XMLTable - passing in dynamic variables

Question

Hi,
I am using XMLTable to shred XML data stored in external files into a virtual table so it can be imported into Oracle 10g. I am having problems trying to pass a dynamic file path parameter into the XMLTable function. E.g.
DECLARE
xml_file_name varchar2(50):= '/public/user.xml'; --currently hardcoded in example - will be dynamically built
cursor c2 is
select * from XMLTable('for $i in doc($XMLPATH) return $i/ROWSET/ROW'
passing xml_file_name as "XMLPATH"
columns     ID INTEGER PATH 'ID',
USERNAME                VARCHAR2(255)     PATH 'USERNAME');
BEGIN
--do the import here
END;
The error I get is:
PL/SQL: ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got CHAR
Is this correct use of the "passing" parameter? If not, is there any other way to pass in a dynamically xml file path?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Thanks for your speedy response - I understand now that I need to pass the params as XMLTypes, but am still struggling with the syntax...
I've created a directory object and have verified it exists by running:
select xmltype(dbms_xslprocessor.read2clob('XMLREPORT_DIR', 'user.xml')) from dual;
When I put this into the import routine I get a:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
DECLARE
cursor c2 is
select * from XMLTable('for $i in doc($XMLFILE) return $i/ROWSET/ROW'
passing xmltype(dbms_xslprocessor.read2clob('XMLREPORT_DIR', 'user.xml')) as XMLFILE
columns     ID INTEGER,
USERNAME                VARCHAR2(255));
BEGIN
--do the import
END;
Presumably I'm not referencing the file object correctly within the XQuery - any suggestions on what I need to do to fix things?
Thanks again!