Getting Parent Node using SQL

Question

Hello,
I am trying to query an XML which is stored in XMLTYPE datatype column in oracle table. I am using the below SQL:
select
EXTRACTVALUE (column_name, '/Person/Customer/Customer_First_Name'),
EXTRACTVALUE (column_name, '/Person/Customer/Customer_Last_Name'),
from TABLE_1 A, TABLE ( XMLSEQUENCE (EXTRACT (A.column_name, '/sdi_header//Person')) ) P
Sample XML:
<sdi_header>
<Person>
<Customer_First_Name>ABC</Customer_First_Name>
<Customer_Last_Name>DEF</Customer_First_Name>
</Person>
<warehouse>
<Person>
<Customer_First_Name>XYZ</Customer_First_Name>
<Customer_Last_Name>MNO</Customer_First_Name>
</Person>
</warehouse>
</sdi_header>
In the above query the Alias P has a //Person which means I am trying to extract all the repeating person Nodes information in XML. Retrieving all persons is working but I want to extract the parent node information of each Person like for Example in the above sample XML, it has two persons in it
1) 1 Person is coming under sdi_header node , in such case I need to get <sdi_header/> in SELECT statement
2) 1 Person is coming under warehouse node , in such case I need to get <warehouse/>in SELECT statement
How can the parent node information be extracted in SELECT statement.
Any suggestion/Help is much appreciated.
Thanks,
SKM
Edited by: user9116854 on Mar 1, 2010 10:24 AM
Edited by: user9116854 on Mar 1, 2010 10:30 AM
Edited by: user9116854 on Mar 1, 2010 10:35 AM
Edited by: user9116854 on Mar 1, 2010 10:45 AM
Edited by: user9116854 on Mar 2, 2010 8:05 AM

Answer 1

Sounds like you are looking for something like this
Connected to Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.6.0
SQL> WITH table_1 AS
  2  (SELECT XMLTYPE('<sdi_header>
  3  <Person>
  4  <Customer_First_Name>ABC</Customer_First_Name>
  5  <Customer_Last_Name>DEF</Customer_Last_Name>
  6  </Person>
  7  <warehouse>
  8  <Person>
  9  <Customer_First_Name>XYZ</Customer_First_Name>
10  <Customer_Last_Name>MNO</Customer_Last_Name>
11  </Person>
12  </warehouse>
13  </sdi_header>') column_name
14     FROM dual)  -- WITH simulates your table I do not have
15  select t1.*
16    from TABLE_1,
17         XMLTABLE('for $i in /sdi_header//Person
18                     return <root>
19                           {$i/Customer_First_Name,
20                           $i/Customer_Last_Name}
21                           <parent>{$i/../name()}</parent>
22                      </root>'
23                  PASSING table_1.column_name
24                  COLUMNS
25                  fname   VARCHAR2(20) PATH 'Customer_First_Name',
26                  lname   VARCHAR2(20) PATH 'Customer_Last_Name',
27                  pnode   VARCHAR2(20) PATH 'parent') t1;
FNAME                LNAME                PNODE
ABC                  DEF                  sdi_header
XYZ                  MNO                  warehouseYou can find out how formatted that message by looking in the FAQ in the upper right. It uses the { code } tag (without spaces).