T-SQL Find node with matching text and extract value from sibling node in XML field

Question

I've a table with an xml field having content like this:

<ContentBlock xmlns="http://corp.com/wdpr/ContentBlock">
<key xlink:href="tcm:0-133036" xlink:title="entityCard" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
<template xlink:href="tcm:0-132970" xlink:title="card-header-read-more-all-media" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-132988" xlink:title="header" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Make a Friend</p>
    </content>
</section>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-133110" xlink:title="readMore" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals at the only petting zoo in Disney’s Animal
        Kingdom park.
     </p>
    </content>
</section>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-132939" xlink:title="readAll" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals.
     </p>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pet, brush and feed domesticated creatures
     </p>
        <ul xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
            <li xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Goats</li>
        </ul>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Handy animal brushes are available .
     </p>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
            <strong xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Keeping Clean</strong>
            <br xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"/>Guests are encouraged to cleanse.</p>
    </content>
</section>
<media>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-201994" xlink:title="media" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <key xlink:href="tcm:0-132952" xlink:title="170 x 96" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <image xlink:href="tcm:0-231377" xlink:title="section-01.jpg" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
</media>
</ContentBlock>

My goal is to have a query where I can find (for example) the <p> that contains the text "Make a Friend", then get the xlink:href of the <name> element in the same <section> tag.

I tried a few options like in this posts: here and here but I'm not getting the results I need.

This doesn't work

SELECT  a.value1,
    x.XmlCol.value('(section/content/p)[1]','VARCHAR(100)') AS SendMethod
FROM    @test a
CROSS APPLY a.AppConfig.nodes('/ContentBlock') x(XmlCol)
WHERE x.XmlCol.exist('section/content/p[contains(.,"Make a Friend")]') = 1

How can I get it?

Thanks in advance. Guillermo.

Gottfried Lesigang · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-20 16:12:38Z

Try it like this:

DECLARE @mockup TABLE(ID INT IDENTITY,YourXML XML);
INSERT INTO @mockup VALUES
('<ContentBlock xmlns="http://corp.com/wdpr/ContentBlock">
  <key xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-133036" xlink:title="entityCard" xlink:type="simple" />
  <template xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-132970" xlink:title="card-header-read-more-all-media" xlink:type="simple" />
  <section>
    <name xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-132988" xlink:title="header" xlink:type="simple" />
    <content>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Make a Friend</p>
    </content>
  </section>
  <section>
    <name xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-133110" xlink:title="readMore" xlink:type="simple" />
    <content>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals at the only petting zoo in Disney’s Animal
        Kingdom park.
     </p>
    </content>
  </section>
  <section>
    <name xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-132939" xlink:title="readAll" xlink:type="simple" />
    <content>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals.
     </p>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pet, brush and feed domesticated creatures
     </p>
      <ul xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <li xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Goats</li>
      </ul>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Handy animal brushes are available .
     </p>
      <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <strong xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Keeping Clean</strong>
        <br xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" />Guests are encouraged to cleanse.</p>
    </content>
  </section>
  <media>
    <name xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-201994" xlink:title="media" xlink:type="simple" />
    <key xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-132952" xlink:title="170 x 96" xlink:type="simple" />
    <image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="tcm:0-231377" xlink:title="section-01.jpg" xlink:type="simple" />
  </media>
</ContentBlock>');

-First I declare a variable to make the search-string dynamic:

DECLARE @SearchFor VARCHAR(100)='Make a Friend';

--Your XML has a default namespace in the outermost element.
--What makes things a bit weird: There is another default namespace on the element <p>
--We can declare this with a speaking prefix

WITH XMLNAMESPACES(DEFAULT 'http://corp.com/wdpr/ContentBlock'
                          ,'http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink' AS xlink
                          ,'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' AS InnerDflt )
SELECT YourXML.value('(/ContentBlock/section[(content/InnerDflt:p/text())[1]=sql:variable("@SearchFor")]/name/@xlink:href)[1]','nvarchar(max)') 
FROM @mockup

The query runs as this:

Start with <ContentBlock>. Look for a <section>, where the text() of <p> below <content> is the search-string. Important: At this stage we are still on the level of <section>. So we can continue the XPath with <name> and find the attribute there.

Oh, that's more than I expected, with explanation, clear, neat. Thank you so much!

Alan Burstein · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-20 16:30:53Z

Shnugo stole my thunder but I'm still posting what I put together as it will work as well and demonstrates a few tricks (e.g. *: for when you're too lazy to add the correct namespace syntax) ;). I was going to mention the use of sql:variable to pass a SQL variable into your XPath expressions - shnugo's post demonstrates how to do that (it's missing in what I'm posting).

-- bonus sample data
DECLARE @xml XML = 
'<ContentBlock xmlns="http://corp.com/wdpr/ContentBlock">
<key xlink:href="tcm:0-133036" xlink:title="entityCard" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
<template xlink:href="tcm:0-132970" xlink:title="card-header-read-more-all-media" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-132988" xlink:title="header" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Make a Friend</p>
    </content>
</section>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-133110" xlink:title="readMore" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals at the only petting zoo in Disney’s Animal
        Kingdom park.
     </p>
    </content>
</section>
<section>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-132939" xlink:title="readAll" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <content>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Meet and greet friendly animals.</p>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Pet, brush and feed domesticated creatures
     </p>
        <ul xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
            <li xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Goats</li>
        </ul>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Handy animal brushes are available .
     </p>
        <p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
            <strong xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Keeping Clean</strong>
            <br xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"/>Guests are encouraged to cleanse.</p>
    </content>
</section>
<media>
    <name xlink:href="tcm:0-201994" xlink:title="media" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <key xlink:href="tcm:0-132952" xlink:title="170 x 96" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
    <image xlink:href="tcm:0-231377" xlink:title="section-01.jpg" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
</media>
</ContentBlock>';

DECLARE @test TABLE (someId INT IDENTITY, AppConfig XML);
INSERT @test (AppConfig) VALUES (@xml),(CAST(REPLACE(REPLACE(CAST(@xml AS VARCHAR(8000)),
  'Make a Friend','xxx'),'Keeping Clean','Make a Friend') AS XML));

-- SOLUTION
WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink' AS xlink)
SELECT t.someId, href = cb.x.value('(../*:name/@xlink:href)[1]', 'varchar(8000)')
FROM @test AS t
CROSS APPLY t.AppConfig.nodes('*:ContentBlock/*:section/*:content') AS cb(x)
WHERE cb.x.exist('*:p[contains(.,"Make a Friend")]') = 1;

Returns:

someId      href
----------- -------------
1           tcm:0-132988
2           tcm:0-132939

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