XML type v15

The XMLTYPE data type is used to store XML data. Its advantage over storing XML data in a character field is that it checks the input values for how well they're formed. Also, support functions perform type-safe operations on it.

The XML type can store well-formed “documents,” as defined by the XML standard, as well as “content” fragments, which are defined by the production XMLDecl? content in the XML standard. Roughly, this means that content fragments can have more than one top-level element or character node.

This example shows creating and inserting a row into a table with an XMLTYPE column:

CREATE TABLE books (
    content         XMLTYPE
);

INSERT INTO books VALUES (XMLPARSE (DOCUMENT '<?xml
version="1.0"?><book><title>Manual</title><chapter>...</chapter></book>'));

SELECT * FROM books;

content
----------------------------------------------------------
 <book><title>Manual</title><chapter>...</chapter></book>
(1 row)