When should I use cross apply over inner join?

Question

What is the main purpose of using CROSS APPLY?

I have read (vaguely, through posts on the Internet) that cross apply can be more efficient when selectin

Answer 1

Cross apply works well with an XML field as well. If you wish to select node values in combination with other fields.

For example, if you have a table containing some xml

Using the query

SELECT
       id as [xt_id]
      ,xmlfield.value('(/root/@attribute)[1]', 'varchar(50)') root_attribute_value
  ,node_attribute_value = [some_node].value('@value', 'int')
  ,lt.lt_name   
FROM dbo.table_with_xml xt
CROSS APPLY xmlfield.nodes('/root/subnode1/some_node') as g ([some_node])
LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.lookup_table lt
ON [some_node].value('@value', 'int') = lt.lt_id

Will return a result

xt_id root_attribute_value node_attribute_value lt_name
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1     test1            1                    Benefits
1     test1            4                    FINRPTCOMPANY