Replace “<” and “>”and "<\" with “<” ,“>” and </ in sql server - sql-server

Question

I know that Replace < and > with < and > in sql server has been asked at
Replace “<” and “>” with “<” and “>” in sql server
but I need to expand upon it. I am trying to create formatted HTML code from a MS 2016 SQL server.
What I have is:
DECLARE #json nvarchar(max) = (SELECT DISTINCT AU2.PMID,
SUBSTRING(
(
SELECT ', '+ CASE WHEN AU1.Format IS Not Null Then +'<b>' +
AU1.LastName+ ' ' + AU1.Initials + '</' + AU1.Format + '>' ELSE
AU1.LastName + ' ' + AU1.Initials END AS [text()]
FROM dbo.[Publication.PubMed.Author] AU1
WHERE AU1.PMID = AU2.PMID
ORDER BY AU1.PmPubsAuthorID
FOR XML PATH ('')
), 3, 1000) + '. Journal Name ' [Authors]
FROM dbo.[Publication.PubMed.Author] AU2
WHERE AU2.[PMID] =27702896 FOR JSON AUTO)
SELECT #json
And what I get back is:
Name DG, Name K, Name A, Chen FK, Song X, Pirun M, Santiago PM, Kim-Kiselak C, Platt JT, Lee E, Hodges E, <b>Rosebrock AP</b>, Bronson RT, Socci ND, Hannon GJ, Jacks T, Varmus H Journal Name
If I try to put TYPE into the
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
I get an error saying:
Argument data type xml is invalid for argument 1 of substring function.
I've tried to add REPLACE
replace(CASE WHEN AU1.Format IS Not Null Then +'<b>' +
AU1.LastName+ ' ' + AU1.Initials + '</b>' ELSE
AU1.LastName + ' ' + AU1.Initials END, '<', '<')
But then I get an error
The xml data type cannot be selected as DISTINCT because it is not comparable.
The best that I can come up with is:
SET #json = replace(#json, '<\', '<')
SET #json = replace(#json, '<', '<')
SET #json = replace(#json, '>', '>')
Just before the final SELECT #json.
I will have over a 1000 records that I need to pull. Do I need to do this is steps?
Based upon TT code I changed mine to
DECLARE #json nvarchar(max) = (SELECT DISTINCT AU2.PMID,
SUBSTRING(
(
SELECT ', '+ CASE WHEN AU1.Format IS Not Null Then +'<b>' +
AU1.LastName+ ' ' + AU1.Initials + '</b>' ELSE
AU1.LastName + ' ' + AU1.Initials END AS [text()]
FROM dbo.[Publication.PubMed.Author] AU1
WHERE AU1.PMID = AU2.PMID
ORDER BY AU1.PmPubsAuthorID
FOR XML PATH (''),TYPE).value('.[1]','NVARCHAR(MAX)'
), 1, 1000) + '. Journal Name ' [Authors]
FROM dbo.[Publication.PubMed.Author] AU2
WHERE AU2.[PMID] =27702896 FOR JSON AUTO)
And that woks fine. but see comment below

Answer 1

As far as I can tell you are on the right track with FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE. It's just that you then have an XML text value which you need to convert to a string (i.e. of type [N]VARCHAR(X)). This can be done with the XML value() method.
An example (fiddle):
CREATE TABLE t(s NVARCHAR(16));
INSERT INTO t(s)VALUES(N'1'),(N'2'),(N'3'),(N'4'),(N'5'),(N'6');
SELECT
(
SELECT N'<b>'+s+N'</b>'
FROM t
FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE
).value('.[1]','NVARCHAR(MAX)');
results in
<b>1</b><b>2</b><b>3</b><b>4</b><b>5</b><b>6</b>