XSL Transformation to Oracle Canonical Format

Question

XSL Transformation to Oracle Canonical Format
Posted: Aug 6, 2007 9:31 AM Reply
I am having issues with transforming XML into Oracle Canonical Format. Can someone, please tell me what am doing wrong?
The source XML:
<transform>
<key old="driver" new="3" transform1="specified">
<value old="-1" new="-1" description="NA" />
<value old="0" new="0" description="no" />
<value old="1" new="1" description="yes" />
</key>
</transform>
I must transform it with XSL into Oracle Canonical format:
<ROWSET>
<ROW>
<column_name_1 />
<column_name_2 />
<column_name_3 />
</ROW>
<ROW>
<column_name_1 />
<column_name_2 />
<column_name_3 />
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
So, I came up with this stylesheet.
<?xml version="1.0"?><xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<ROWSET table = "table4xml">
<ROW num ="1">
<KEY_OLD>
<xsl:value-of select="@old" />
</KEY_OLD>
<KEY_NEW>
<xsl:value-of select="@new" />
</KEY_NEW> <TRANSFORM1>
<xsl:value-of select="@transform1" />
</TRANSFORM1>
<VALUEOLD>
<xsl:value-of select="@valueold" />
</VALUEOLD>
<VALUENEW>
<xsl:value-of select="@valuenew" />
</VALUENEW>
<DESCRIPTION>
<xsl:value-of select="@description" />
</DESCRIPTION>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Table TABLE4XML
KEY
KEY_OLD
KEY_NEW
TRANSFORM1
VALUEOLD
VALUENEW
DESCRIPTION
I must have made a mistake within the XSL code, because the PL/SQL procedure that am using inserts a row of NULLs into the table.
Am I correct that the given XML file should look in canonical format as this??
<ROWSET>
<ROW>
<key>
<old>driver</old>
<new>3</new>
<transform1>specified</transform1>
<value>
<old>-1</old>
<new>-1</new>
<description>NA</description>
</value>
</key>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>

Answer 1

There is a misunderstanding in your question. Oracle canonical format has a root node named <rowset> and its children have the name of <row>. And its grandchildren have the name of <column>. This is all of canonical family, no other grand-grand-children :)
Also here is an example for null values in canonical format. They are not presented in XML.
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> select null "col1", 'data' "col2" from dual;
c col2
data
SQL> DECLARE
2 ctx dbms_xmlgen.ctxHandle;
3 xml CLOB;
4 BEGIN
5 ctx := dbms_xmlgen.newContext('select null "col1", ''data'' "col2" from dual');
6 dbms_output.put_line(ctx);
7
8 xml := dbms_xmlgen.getXML(ctx);
9 dbms_output.put_line(xml);
10
11 dbms_xmlgen.closeContext(ctx);
12 END;
13 /
8
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ROWSET>
<ROW>
<col2>data</col2>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Best Regards
Erturk