Chapter 3. The xml Data Type

The centerpiece of SQL Server 2008 Extensible Markup Language (XML) development is the xml data type. Introduced in SQL Server 2005, this Large Object (LOB) data type supports storage of both typed and untyped XML documents and XML fragments. Each XML instance can be up to 2.1 GB in size.

In this chapter, I will discuss the xml data type, its many uses, and its built-in methods. I'll discuss how to create xml data type instances, cast xml from and to other data types, use inline Document Type Definitions (DTDs) in your XML, and restrict your xml type content to complete documents or fragments. I will also introduce XML schema collections that allow you to validate your xml instances and the xml data type methods for ...

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