Best Practice for Structuring XML?

I've created a large XML document from a relational database (using AUTO,
EXPLICIT, etc.) with many elements, attributes, and subelements but now
wonder if there is a "best practice" for designing the structure for going
the other way, XML -> relational. Since I have not yet worked on the data
extraction side, maybe what I've put together makes data extraction awkward
(requiring many lines of T-SQL vs. one or two). But I definitely cannot
stomach the 'all attribute' or 'all element' practices. Between the two
examples below, which is better/easier/more efficient/flexible for
retrieving information (e.g. with OPENXML). I like the first example
theoretically, but the second is REAL easy to generate (with FOR XML AUTO,
ELEMENTS). Thanks for any tips or insights.
<entities>
<entity>
<entityAttribute>nameOfThisEntity</entityAttribute>
<entityValue>valueOfThisEntity</entityValue>
</entity>
<entity>
<entityAttribute>nameOfNextEntity</entityAttribute>
<entityValue>valueOfNextEntity</entityValue>
</entity>
<entity>
...
</entity>
</entities>
vs.
<entities>
<nameOfThisEntity>valueOfThisEntity</nameOfThisEntity>
<nameOfNextEntity>valueOfNextEntity</nameOfNextEntity>
...
</entities>
Hi Don,
I preferred to the first one, although I do not think there will be much
performance difference between the following two XML structures. The fist
XML structure will be more readable and efficient for search. The following
article will tell you how to optimize SQLXML performance for databases,
including SQL Server 2000.
SQLXML best practice paper on MSDN
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...us/dnsql2k/htm
l/sqlxml_optimperformance.asp?frame=true
Regards,
Michael Shao
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.
|||If you plan on using OpenXML, then size and ability to query structure
instead of values will most likely make your second format perform better.
Best regards
Michael
"Don Miller" <nospam@.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:es8k9YfLEHA.2396@.TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> I've created a large XML document from a relational database (using AUTO,
> EXPLICIT, etc.) with many elements, attributes, and subelements but now
> wonder if there is a "best practice" for designing the structure for going
> the other way, XML -> relational. Since I have not yet worked on the data
> extraction side, maybe what I've put together makes data extraction
> awkward
> (requiring many lines of T-SQL vs. one or two). But I definitely cannot
> stomach the 'all attribute' or 'all element' practices. Between the two
> examples below, which is better/easier/more efficient/flexible for
> retrieving information (e.g. with OPENXML). I like the first example
> theoretically, but the second is REAL easy to generate (with FOR XML AUTO,
> ELEMENTS). Thanks for any tips or insights.
> <entities>
> <entity>
> <entityAttribute>nameOfThisEntity</entityAttribute>
> <entityValue>valueOfThisEntity</entityValue>
> </entity>
> <entity>
> <entityAttribute>nameOfNextEntity</entityAttribute>
> <entityValue>valueOfNextEntity</entityValue>
> </entity>
> <entity>
> ...
> </entity>
> </entities>
> vs.
> <entities>
> <nameOfThisEntity>valueOfThisEntity</nameOfThisEntity>
> <nameOfNextEntity>valueOfNextEntity</nameOfNextEntity>
> ...
> </entities>
>