Different behaviour of XMLType storage

Question

hi,
I have problem with different behaviour of storage type "BINARY XML" and regular storage ( simple CLOB I guess) of the XMLType datatype.
Setup
- Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.6.0 - 64bit Production
- XML file ( "Receipt.xml" ) with a structure like :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ESBReceiptMessage xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
     <ESBMessageHeader>
          <MsgSeqNumber>4713</MsgSeqNumber>
          <MessageType>Receipt</MessageType>
          <MessageVersion>1.1</MessageVersion>
     </ESBMessageHeader>
     <Receipt>
          <ReceiptKey>1234567-03</ReceiptKey>          
          <ReceiptLines>
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>00011-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>00021-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>00031-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
.....etc....etc.....etc...
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>09991-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>10001-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
               <ReceiptLine><Material><MaterialKey>10011-015-000</MaterialKey></Material><Qty>47.0</Qty></ReceiptLine>
          </ReceiptLines>
     </Receipt>
</ESBReceiptMessage>=> 1 Header element : "Receipt" and exactly 1001 "ReceiptLine" elements.
Problem:
Test 1 :
drop table xml_ddb;
CREATE TABLE xml_ddb (id number,xml_doc XMLType);
INSERT INTO xml_ddb (id, xml_doc)  VALUES (4716,XMLType(bfilename('XMLDIR', 'Receipt.xml'),nls_charset_id('AL32UTF8')));
select count(1) from (
SELECT dd.id,ta.Receiptkey,li.materialkey,li.qty
   FROM xml_ddb dd,
        XMLTable('/ESBReceiptMessage/Receipt' PASSING dd.xml_doc
                 COLUMNS ReceiptKey VARCHAR2(28) PATH 'ReceiptKey',
                         ReceiptLine XMLType PATH 'ReceiptLines/ReceiptLine') ta,
        XMLTable('ReceiptLine' PASSING ta.ReceiptLine
                 COLUMNS materialkey VARCHAR2(14)  PATH 'Material/MaterialKey',
                         qty         NUMBER(10)    PATH 'Qty') li
  COUNT(1)
      1001
1 row selected.The storage of the XMLType column has not been specified.
=> All 1001 detailled rows are selected.
=> Everything is fine
Test 2 :
drop table xml_ddb;
CREATE TABLE xml_ddb (id number,xml_doc XMLType) XMLType xml_doc store AS BINARY XML; -- <---- Different storage type
INSERT INTO xml_ddb (id, xml_doc)  VALUES (4716,XMLType(bfilename('XMLDIR', 'Receipt.xml'),nls_charset_id('AL32UTF8')));
select count(1) from (
SELECT dd.id,ta.Receiptkey,li.materialkey,li.qty
   FROM xml_ddb dd,
        XMLTable('/ESBReceiptMessage/Receipt' PASSING dd.xml_doc
                 COLUMNS ReceiptKey VARCHAR2(28) PATH 'ReceiptKey',
                         ReceiptLine XMLType PATH 'ReceiptLines/ReceiptLine') ta,
        XMLTable('ReceiptLine' PASSING ta.ReceiptLine
                 COLUMNS materialkey VARCHAR2(14)  PATH 'Material/MaterialKey',
                         qty         NUMBER(10)    PATH 'Qty') li
  COUNT(1)
      1000
1 row selected.Storage of the XMLType column has been defined as "BINARY XML"
=> Only 1000 rows are select
=> One row is missing.
After some tests : There seems to be a "hard border" of 1000 rows that comes with the different datatype ( So if you put 2000 rows into the XML you will get also only 1000 rows back )
Question
As I am a newbie in XMLDB :
- Is the "construction" with the nested tables in the select-statement maybe not recommended/"allowed" ?
- Are there different ways to get back "Head" + "Line" elements in a relational structure ( even if there are more than 1000 lines) ?
Thanks in advance
Bye
Stefan

Answer 1

hi,
General
You are right. I have a predefined XSD structure. And now I try to find a way to handle this in Oracle ( up to now, we are doing XML handling in Java ( with JAXB ) outside the DB)
=> So I will take a look at the "object-relational" storage. Thank's for that hint.
Current thread
The question, whether there is an "artifical" border of 1000 rows, when joining 2 XML tables together, is still open....
(although it might be not interesting for me anymore :-), maybe somebody else will need the answer...)
Bye
Stefan