Import xml key value pair to sql server? - sql-server

Question

I have the XML data below that represents one row but can't seem to get this imported into sql server without completely rewriting the xml file to look like the second block of code at the very bottom. I have thousands of small xml files in the first format I need to start processing and importing into a sql table. Ideally if I don't use some custom scripting to rewrite the xml I'm thinking I could import into a temp table and use pivot or transposing to get the attributes into cells in a row.
<ping>
<feed Scale="4.0" resolution="67.58859099656746">
<beta name="my_misc_beta" totalRecords="1">
<row>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER ID</key>
<value>123456</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER NAME</key>
<value>Johnys Bike Shop</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>REGION NAME</key>
<value>Cool Area</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER CATEGORY</key>
<value>Bike Shop</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER DESCRIPTION</key>
<value>coolest bike shop</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER STATUS</key>
<value>Current</value>
</column>
<column>
<key>CUSTOMER CONTACT</key>
<value>johnny#bikeshop.net</value>
</column>
</row>
</beta>
</feed>
</ping>
This xml below easily imports into sql server using ssis and looping through the directory. But I had to hand rewrite this by hand for testing. Is there a way with maybe c# or another language to take the inside text and write them to element tags etc in ssis. Compare the two xml docs and you'll see that the above code will not import diectly to a row.
<ping>
<feed Scale="4.0" resolution="67.58859099656746">
<beta name="my_misc_beta" totalRecords="1">
<row>
<column>
<CUSTOMER_ID>123456</CUSTOMER_ID>
<CUSTOMER_NAME>Johnys Pedal Shop</CUSTOMER_NAME>
<REGION_NAME>Cool Area</REGION_NAME>
<CUSTOMER_CATEGORY>Bike Shop</CUSTOMER_CATEGORY>
<CUSTOMER_DESCRIPTION>coolest bike shop</CUSTOMER_DESCRIPTION>
<CUSTOMER_STATUS>Current</CUSTOMER_STATUS>
<CUSTOMER_CONTACT>johnny#bikeshop.net</CUSTOMER_CONTACT>
</column>
</row>
</beta>
</feed>
</ping>

Answer 1

Don't know anything about what XML capabilities there are in SSIS but you can do what you want using a regular query.
First you need to shred the XML on the row node using nodes() Method (xml Data Type) to get one row in the resul for each row in the XML.
Then you use value() Method (xml Data Type) to extract the column value you want. You could fetch the values by column number but it is safer to check the key value in a predicate before fetching the value.
select T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER ID"]/value/text())[1]', 'int') as CustomerID,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER NAME"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as CustomerName,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "REGION NAME"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as RegionName,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER CATEGORY"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as CustomerCategory,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER DESCRIPTION"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as CustomerDescription,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER STATUS"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as CustomerStatus,
T.X.value('(column[key/text() = "CUSTOMER CONTACT"]/value/text())[1]', 'nvarchar(100)') as CustomerContact
from #XML.nodes('/ping/feed/beta/row') as T(X)
SQL Fiddle