Do I need xmldb to import xml

Question

say I have an xml file of
<students>
<student name="kevin" />
<student name="scott" />
</students>
and I want to import it into the students table: student name varchar(64)
what is the best way to import the xml file into a database? I don't need any xml functionality, that is just the format the data comes in. thx

Answer 1

Yeah there is...
SQL> conn test/test
Connected.
SQL> -- The test user has the DBA role...
SQL> SELECT * FROM v$version;
BANNER
Oracle DATABASE 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
PL/SQL Release 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
CORE    11.1.0.6.0      Production
TNS FOR 32-bit Windows: Version 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.1.0.6.0 - Production
5 rows selected.
/* The content of the data.xml file that is located on E:\temp
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
  <id>0</id>
  <info>
    <info_id>0</info_id>
    <info_content>Text</info_content>
  </info>
</root>
SQL> DROP directory xmlstore;
Directory dropped.
SQL> -- the directory is on a Windows system...
SQL> CREATE directory xmlstore AS 'E:\temp';
Directory created.
SQL> CREATE TABLE test
  2  (xmldata xmltype);
TABLE created.
SQL> INSERT INTO test
  2  VALUES
  3  (XMLTYPE(bfilename('XMLSTORE','data.xml'),NLS_CHARSET_ID('AL32UTF8')));
1 row created.
SQL> SET long 100000000
SQL> SELECT * FROM test;
XMLDATA
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
  <id>0</id>
  <info>
    <info_id>0</info_id>
    <info_content>Text</info_content>
  </info>
</root>
1 row selected.
SQL> SELECT XMLTYPE('<root><id>0</id><info><info_id>0</info_id><info_content>Text</info_content></info></root>') AS "XDATA"
  2  FROM dual;
XDATA
<root><id>0</id><info><info_id>0</info_id><info_content>Text</info_content></info></root>
1 row selected.
SQL> SELECT extract((XMLTYPE(bfilename('XMLSTORE','data.xml'),NLS_CHARSET_ID('AL32UTF8'))),'*') AS "XDATA"
  2  FROM dual;
XDATA
<root><id>0</id><info><info_id>0</info_id><info_content>Text</info_content></info></root>
1 row selected.
SQL> SELECT xdata
  2  FROM (XMLTABLE('*'
  3                 PASSING (XMLTYPE(bfilename('XMLSTORE','data.xml'),NLS_CHARSET_ID('AL32UTF8')))
  4                 COLUMNS xdata xmltype PATH '/*'
  5                )
  6       )
  7  ;
XDATA
<root><id>0</id><info><info_id>0</info_id><info_content>Text</info_content></info></root>
1 row selected.
.