Reorder an xmltype variable in plsql

Question

I have an xml package sitiing in an xmltype variable.
Does anyone know a way I can reorder the nodes alphabetically?
Many Thanks
Paul

Answer 1

I can't post the xml.
The forum just keeps saying content is not allowed.Use {code} tags to enclose any code snippets you want to post. It'll preserve formatting and prevent content to be interpreted on the page.
It's explained here : http://forums.oracle.com/forums/help.jspa
Does this work for you :
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL>
SQL> DECLARE
  2 
  3   doc xmltype := xmltype(
  4   '<root>
  5  <things>bbb
  6  <somestuff>1234</somestuff>
  7  <morestuff>5678</morestuff>
  8  </things>
  9  <things>aaa
10  <somestuff>dog</somestuff>
11  <morestuff>cat</morestuff>
12  </things>
13  </root>'
14   );
15 
16   ordered_doc xmltype;
17 
18  BEGIN
19 
20   select xmlquery(
21   'for $i in $d/*
22    return element {name($i)}
23    {
24     for $j in $i/things
25     order by $j/text()
26     return $j
27    }'
28    passing doc as "d"
29    returning content
30   )
31   into ordered_doc
32   from dual;
33 
34   dbms_output.put_line(ordered_doc.getclobval());
35 
36  END;
37  /
<root><things>aaa
<somestuff>dog</somestuff>
  <morestuff>cat</morestuff>
</things>
<things>bbb
<somestuff>1234</somestuff>
  <morestuff>5678</morestuff>
</things>
</root>
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed
The first "for" in the XQuery is there in case you don't want to hardcode the root element.