Using a variable value in CDATA for generating an XML type in Oracle

Question

Hello,
I have prepared a function given below where I have some input variables & I have to generate one XML with those input variables as tag attribute value:
create or replace function NEW_PROJECT_DETAILS
( p_ReferenceId in varchar2 ,
p_Project_No in varchar2,
p_Project_Name in varchar2,
p_Project_Desc in varchar2 ,
p_Project_Type in varchar2,
p_Project_Location in varchar2,
p_Project_Status in varchar2 )
return xmltype
as
payload xmltype;
begin
dbms_output.put_line('Payload Started');
payload:= xmltype('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ProjectDetails>
<RefID>'||p_ReferenceId||'</RefID>
<ProjectNo>'||p_Project_No||'</ProjectNo>
<ProjectName>'||p_Project_Name||'</ProjectName>
<ProjectDesc>'||p_Project_Desc||'</ProjectDesc>
<ProjectType>'||p_Project_Type||'</ProjectType>
<ProjectLocation><![CDATA[p_Project_Location]]></ProjectLocation>
/* <ProjectLocation>'||p_Project_Location||'</ProjectLocation> */
<ProjectStatus>'||p_Project_Status||'</ProjectStatus>
</ProjectDetails>');
dbms_output.put_line('Payload Comp1');
return payload;
end;
This procedure works absolutely fine.
Now the problem which I am having is that the variable p_Project_Location has value like "6747:BBO&M SBV".
Due to the '*&*' in that value I have to use CDATA. But i dont know how to pass this variable directly in the CDATA in the XML.
Please help me with this asap.
Thanks & Regards,
Divya Aggarwal
Edited by: 784414 on Dec 2, 2010 4:15 AM
Edited by: 784414 on Dec 2, 2010 4:16 AM

Answer 1

Hi,
If you absolutely want to use a CDATA section, then :
payload:= xmltype('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ProjectDetails>
<RefID>'||p_ReferenceId||'</RefID>
<ProjectNo>'||p_Project_No||'</ProjectNo>
<ProjectName>'||p_Project_Name||'</ProjectName>
<ProjectDesc>'||p_Project_Desc||'</ProjectDesc>
<ProjectType>'||p_Project_Type||'</ProjectType>
<ProjectLocation><![CDATA['||p_Project_Location||']]></ProjectLocation>
<ProjectStatus>'||p_Project_Status||'</ProjectStatus>
</ProjectDetails>');Alternatively, you can escape non valid characters with DBMS_XMLGEN.CONVERT, e.g. :
payload:= xmltype('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ProjectDetails>
<RefID>'||p_ReferenceId||'</RefID>
<ProjectNo>'||p_Project_No||'</ProjectNo>
<ProjectName>'||p_Project_Name||'</ProjectName>
<ProjectDesc>'||p_Project_Desc||'</ProjectDesc>
<ProjectType>'||p_Project_Type||'</ProjectType>
<ProjectLocation>'||dbms_xmlgen.convert(p_Project_Location)||'</ProjectLocation>
<ProjectStatus>'||p_Project_Status||'</ProjectStatus>
</ProjectDetails>');which outputs :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ProjectDetails>
<RefID>1</RefID>
<ProjectNo>1</ProjectNo>
<ProjectName>PRJ1</ProjectName>
<ProjectDesc>This is project 1</ProjectDesc>
<ProjectType>P</ProjectType>
<ProjectLocation>6747:BBO&amp;M SBV</ProjectLocation>
<ProjectStatus>S</ProjectStatus>
</ProjectDetails>Any basic XML parser should then convert back escaped characters when processing the document.
You can also use SQL/XML functions, which will take care of that automatically.
For example :
SELECT appendChildXML(
        XMLType('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ProjectDetails/>'),
        XMLForest(
         '1'                 as "RefID",
         '1'                 as "ProjectNo",
         'PRJ1'              as "ProjectName",
         'This is project 1' as "ProjectDesc",
         'P'                 as "ProjectType",
         '6747:BBO&M SBV'    as "ProjectLocation",
         'S'                 as "ProjectStatus"
FROM dual;or,
SELECT appendChildXML(
        XMLType('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ProjectDetails/>'),
        XMLForest(
         '1'                 as "RefID",
         '1'                 as "ProjectNo",
         'PRJ1'              as "ProjectName",
         'This is project 1' as "ProjectDesc",
         'P'                 as "ProjectType",
         XMLCData('6747:BBO&M SBV') as "ProjectLocation",
         'S'                 as "ProjectStatus"
FROM dual;