SQL FOR XML - Outputting data as Elements or as Attributes

Question

I'm trying to export some data from a database in a particular XML format specified by the customer. The XML I produce will be manipulated (presumably by XSLT) by a 3rd party to produce the final output, but I want to formal my XML as close as I can to that format.

The customer has requested data on each product like so:

<product id="1234567890123">     <activeState partNumber="A1234567890" shipmentDate="20110518" /> </product> 

My existing SQL is:

SELECT SerialNo as id,      PartNo as partNumber,     CONVERT(VARCHAR(8), GETDATE(), 112) AS shipmentDate,  FROM Products WHERE SerialNo = @SerialNo FOR XML PATH ('product'), TYPE) 

...which renders:

<product>   <id>100000000458</id>   <partNumber>10004905892</partNumber>   <shipmentDate>20120312</shipmentDate> </product> 

I expect that it is easy enough to manipulate this data in XSLT, but purely as an intellectual exercise, I'd like to see how far I could in SQL. My first ambition was to simply express the id as an attribute of product rather than as a child element. The rendering of the activeState element I was going to leave to the XSLT, but clearly, if I can help them on their way, why not do so...

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Use @ to create attributes.

select SerialNo as "@id",        PartNo as "activeState/@partNumber",        convert(varchar(8), getdate(), 112) as "activeState/@shipmentDate" from Products where SerialNo = @SerialNo for xml path('product')