SQL/XML, or XML-Related Specifications

The SQL/XML, or XML-Related Specifications, extension to the SQL standard is defined by ISO/IEC 9075-14:2003. SQL/XML specifies SQL-based extensions for using XML in conjunction with SQL. The XML data type is introduced, as well as several routines, functions, and XML-to-SQL data type mappings to support manipulation and storage of XML in a SQL database.

The SQL/XML specification includes functions to construct XML data. These functions allow the user to construct new XML elements or attributes with values e.g. from relational tables. Other functions such as XMLCONCAT or XMLAGG can be used to combine small XML fragments into larger ones. The list of available construction functions includes:

* XMLELEMENT
* XMLATTRIBUTES
* XMLFOREST
* XMLCONCAT
* XMLNAMESPACES
* XMLCOMMENT
* XMLPI
* XMLDOCUMENT
* XMLAGG
* etc.