How to get the partial value of a XML Node value - sql-server

Question

I'm new to Xpath and This is my XML . I'm trying to the get the attribute value #name in the appl/*__job tag and the value 'TESTQUEUE 'in the node snmp_notify/message and I'm taking one step at a time. As of now I was able to get the child nodes of all _job, but I couldn't get the value in the node /snmp_notifylist/snmp_notify/message. This is the SQL and Could someone help me with identifying where I got stuck.
This is the Sample XML Document stored as DEFINITION in the table TAB_AR.
<appl xmlns="http://dto.wa.ca.com/application" name="TEST_NEW_AGENT">
<version>12.0</version>
<comment />
<unix_job name="TEST_JOB">
<dependencies><relcount>0</relcount></dependencies>
<snmp_notifylist>
<snmp_notify>
<returncode>4</returncode>
<monitor_states><monitor_state>FAILED</monitor_state></monitor_states>
<snmpagent />
<message>TICKET TESTQUEUE TSTMSG</message>
</snmp_notify>
</snmp_notifylist>
</unix_job>
<link name="HOLD_LINK">
<dependencies><relcount>0</relcount></dependencies>
<hold>true</hold>
<job_ancestor_wait_default_ignore>true</job_ancestor_wait_default_ignore>
</link>
<sftp_job name="TEST_SFTP1">
<dependencies><relcount>0</relcount></dependencies>
<snmp_notifylist>
<snmp_notify>
<returncode>4</returncode>
<monitor_states>
<monitor_state>FAILED</monitor_state>
</monitor_states>
<snmpagent />
<message>TICKET MFG1AWA TSTMSG</message>
</snmp_notify>
</snmp_notifylist>
</sftp_job>
</appl>
And this is the SQL I wrote,
SELECT
SFTP_Job_name = DEFT1.value('(#name)[1]','nvarchar(max)'),
Server_Address = DEFT1.query('local-name(/*:snmp_notifylist/*:snmp_notify/*:message)')
from (select CAST([DEFINITION] as XML) as DEFT from TAB_AR)TAB
CROSS APPLY TAB.DEFT.nodes('/*:appl/*[fn:contains(local-name(),"_job")]') as XMLTAB1(DEFT1)

Answer 1

You were close...
In this line I'm not sure, what you really wanted to get:
DEFT1.query('local-name(/*:snmp_notifylist/*:snmp_notify/*:message)')
With local-name() you can return the name of one specific node. As you are reading from several nodes ending on _job it perfectly makes sense to return the name of the element you are reading from.
But you are telling us, that you are trying to read the <message> too. Might be, that you are mixing two calls in one line?
I slightly modified your code:
SELECT
SFTP_Job_name = DEFT1.value('(#name)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,NodeName = DEFT1.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')
,Server_Address = DEFT1.value('(*:snmp_notifylist/*:snmp_notify/*:message)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
from (select CAST([DEFINITION] as XML) as DEFT from TAB_AR)TAB
CROSS APPLY TAB.DEFT.nodes('/*:appl/*[fn:contains(local-name(.),"_job")]') as XMLTAB1(DEFT1);
This returns
SFTP_Job_name NodeName Server_Address
TEST_SFTP1 sftp_job TICKET MFG1AWA TSTMSG
TEST_JOB unix_job TICKET TESTQUEUE TSTMSG
Like Roger Wolf pointed out, it was better to read with a specified namespaces like this:
WITH XMLNAMESPACES (default 'http://dto.wa.ca.com/application')
SELECT
SFTP_Job_name = DEFT1.value('(#name)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,NodeName = DEFT1.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')
,Server_Address = DEFT1.value('(snmp_notifylist/snmp_notify/message)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
from (select CAST([DEFINITION] as XML) as DEFT from TAB_AR)TAB
CROSS APPLY TAB.DEFT.nodes('/appl/*[fn:contains(local-name(.),"_job")]') as XMLTAB1(DEFT1);
The general rule is: Be as specific as possible!
Hint
If you can change this, you should store your XML in a column of type XML.
This construction from (select CAST([DEFINITION] as XML) as DEFT from TAB_AR)TAB should really not be necessary...
Might be, that your column is XML actually and you just did not know how to transfer the code you found somewhere to get the right syntax for the .nodes()? In this case just try this:
SELECT
SFTP_Job_name = DEFT1.value('(#name)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,NodeName = DEFT1.value('local-name(.)','nvarchar(max)')
,Server_Address = DEFT1.value('(*:snmp_notifylist/*:snmp_notify/*:message)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
from TAB_AR
CROSS APPLY TAB_AR.[DEFINITION].nodes('/*:appl/*[fn:contains(local-name(.),"_job")]') as XMLTAB1(DEFT1);

Answer 2

This seems to be working:
with xmlnamespaces (default 'http://dto.wa.ca.com/application')
select j.c.value('./#name', 'sysname') as [JobName],
m.c.value('./text()[1]', 'varchar(max)') as [MessageText]
from (
select cast(t.[Definition] as xml) as [Deft] from tab_ar t
) sq
cross apply sq.Deft.nodes('/appl/*[fn:contains(local-name(),"_job")]') j(c)
cross apply j.c.nodes('./snmp_notifylist/snmp_notify/message') m(c);
After that, splitting the string by spaces and taking the middle part should be relatively trivial.