Formatting XML into VARCHAR2

Question

Hi,
I am looking at an XML file/feed, and within it there are paragraphs and page breaks (<para>,
). When I'm extracting the data into a varchar2 field, i want to preserve the paragraph/break structure...
e.g.
SELECT   text_col
FROM     XMLTABLE('/'
                  PASSING (xmltype('<para>This is paragraph 1.<br/>This is p1, line 1.<br/>This is p1, line 2.</para>'))
                  COLUMNS text_col VARCHAR2(1000) PATH '/'
                 );gives
This is paragraph 1.This is p1, line 1.This is p1, line 2.What I'm after is:
This is paragraph 1.
This is p1, line 1.
This is p1, line 2.Is this achievable?
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - 64bit
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,
On 11g, I would use this :
SQL> select text
  2  from xmltable(
  3       'string-join(
  4        for $i in /para/node()
  5        return
  6          typeswitch ($i)
  7            case text()      return string($i)
  8            case element(br) return "&#38;#xA;"
  9            default return ""
10        , "")'
11       passing xmlparse(content '<para>Line1<br/>Line2<br/>Line3</para>')
12       columns text varchar2(2000) path '.'
13       )
14  ;
TEXT
Line1
Line2
Line3
but I'm not sure it works on your version. You can try though.
Another solution would be :
SQL> select utl_i18n.unescape_reference(replace(x.text.getstringval(), '<br/>', '&#38;#xA;')) as text
  2  from xmltable('/para'
  3         passing xmltype('<para>Line1&amp;Line1.1<br/>Line2<br/>Line3</para>')
  4         columns text xmltype path 'node()'
  5       ) x
  6  ;
TEXT
Line1&Line1.1
Line2
Line3