| title | description | author | ms.author | ms.date | ms.service | ms.subservice | ms.topic | helpviewer_keywords | dev_langs | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Data Accessor Functions |
Learn how to use the XQuery data-accessor functions fn:data(), fn:string(), and text(). |
rothja |
jroth |
03/14/2017 |
sql |
xml |
language-reference |
|
|
[!INCLUDE SQL Server Azure SQL Database]
The topics in this section discuss and provide sample code for the data-accessor functions.
XQuery has a function fn:data() to extract scalar, typed values from nodes, a node test text() to return text nodes, and the function fn:string() that returns the string value of a node. Their use can be confusing. The following are guidelines for using them correctly in [!INCLUDEssNoVersion]. The XML instance <age>12</age> is used for the purpose of illustration.
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Untyped XML: The path expression /age/text() returns the text node "12". The function fn:data(/age) returns the string value "12" and so does fn:string(/age).
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Typed XML: The expression /age/text() returns a static error for any simple typed <age> element. On the other hand, fn:data(/age) returns integer 12. The fn:string(/age) yields the string "12".