How to insert sql:column() to xml - sql-server-2008

Question

Given this xml
<items>
<item>
<position>2</position>
<code>123-122</code>
<description>Circulator 5GPM</description>
</item>
<item>
<position>4</position>
<code>124-128</code>
<description>Circulator 25GPM</description>
</item>
</items>
I want to insert values from a relational table like
preferably using T-Sql sql:column("position") etc..
How would I do that ?

Answer 1

You could insert new nodes into xml like this
DECLARE #xml XML = '<items>
<item>
<position>2</position>
<code>123-122</code>
<description>Circulator 5GPM</description>
</item>
<item>
<position>4</position>
<code>124-128</code>
<description>Circulator 25GPM</description>
</item>
</items>'
DECLARE #SampleData AS TABLE
(
position int,
code varchar(20),
[description] varchar(100)
)
INSERT INTO #SampleData
VALUES
(1,'123-123','description 1'),
(2,'124-124','description 2')
DECLARE #NewXmlNode XML =
(
SELECT *
FROM #SampleData
FOR XML PATH('item'),TYPE
)
SELECT #xml, #NewXmlNode
SET #xml.modify('
insert sql:variable("#NewXmlNode") as last into (/items)[1]
')
Result:
<items>
<item>
<position>2</position>
<code>123-122</code>
<description>Circulator 5GPM</description>
</item>
<item>
<position>4</position>
<code>124-128</code>
<description>Circulator 25GPM</description>
</item>
<item>
<position>1</position>
<code>123-123</code>
<description>description 1</description>
</item>
<item>
<position>2</position>
<code>124-124</code>
<description>description 2</description>
</item>
</items>