from the XML, the query itself is simple:

    SELECT
  Person1.firstName
  ,Person1.lastName
  ,Person1.idNumber
  ,Person1.idNumber2
  ,Person1.idNumber3
  ,Person1.status
  ,Person1.customdata
FROM
  Person1

the field "customdata" is the XML field that I need to pull Title, and 2 different dates out of. This is what the XML looks like:

    <person1_7:CustomData xmlns:person1_7="http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7">
    <Title>IT Director</Title>
    <Gaming_x0020_Level>Level 1</Gaming_x0020_Level>
    <Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
    <Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
    <Betting_x0020_Level>Level 1</Betting_x0020_Level>
    <Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
    <Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
    <BadgeType>Dual Employee</BadgeType>
    <Gaming_x0020_Status>TEMP</Gaming_x0020_Status>
    <Betting_x0020_Status>TEMP</Betting_x0020_Status>
    </person1_7:CustomData>

I have tried a couple of different methods trying to follow the advice from How to query for Xml values and attributes from table in SQL Server? and then tried declaring a XML namespace with the following query:

       WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7' as X)
SELECT
  Person1.firstName
  ,Person1.lastName
  ,Person1.idNumber
  ,Person1.idNumber2
  ,Person1.idNumber3
  ,Person1.status
  ,Person1.customdata.value('(/X:person1_7:customdata/X:Title)[1]', 'varchar(100)') AS Title
FROM
  Person1

So far all of my results keep returning "XQuery [Person1.customData.value()]: ")" was expected. " I'm assuming I have a syntax issue that I'm overlooking as I've never had to manipulate XML with SQL before. Thank you in advance for any help.

Yitzhak Khabinsky · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-10 21:30:06Z

Please try the following solution.

Notable points:

XQuery .nodes() method establishes a context so you can access any XML element right away without long XPath expressions.
Use of the text() in the XPath expressions is for performance reasons.

SQL

-- DDL and sample data population, start
DECLARE @person1 TABLE (firstname varchar(50), customdata xml);
INSERT INTO @person1(firstname, customdata) VALUES
('John', '<person1_7:CustomData xmlns:person1_7="http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7">
    <Title>IT Director</Title>
    <Gaming_x0020_Level>Level 1</Gaming_x0020_Level>
    <Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
    <Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Gaming_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
    <Betting_x0020_Level>Level 1</Betting_x0020_Level>
    <Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>2021-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date>
    <Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>2022-02-18T12:00:00Z</Betting_x0020_Expire_x0020_Date>
    <BadgeType>Dual Employee</BadgeType>
    <Gaming_x0020_Status>TEMP</Gaming_x0020_Status>
    <Betting_x0020_Status>TEMP</Betting_x0020_Status>
</person1_7:CustomData>');
-- DDL and sample data population, end

WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.badgepass.com/Person1_7' as person1_7)
SELECT firstName
  , c.value('(Title/text())[1]', 'VARCHAR(100)') AS Title
  , c.value('(Gaming_x0020_Issue_x0020_Date/text())[1]', 'DATETIME') GamingIssueDate
FROM @person1
    CROSS APPLY customdata.nodes('/person1_7:CustomData') AS t(c);

Output

+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+
| firstName |    Title    |     GamingIssueDate     |
+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+
| John      | IT Director | 2021-02-18 12:00:00.000 |
+-----------+-------------+-------------------------+

You don't need all that in my opinion. If the data is stored in an xml column, you could simply access the value with this [xml_column_name].value('(//Title) [1]', 'varchar(max)') [Title]

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