How do you read XML column in SQL Server 2008?

Question

I have never used XML in SQL Server 2008, I need to extract a list of customers into a variable table how do you do it?

Given that I have a column called Custo

Answer 1

You need to use CROSS APPLY from table to XML column

create table sales (customerlist xml)
insert sales select '
    
       
           1
           Mr Smith
       
       
          2
          Mr Bloggs
       
    '

Your query:

SELECT
   N.C.value('ItemId[1]', 'int') ItemId,
   N.C.value('Value[1]', 'varchar(100)') Value
FROM dbo.Sales
CROSS APPLY CustomerList.nodes('//Customer') N(C)

EDIT - note
The query above was written quickly to illustrate working with xml columns in a table (multi-row). For performance reasons, don't use '//Customer' but use an absolute path instead '/ArrayOfCustomers/Customer'. '//Customer' will go through the entire XML to find Customer nodes anywhere in the XML at any level.