How to create XML file by SQL query? - asp.net

Question

I have a Select query which selects the top 10 values from table
Create proc [dbo].[SP_Select_Top10]
as
select DISTINCT top (10)
Score, FBid
from
FB_Player
ORDER BY
Score DESC
What I need is to have the results of this query in xml file as.
<player>
<name> </name>
<score> </score>
</player>
I use ASP.NET to create this file how can I do that ?

Answer 1

Create your stored procedure like this - use the FOR XML PATH(), ROOT() syntax to have SQL Server generate a proper XML for you:
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.procGetPlayerScore
AS BEGIN
SELECT DISTINCT TOP (10)
ID AS '#ID', -- creates an attribute on the <Player> node
Name, -- gets output as element inside <Player>
Score -- gets output as element inside <Player>
FROM
dbo.FB_Players
ORDER BY
Score DESC
FOR XML PATH('Player'), ROOT('AllPlayers')
END
In your C# code, you need something like this - connect to the database, execute the stored procedure, get back the single row, single column of that stored procedure (the XML produced):
// set up SQL Server connection and command to execute the stored procedure
using(SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("server=.;database=test;Integrated Security=SSPI"))
using (SqlCommand cmdGetPlayers = new SqlCommand("dbo.procGetPlayerScore", conn))
{
// define that it's a stored procedure
cmdGetPlayers.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
// open connection, execute procedure, get resulting XML, close connection
conn.Open();
string playersXml = cmdGetPlayers.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
conn.Close();
}
As result, you'll get a XML something like this:
<AllPlayers>
<Player ID="4">
<Name>Player 4</Name>
<Score>72.1500</Score>
</Player>
<Player ID="1">
<Name>Player 1</Name>
<Score>50.5000</Score>
</Player>
......
</AllPlayers>

Answer 2

I would suggest looking at the native XML options of SQL Server
Link here
Also please note
<player>
<playername="" score="" />
</player>
is not valid xml, it would have to something like
<player name="" score="" />
or
<player>
<name></name>
<score></score>
</player>
depending on whether you want to be element-centric or attribute-centric, but all of these can be specified in the SQL server XML output options. Then you could just get the ASP.NET side to save the resulting query as a file.