Unable to cast TEXT to XML in SQL Server

Question

Basically I have a column named XML that is of type TEXT; this cannot be changed for other reason, but I was wondering how I could cast it to XML.<

Answer 1

You should replace encoding="utf-16" to encoding="utf-8" or ''(blank) and then perform your operation.

a. Converting encoding="utf-16" to encoding="utf-8"

SELECT 
  CAST(
    REPLACE(CAST([xml] AS VARCHAR(MAX)), 'encoding="utf-16"', 'encoding="utf-8"')
  AS XML).value('(/Record//UserGuid/node())[1]', 'NVARCHAR(max)') as UserGuid
from tbl_Module_RequestForms_Items

b. Replacing encoding="utf-16" to ''(blank)

SELECT 
  CAST(
    REPLACE(CAST([xml] AS VARCHAR(MAX)), 'encoding="utf-16"', '')
  AS XML).value('(/Record//UserGuid/node())[1]', 'NVARCHAR(max)') as UserGuid
from tbl_Module_RequestForms_Items