Query Returning ORA-19279

Question

I've got an xml file that I'm loading into a view defined as an xmlType. The view name is eachFile with a single column of myType that is defined as an xmlType. The structure of the xml is:
<CASE_BATCH>
<CASE_COUNT>2</CASE_COUNT>
<XML_BATCH_TRANS>1012</XML_BATCH_TRANS>
<XML_BATCH_DATE>02/07/2007 14:46:14</XML_BATCH_DATE>
<CASEDETAIL>
<HEADER>
<CASE_TRANS>1044</CASE_TRANS>
<UPDATE_TYPE>I</UPDATE_TYPE>
<CASE>26968</CASE>
<PERSON_ID>197192</PERSON_ID>
+<NAME>
</NAME>
+<ADDRESS>
</ADDRESS>
+<VITAL_STATS>
</VITAL_STATS>
+<MEDICAL>
</MEDICAL>
+<RESIDENCY>
</RESIDENCY>
+<DESCRIPTION>
</DESCRIPTION>
+<SCHOOL>
</SCHOOL>
<OTHER>
</OTHER>
</HEADER>
<CASEDETAIL>
<HEADER>
<CASE_TRANS>1045</CASE_TRANS>
<UPDATE_TYPE>I</UPDATE_TYPE>
<CASE>26969</CASE>
<PERSON_ID>197193</PERSON_ID>
</<CASE_BATCH>
I've omitted non-essential data, but in general the structure is that within each <CASE_BATCH> tag there is the potential of multiple <CASE_DETAIL> tags, and each <CASE_DETAIL> tag has some data of which the <PERSON_ID> is what I need to retrieve.
I've tried several different approaches to retrieve <PERSON_ID> tag value, but nothing I try works, I either get no rows returned or an ORA-19279. What I'd like to do is open this up in a stored procedure as a cursor so I can loop through the subordinate data in the xml format and do some insertion/modification of relational tables.
Here's what I've tried that seemed to me to be the most promising:
select a.*
from eachFile,
xmltable('/CASE_BATCH'
passing eachfile.mytype
columns
extnum varchar2(30) PATH '/CASE_BATCH/CASEDETAIL/HEADER/PERSON_ID') a
How query an xml-based view knowing that it may return multiple rows?

Answer 1

I do need other columns at that level, but I've gotten that to work simply by adding additional column definitions at that level. I'm trying to do this process incrementally so I can tell when I break things. Now that I've gotten the first level of query to work, I need to do some queries against some of the lower levels. What I had in mind was to use the number retrieved as 'extnum' as a part of the where clause for additional queries. Unfortunately, now I can't get that level to work.
Here's what I've got now:
select B.*
from eachFile,
xmltable('/CASE_BATCH/CASEDETAIL'
passing eachfile.mytype
columns
extnum number PATH '/CASEDETAIL/HEADER/PERSON_ID') A,
xmltable('CASE_BATCH/CASEDETAIL'
passing eachfile.mytype
columns
extnum number PATH '/CASEDETAIL/HEADER/PERSON_ID',
firstName varchar2(30) PATH '/NAME/FIRSTNAME',
middleName varchar2(30) path '/NAME/MIDDLENAME',
lastName varchar2(30) path '/NAME/LASTNAME',
suffix varchar2(30) path '/NAME/SUFFIX') b
where
a.extnum = 214339 AND
a.extnum = b.extnum
This query as written returns the extnum value (The hard-coded value is one retrieved from the previous query that I'm just using to test with) but no name data. I have no doubt this is related to how you specitfy the path in both or either the xmlTable or the column definition, but I don't understand the correct way to specify it, especially when I'm using a comparative value that's at a higher node in the XML than the subordinate nodes data that I need to retrieve.
I've got a whole bunch of this type of query to write at lower and lower nodes in the XML structure, so once I get this one to work, I am (hopefully!) good to go. How can I use a higher node's value to query subordinate node data when there are multiples of the higher node?