Split xml into smaller pieces - sql-server

Question

I have an xml variable.
DECLARE #xml xml = N'<Items Category="AAA">
<Item Id="1">A</Item>
<Item Id="2">B</Item>
<Item Id="3">C</Item>
<Item Id="4">D</Item>
<Item Id="5">E</Item>
<Item Id="6">F</Item>
<Item Id="7">G</Item>
<Item Id="8">H</Item>
<Item Id="9">I</Item>
</Items>'
Could you help me write a query to split it into several pieces?
<Items Category="AAA">
<Item Id="1">A</Item>
<Item Id="2">B</Item>
<Item Id="3">C</Item>
</Items>
<Items Category="AAA">
<Item Id="4">D</Item>
<Item Id="5">E</Item>
<Item Id="6">F</Item>
</Items>
<Items Category="AAA">
<Item Id="7">G</Item>
<Item Id="8">H</Item>
<Item Id="9">I</Item>
</Items>
I mean XQuery, but any other idea is welcome.

Answer 1

Way to do this via XQuery modify:
DECLARE #xml xml = N'<Items Category="AAA">
<Item Id="1">A</Item>
<Item Id="2">B</Item>
<Item Id="3">C</Item>
<Item Id="4">D</Item>
<Item Id="5">E</Item>
<Item Id="6">F</Item>
<Item Id="7">G</Item>
<Item Id="8">H</Item>
<Item Id="9">I</Item>
</Items>';
DECLARE #temp TABLE (XmlData1 xml, XmlData2 xml, XmlData3 xml);
INSERT #temp VALUES (#xml, #xml, #xml);
UPDATE t
SET XmlData1.modify('delete /Items/Item[not(position() >= 1 and position() < 4)]'),
XmlData2.modify('delete /Items/Item[not(position() >= 4 and position() < 7)]'),
XmlData3.modify('delete /Items/Item[not(position() >= 7 and position() < 10)]')
FROM #temp t;
SELECT * FROM #temp;
Way to do this via FLWOR:
select #xml.query('
<Items Category="AAA">
{
for $item in /Items/Item[position() >= 1 and position() < 4]
return $item
}
</Items>');
You can freely change your split criteria in XPath.