SQL/XML for Developers

Lewis Cunningham Data Architect, JP Morgan Chase http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/oracle-guide http://databasewisdom.com/

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 06/21/2009

Introduction
Oracle ACE Director

Author
Data Architect for JP Morgan Chase

Twitter: @oracle_ace
Blogger
An Expert's Guide to Oracle Technology
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/oracle-guide

The Database Geek

http://databasegeek.com

Developers
3

Agenda

What is XML?
What is the XMLType data type? What is SQL/XML? What should(nt) I do with XML?

What is XML?
4

<?XML?>

What is XML?
5

Semi-Structured

Hierarchical Not relational Not freeform

Markup Language

Tags Identify Data <NAME>Lewis</NAME>

Human AND machine readable

What is XML?
6

Elements

Root Element Child Elements

Elements are nodes

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

Namespaces

What is XML?
7

Well Formed XML

Follows XML formatting rules

All open tags have closing tags All attribute values are enclosed in quotes

If a document is not well formed, it is not XML A well formed document may not be a VALID document

Valid XML

Conforms to a specific specification (DTD, XSD, RNG) A valid document will always be a well formed document

What is XML?
8

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 Empty </rootnode> Tag
Tag

What is XML?
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Namespaces

A namespace prevents naming collisions

A namespace provides clarity A namespace allows multiple documents to be combined into a single document

What is XML?
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Simple Example

Namespace Identifier

Namespace Name

Namespace URI

<rootnode xmlns:abc='http://abc.org/xml' > <abc:xml:childnode1>Some Data</abc:childnode1> <abc:childnode2>Some more Namespace <additional>data</additional> Usage </abc:childnode2> Default <emptytag /> Usage </rootnode>

What is XML?
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Describing XML

DTD Document Type Description

XSD XML Schema Relax NG REgular LAnguage for Xml Next Generation

What is XML?
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DTD

A list of valid elements and attributes May be inline or external Original descriptive language Limited and mostly obsolete No data type definitions No support for Namespaces

DTD Example
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<!DOCTYPE note [ < !ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)> <!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)> ]>

What is XML?
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XSD

The XML Schema is the W3C replacement to DTDs XSD supports data types an namespaces XML Schemas are defined as XML Allows you to define ordering/number of elements Allows you to define mandatory elements XML Schemas are extensible

XSD Example
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<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <xsd:element name="product" type="ProductType"/> <xsd:complexType name="ProductType"> <xsd:sequence> <xsd:element name="number" type="xsd:integer"/> <xsd:element name="size" type="SizeType"/> </xsd:sequence> <xsd:attribute name="effDate" type="xsd:date"/> </xsd:complexType> <xsd:simpleType name="SizeType"> <xsd:restriction base="xsd:integer"> <xsd:minInclusive value="2"/> <xsd:maxInclusive value="18"/> </xsd:restriction> </xsd:simpleType> </xsd:schema>

What is XML?
16

RELAX NG

XML and non-XML formats Simpler than XSD More like a speaking dialect than an XML dialect Supports data types and namespaces Not as robust as XSD (fewer data types, not as many rules (defaults and such) Not as widely utilized as XSD

RELAX NG (XML) Example

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<element name="patron" xmnln="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"> <interleave> <element name="name"><text/></element> <element name="id-num"><text/></element> <zeroOrMore> <element name="book"> <choice> <attribute name="isbn"/> <attribute name="title"/> </choice> </element> </zeroOrMore> </interleave> </element>

RELAX NG (Compact) Example

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element patron { element name { text } & element id-num { text } & element book { (attribute isbn { text } | attribute title { text } ) }* }

What is the XMLType data type?

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Object Data Type

Clob based
Well formed check Validating and Non-Validating

May contain XML fragments

What is the XMLType data type?

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XML Document <onlyoneroot> data goes here </onlyoneroot> XML Content (fragment)
<name>Lewis</name><sex>yes</sex>

What is the XMLType data type?

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Declare a column as XML

create table xml_tab ( id integer, data XMLType );

Declare a variable as XML

DECLARE v_xml XMLType; BEGIN

What is SQL/XML?
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SQL/ XML

What is SQL/XML?
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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 (but no longer maintained): www.sqlx.org

What is SQL/XML?
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SQL/XML defines a set of mappings and a set of functions Based on XQuery and XPath
Oracle implements the core functions of SQL/XML XQuery is also supported

What is SQL/XML?

SQL/X Functions

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XMLParse XMLSerialize XMLSequence XMLTable XMLElement XMLForest XMLAgg XML Comment XMLConcat More

What is SQL/XML?
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Sample data
CREATE TABLE EMP ( LAST_NAME VARCHAR2(50), EMP_ID NUMBER NOT NULL, FIRST_NAME VARCHAR2(50), DEPT_ID NUMBER, SALARY NUMBER, CONSTRAINT EMP_pkey PRIMARY KEY (EMP_ID) )

What is SQL/XML?
Sample sample data:
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INSERT INTO EMP( LAST_NAME, EMP_ID, FIRST_NAME, DEPT_ID, SALARY) VALUES ('Blow', 1, 'Joe', 1, 10000); Also INSERT..... ('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

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The XMLType constructor, or the SQL/XML function XMLParse, will convert text (or clobs) into XML
vXMLVar XMLType; vXMLVar := XMLType(<root>data</root>); vXMLVar := XMLParse(DOCUMENT <root>data</root>);

What is SQL/XML? XMLSerialize

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XMLSerialize turns XML into text (you can also use XMLType.toString) vString := XMLSerialize( DOCUMENT v_xml AS VARCHAR2); vString := XMLSerialize( CONTENT v_xml AS CLOB);

What is SQL/XML? XMLElement

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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? XMLElementContd

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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

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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? XMLForestContd

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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? XMLAgg

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SELECT XMLAgg( XMLForest(last_name, first_name) ) FROM emp;

<LAST_NAME>Blow</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Joe</FIRST_NAME> <LAST_NAME>Head</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Helmut</FIRST_NAME> <LAST_NAME>Jack</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Noe</FIRST_NAME>

What is SQL/XML? XMLAgg Cont'd

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SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLAgg(XMLForest(last_name, first_name) )) FROM emp;

<MAIN> <LAST_NAME>Blow</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Joe</FIRST_NAME> <LAST_NAME>Head</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Helmut</FIRST_NAME> <LAST_NAME>Jack</LAST_NAME> <FIRST_NAME>Noe</FIRST_NAME> </MAIN>

What is SQL/XML? Concatenating Columns

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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

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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

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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>
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What is SQL/XML? XMLConcat Cont'd

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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

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SELECT XMLElement(name main, XMLConcat( XMLElement(name lastname, last_name), XMLElement(name firstname, first_name) ) ) FROM emp; <MAIN><LASTNAME>Blow</LASTNAME><FIRSTNAM E>Joe</FIRSTNAME></MAIN> <MAIN><LASTNAME>Head</LASTNAME><FIRSTNAM E>Helmut</FIRSTNAME></MAIN>

What should(nt) I do with XML?

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XML

Whatshould(nt)IdowithXML?
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Oracle 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 I do with XML?

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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

Whatshould(nt)Idowith XML? Cont'd

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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 Web 2.0 (AJAX, SOAP, Etc)

Whatshould(nt)Idowith XML? Cont'd

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XML is great for

Public stored procedure interfaces

Publish the XML spec Include a version element or attribute Change parameters and let users adapt over time Many web apps support XML XML + XSLT = Web Happiness Platform independent Current parsers are fast Validation and versioning built-in Public Specifications

Web based processing

Data interfaces

SQL/XML for Developers

Lewis Cunningham Data Architect, JP Morgan Chase http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/oracle-guide http://databasewisdom.com/

ODTUG Kaleidoscope 2009 06/21/2009