Best way to extract XML value wiith an xpath

Question

Hello,
I wonder what is the best way to extract text value from XmlType with an xpath.
I need to insert a row inside a table where the row's data come from xpath extractions of an XmlType. I do a lot of (approximative 20) :
EXTRACTVALUE(var.myxmltype , '/an/xpath/to/extract/elem1').
EXTRACTVALUE(var.myxmltype , '/an/xpath/to/extract/elemI').
EXTRACTVALUE(var.myxmltype , '/an/xpath/to/extract/elem20').
inside the insert statement
Is this way is the best or is there a more optimal way ?
For example extracting the node '/an/xpath/to/extract/' and sarting from this node extracting "elem1", ... , "elemI", "elemN" children.
Thanks for your help,
Regards,
Nicolas

Answer 1

Hi Nicolas,
The answer depends on your actual storage method (binary, OR, CLOB?), and db version.
You can try XMLTable, it might be better in this case :
SELECT x.elem1, x.elem2, ... , x.elem20
FROM your_table t
   , XMLTable(
      '/an/xpath/to/extract'
      passing t.myxmltype
      columns elem1  varchar2(30) path 'elem1'
            , elem2  varchar2(30) path 'elem2'
            , elem20 varchar2(30) path 'elem20'
     ) x
;