Powershell: Retrieve xml data from column in SQL Server database - sql-server

Question

Following this tutorial I tried to use PowerShell to retrieve xml data from SQL Server, but I only get one element back.
Here is a query to show the actual data:
But running this script I only get one element back:
$SQLServer = 'MYSERVER,1433'
$SQLDBName = "test"
$Query =
#'
USE test
SELECT EventLogXML FROM ForwardedEvents
'#
$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$SqlConnection.ConnectionString = "Server = $SQLServer; Database = $Database; Integrated Security = True"
$SqlConnection.open()
$SqlCmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$SqlCmd.CommandText = $Query
$SqlCmd.Connection = $SqlConnection
$xr = $SqlCmd.ExecuteXmlReader()
$xd = New-Object System.Xml.XmlDataDocument
$xd.Load($xr)
$xr.Close()
$SQLConnection.Close()
$xd
$xd only has one element. What am I doing wrong?
---edit
I can confirm its only one xml doc by doing $xd.outerxml which reveals the complete doc. It is only one of the thousand or so event xml docs I'm storing in the EventLogXML column.

Answer 1

I think that XmlDataDocument is mainly for returning a single xml. Basically if you do in sql select * from bla for xml, auto you then can read it with the ExecuteXmlReader and XmlDataDocument. This is not what you want.
Modifying the example you linked to your needs we'll get somethign like:
$con = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection
$con.ConnectionString = "Server=.; Database=AdventureWorks2012;Integrated Security=true"
$con.open()
$cmd = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$cmd.CommandText = "SELECT Instructions FROM Production.ProductModel WHERE Instructions is not null"
$cmd.Connection = $con
$as = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter
$ds = New-Object System.Data.DataSet
$as.SelectCommand = $cmd
$as.Fill($ds);
$xmlDocs = $ds.Tables[0] | %{ [xml]$_.Instructions }
Now xmlDocs will contain a list of xml documents, one document per row.

Answer 2

Powershell wraps XML stuff into handy little objects, which you can explore using .Property syntax. If you just look at $xd, powershell by default will only show you the root node.
I don't know the structure of your XML column, but if the root node is called MyRoot, followed by common subnodes called MySub, try something like this:
$xd.MyRoot.MySub
This is just as the linked example shows the need to use $xd.root.Location
Edit
Ok so that is not the problem. Looks like it is by-design to return back only the first row when calling ExecuteXmlReader with a normal select statement (doc here):
if more than one row is returned, the ExecuteXmlReader method attaches
the XmlReader to the value on the first row, and discards the rest of
the result set
From some basic searching around, this blog post seems to explain the issue the best, and provides a workaround. See also here.

Answer 3

I may be out to lunch, but couldn't it be because you are declaring the database as $SQLDBName and then trying to connect to $Database in your connectionstring?