The argument 1 of the XML data type method “value” must be a string literal

Question

How to change my T-SQL query so that this error doesn\'t occur:

\'The argument 1 of the XML data type method \"value\" must be a string literal.\'

Answer 1

You can remove the while loop and do the insert in one go using nodes to shred the XML.

insert into mytable([Word])
select N.value('@Entry', 'nvarchar(max)')
from OtherTable
  cross apply XmlColumn.nodes('word') as T(N)
where ID = 2

If @j is there to limit the number of rows you want to insert to mytable you can use this instead.

insert into mytable([Word])
select ID
from
  (
    select N.value('@Entry', 'nvarchar(max)') as ID, 
           row_number() over(order by T.N) as rn
    from OtherTable
      cross apply XmlColumn.nodes('word') as T(N)
    where ID = 2
  ) T
where rn <= @j

If you for some reason really want to use the loop then you can do like this instead.

while @Count <= @j
begin
  insert into mytable([Word])
  select XMLColumn.value('(/word[sql:variable("@Count")]/@Entry)[1]', 'nvarchar(max)')
  from OtherTable
  where ID = 2