On a client project today we had the need to create a table from an XML data file sent in a hierarchical format. The XML file contains multiple orders. Each order is for a particular store which is provided inside a header tag. Each store can order multiple items which are provided via sub tags of each header. A simplified sample of the file looks like this:

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<orders>
<order_header>
        <id>{6315E9FF}</id>
        <account_number>12345</account_number>
        <account_name>JOES CONVENIENCE</account_name>
        <store_address>123 MAIN STREET</store_address>
        <store_address_city>Pittsburgh</store_address_city>
        <store_address_state>PA</store_address_state>
        <store_address_postcode>15235</store_address_postcode>
        <order_line>
            <product_code>123456</product_code>
            <product_externalid>123456</product_externalid>
            <product_name>Peg Counter Spinner</product_name>
            <order_quantity>1</order_quantity>
        </order_line>
        <order_line>
            <product_code>723678</product_code>
            <product_externalid>723678</product_externalid>
            <product_name>Skittles</product_name>
            <order_quantity>1</order_quantity>
        </order_line>
        </order_header>
        <order_header>
        <id>{3CB06C14}</id>
        <account_number>23456</account_number>
        <account_name>SMITH LIMITED</account_name>
        <store_address>132 WEST AVENUE</store_address>
        <store_address_city>Pittsburgh</store_address_city>
        <store_address_state>PA</store_address_state>
        <store_address_postcode>15213</store_address_postcode>
        <order_line>
            <product_code>123456</product_code>
            <product_externalid>123456</product_externalid>
            <product_name>Peg Counter Spinner</product_name>
            <order_quantity>1</order_quantity>
        </order_line>
        </order_header>
</orders>

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The challenge was to write an Oracle query that could easily return both the header and detail information on a single row.  After some quick research I found that this can be done by using two separate XMLTables that hit the same file.  The first XMLTable contains store-level information.  The second XMLTable contains item level information.  When used together the second table starts with the XMLType (order_lines) that is defined in the first XMLTable.  The outer query simply selects fields you need.  It’s essentially a Cartesian product but it only intersects where appropriate given the “passing” clause. Here is a sample of the query to read the data.  This query assumes the file name is orders.xml and it is sitting in the previously defined XMLDIR Oracle directory.

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SELECT stores.order_id
      ,stores.account_number
      ,stores.account_name
      ,stores.retail_number
      ,stores.store_name
      ,stores.store_address
      ,stores.store_state
      ,stores.store_zip
      ,items.*
FROM XMLTable('/orders/order_header'
	     passing xmltype(  bfilename('STRIPE_UAT','wrigley_orders.xml'), nls_charset_id('AL32UTF8') )
         columns  order_id varchar2(2000) path 'id'
                 ,account_number varchar2(50)  path 'account_number'
                 ,account_name   varchar2(50)  path 'account_name'
                 ,retail_number  varchar2(12)  path 'store_externalid'
                 ,store_name     varchar2(50)  path 'store'
                 ,store_address  varchar2(100) path 'store_address'
                 ,store_state    varchar2(5)   path 'store_address_state'
                 ,store_zip      varchar2(10)  path 'store_address_postcode'
                 ,order_lines    XMLTYPE       path 'order_line'
     ) stores,
     XMLTable('/order_line'
	     passing stores.order_lines
         columns  product_code   varchar2(100) path 'product_code'
                 ,product_name   varchar2(100) path 'product_name'
                 ,order_quantity varchar2(100) path 'order_quantity'
     ) items

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This methodology can easily be extended to query an XML structure n levels deep to return information in one result set.