Example: Specify the ELEMENTXSINIL directive
Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance
When you specify the ELEMENT directive to retrieve element-centric XML, if the column has a NULL value, the corresponding element isn't generated by the EXPLICIT mode. You can optionally specify the ELEMENTXSINIL directive to request the generating element for NULL values where the xsi:nil attribute is set with the value TRUE.
The following query constructs XML that includes an employee address. For AddressLine2
and City
columns, the column names specify the ELEMENTXSINIL
directive. This generates the element for NULL values in the AddressLine2
and City
columns in the rowset.
USE AdventureWorks2022;
GO
SELECT 1 as Tag,
NULL as Parent,
E.BusinessEntityID as [Employee!1!EmpID],
BEA.AddressID as [Employee!1!AddressID],
NULL as [Address!2!AddressID],
NULL as [Address!2!AddressLine1!ELEMENT],
NULL as [Address!2!AddressLine2!ELEMENTXSINIL],
NULL as [Address!2!City!ELEMENTXSINIL]
FROM HumanResources.Employee AS E
INNER JOIN Person.BusinessEntityAddress AS BEA
ON E.BusinessEntityID = BEA.BusinessEntityID
UNION ALL
SELECT 2 as Tag,
1 as Parent,
E.BusinessEntityID,
BEA.AddressID,
A.AddressID,
AddressLine1,
AddressLine2,
City
FROM HumanResources.Employee AS E
INNER JOIN Person.BusinessEntityAddress AS BEA
ON E.BusinessEntityID = BEA.BusinessEntityID
INNER JOIN Person.Address AS A
ON BEA.AddressID = A.AddressID
ORDER BY [Employee!1!EmpID],[Address!2!AddressID]
FOR XML EXPLICIT;
This is the partial result:
<Employee xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
EmpID="1"
AddressID="249">
<Address AddressID="249">
<AddressLine1>4350 Minute Dr.</AddressLine1>
<AddressLine2 xsi:nil="true" />
<City>Minneapolis</City>
</Address>
</Employee>
...