SQL Server generating XML with generic field elements

Question

I'm basically trying to reverse what this question is asking... SQL Server query xml attribute for an element value

I need to produce a result set of "row" elements that contain a group of "field" elements with an attribute that defines the key.

<resultset statement="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<row>
    <field name="id">1</field>
    <field name="version”>0</field>
    <field name="property">My Movie</field>
    <field name="release_date">2012-01-01</field>
    <field name="territory_code”>FR</field>
    <field name="territory_description">FRANCE</field>
    <field name="currency_code”>EUR</field>
</row>
<row>
    <field name="id">2</field>
    <field name="version”>0</field>
    <field name="property">My Sequel</field>
    <field name="release_date">2014-03-01</field>
    <field name="territory_code”>UK</field>
    <field name="territory_description">United Kingdom</field>
    <field name="currency_code”>GBP</field>
</row>
</resultset>

I've got a query that returns this...

<resultset statement="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<row>
    <id>1</id>
    <version>0</version>
    <property>My Movie</property>
    <release_date>2012-01-01</release_date>
    <territory_code>FR</territory_code>
    <territory_description>FRANCE</territory_description>
    <currency_code>EUR</currency_code>
</row>
<row>
    <id>2</id>
    <version>0</version>
    <property>My Sequel</property>
    <release_date>2014-03-01</release_date>
    <territory_code>UK</territory_code>
    <territory_description>UNITED KINGDOM</territory_description>
    <currency_code>GBP</currency_code>
</row>
</resultset>

Using FOR XML PATH ('row'), ROOT ('resultset') in my SQL statement.

What am I missing? Thanks.

Answer 1

It's a bit involved in SQL Server - the normal behavior is what you're seeing - the column names will be used as XML element names.

If you really want all XML elements to be named the same, you'll have to use code something like this:

SELECT
    'id' AS 'field/@name',
    id AS 'field',
    '',
    'version' AS 'field/@name',
    version AS 'field',
    '',
    'property' AS 'field/@name',
    property AS 'field',
    '',
    ... and so on ....
FROM Person.Person
FOR XML PATH('row'),ROOT('resultset')

This is necessary to make sure the column name is used as the name attribute on the <field> element, and the empty string are necessary so that the SQL XML parser doesn't get confused about which name attribute belongs to what element......