Why would I ever choose to store and manipulate XML in a relational database?

Question

Modern RDBMS\'s have support for XML column types and functionality for dealing with XML in stored procedures. Historically I would always have mapped hierarchical data (whe

Answer 1

I've not had the need to store XML so far, but I frequently use the ability to return XML from a stored procedure. It makes some things very useful - mainly reports. I can run a SP to generate the report, send back the results in XML, and then use XSLT to display the result on the site very easily.