Pro SQL Server 2008 XML

Introduction

Back in 1999, I was working for a dot-com when I was first exposed to the interesting new technology known as XML. My imagination ran wild, and I immediately began working on dozens of applications for XML, like custom reporting from our legacy inventory system and Web-based business-to-business ordering. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning!

My excitement about XML in those early days began to fade as I quickly ran into its limitations, however. For one thing, the basic XML standard did not define a type system. All content in XML is character data—strings. This meant that I needed to not only convert string data to the correct data type in my own applications, but I also had to validate the content and handle boatloads ...