ExtractValue vs. XMLTable Character Entity Decoding

Question

In removing the deprecated extract/extractValue methods from my queries, I have run into an issue with character data being extracted via XMLTable.
Character entity encoded data (e.g. "'" as "'") was decoded by extractValue, but remains encoded by XMLTable. For example:
WITH myXML AS
    SELECT XMLTYPE.createXML('<root desc="Here' || chr(38) || 'apos;s an example"/>') AS x
    FROM dual
SELECT
  x,
  extractValue(x, '/root/@desc'),
  mytab.example,
  XMLQuery('/root/@desc' PASSING x RETURNING CONTENT).getStringVal()
FROM
  myXML,
  XMLTable
    '/root'
    PASSING myXML.x
    COLUMNS
      example VARCHAR2(39) PATH '@desc'
  ) mytab;returns
<root desc="Here&apos;s an example"/>     Here's an example     Here&apos;s an example     Here&apos;s an example
Wrapping each column in the SELECT clause in dbms_xmlgen.convert() seems like overkill. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Funny, didn't notice that one before.
It seems it happens only with attributes in transient XMLType instances.
For example, it works if the XML document is store in an XMLType column/table :
SQL> create table tmp_xml of xmltype;
Table created
SQL> set scan off
SQL> insert into tmp_xml values (xmltype('<root desc="Here&apos;s an example">R&amp;D</root>'));
1 row inserted
SQL>
SQL> SELECT x.*
  2  FROM tmp_xml t
  3     , XMLTable('/root'
  4        PASSING t.object_value
  5        COLUMNS
  6          example varchar2(20) PATH '@desc'
  7        , content varchar2(30) PATH 'text()'
  8       ) x
  9  ;
EXAMPLE              CONTENT
Here's an example    R&D
Workaround with a transient XMLType : the fn:data() function
SQL> SELECT x.*
  2  FROM XMLTable('/root'
  3        PASSING xmltype('<root desc="Here&apos;s an example">R&amp;D</root>')
  4        COLUMNS
  5          example varchar2(20) PATH '@desc'
  6        , content varchar2(30) PATH 'text()'
  7       ) x
  8  ;
EXAMPLE              CONTENT
Here&apos;s an examp R&D
SQL>
SQL> SELECT x.*
  2  FROM XMLTable('/root'
  3        PASSING xmltype('<root desc="Here&apos;s an example">R&amp;D</root>')
  4        COLUMNS
  5          example varchar2(20) PATH 'data(@desc)'
  6        , content varchar2(30) PATH 'text()'
  7       ) x
  8  ;
EXAMPLE              CONTENT
Here's an example    R&D