INSERT XML into SQL Server 2008 database

Question

Hello I'm trying to insert some XML data into a table on SQL Server 2008. However I keep getting thrown this error;

XML parsing: line 1, character 39, unable to switch the encoding

The database column filemeta uses the XML datatype, and I've switch the encoding to UTF-16 which I believe is necessary for adding XML data.

INSERT INTO testfiles
  (filename, filemeta) 
VALUES 
  ('test.mp3', '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" standalone="yes"?><!--This is a test XML file--><filemeta filetype="Audio"><Comments /><AlbumTitle /><TrackNumber /><ArtistName /><Year /><Genre /><TrackTitle /></filemeta>');

Help, I'm stuck.

NB: I created the XML with XMLTextWriter.

Answer 1

Yes, there are issues when you try to insert XML into SQL Server 2008 and the XML contains an encoding instruction line.

I typically get around using the CONVERT function which allows me to instruct SQL Server to skip those instructions - use something like this:

INSERT INTO testfiles
  (filename, filemeta) 
VALUES 
  ('test.mp3', CONVERT(XML, N'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" standalone="yes"?>......', 2));

It has definitely helped me get various encoded XML stuff into SQL Server.

See the MSDN docs on CAST and CONVERT - a bit down the page there's a number of styles you can use for CONVERT with XML and some explanations about them.

Answer 2

You just need to include N in front of your XML string to make it unicode.

INSERT INTO testfiles
  (filename, filemeta) 
VALUES 
  ('test.mp3', N'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" standalone="yes"?><!--This is a test XML file--><filemeta filetype="Audio"><Comments /><AlbumTitle /><TrackNumber /><ArtistName /><Year /><Genre /><TrackTitle /></filemeta>');

Answer 3

This worked for me without any errors:

DECLARE @input XML 
SET @input = N'<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" standalone="yes"?><!--This is a test XML file--><filemeta filetype="Audio"><Comments /><AlbumTitle /><TrackNumber /><ArtistName /><Year /><Genre /><TrackTitle /></filemeta>'

INSERT INTO testfiles (filename, filemeta)
VALUES ('test.mp3', @input);