extract xml from image column in sql server - sql-server

I have some xml documents stored as an image data type in a sql server 2000 table. How can I extract the data back to xml and save to a file, or at least see the xml contents in the query window, using just the sql tools?

Look, here
Essentially you want to extract text from varbinary.

Related

Convert multiple Images to varbinary in SQL Server from vb.net

I just want to know the possible ways to convert like 2 or 3 images into a varbinary and save it in a single column named images in SQL Server. And retrieve it like the way to retrieve a single image.
If you simply need to store file data in the database, and the files are accessible to the SQL Server, then you can get SQL Server to do the heavy lifting using OPENROWSET:
SELECT o.BulkColumn
FROM OPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\Myfilepath.jpg', SINGLE_BLOB) o
SQL Server will return a single-column, single-row dataset that will contain the binary data for your file.
You can use the above statement stand-alone, in a stored procedure or as part of an INSERT statement.

Return XML document from SQL Server 2008

I have a template of an Excel XML document. Is there anyway I can build the XML document is SQL and have SQL Server return the XML document to me via stored proc.?
I am trying to see if SQL Server can not just return the data for the spreadsheet but the actual Excel XML document with the data in it.
Something similar to this.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/aa191724%28v=office.11%29.aspx
I want to build the XML is SQL.
Yes, you can use the FOR XML clause.
select * from table for xml raw
You can also use XML AUTO or XML EXPLICIT

Import arbitrary XML to SQL Server

Is that possible to parse and import an arbitrary XML file to SQL Server tables using C#?
The XML file can be highly hierarchical.
I have 1 Gb XML-file, I do not know anything about it.
How can I determine what tables it contains, create them at SQL Server and bulk load the data to SQL Server?
Is that possible?
No.
XML and SQL are very, very different things. It is possible to take SQL data an save it into XML, and such SQL-like XML can be converted back to an SQL database, but arbitrary XML that did not originate in an SQL-like system is not likely to be easily convertible to an SQL database schema in any meaningful way.
You could work out an SQL schema that represents generic XML in a key-value type design but it would not be an SQL schema in the traditional meaning of the word.

XML in SQL Server 2005? Better than JSON in Varchar?

What are the benefits of storing XML in SQL Server over storing JSON in a varchar field?
Any tutorial available for how to use the XML data type effectively?
Do I need to provide the dtd / xml schema somehow? I've heard it is optional, right?
Thank you.
UPDATE: here's the answer to the last part of the Q.
XML schema information is used in
storage and query optimizations. Typed
XML instances contain typed values in
the internal, binary representation as
well as in XML indexes. This provides
efficient processing of typed XML
data.
quoted from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345117(SQL.90).aspx
XML in SQL Server 2005 and up allows you to directly manipulate the XML stored inside the database table using XQuery - you can't really do that with JSON in a VARCHAR field.
Check out XML Support in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Fundamentals of the XML Datatype in SQL Server 2005 for more info and more background.
Also, the XML stored in a XML column in SQL Server is "tokenized" and pre-parsed - it's not just stored as plain text. And you can even put indices on your XML - on its nodes, its values - whatever you need.
Storing it as XML allows you to leverage the SQL XML support: XPATH, XQUERY, XML Indexes and such. These allow for efficient search and manipulation of the content. I recommend you read XML Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
JSON content in VARCHAR would be opaque to searches and manipulation.
XML can be indexed for more performant querying.
Data can be extracted from XML data usng XPath.
A schema can be provided to constrain the XML to a secifiation but this is optional.
Client libraries understan the XML data type and can send/receive it more carefully/easily.
None of the above is available for JSON stored in varchar.
you can query for individual xml property values if you use the xml data type. I don't believe the same functionality is available for json:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191474.aspx
I don't believe that the xsd is required as I've used the query feature without having that defined before
Storing XML in SQL 2005 is great. You can put the whole XML file in a single field, then run SELECT commands to pull out certain attributes and elements. Putting a XSD is not neccesary. I don't believe it has any JSON support even in 2008 although I could be wrong. Here's a good starter article on it.

MS SQL Server 2005, write varbinary to file system

Using just an sql query is it possible to write the contents of a varbinary cell to the file system? I have a column that stores pdf s as and for some quick testing I'd like to write out the pdfs to the filesystem.
Thanks for any help.
Similar Question Here.
How to dump all of our images from a VARBINARY(MAX) field in SQL Server 2008 to the filesystem?
You'll need to iterate through each row and perform a BCP (BulkCopy) Dump of each varbinary field to the filesystem

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