XMLSERIALIZE

The XMLSERIALIZE function returns a serialized XML value of the specified data type generated from the XML-expression argument.

data-type

Notes:

¹ The same clause must not be specified more than once.

ccsid-clause

normalize-clause

CONTENT: Specifies that any XML value can be specified and the result of the serialization is based on this input value.
XML-expression: An expression that returns a value that is a built-in XML string. This is the input to the serialization process.

AS data-type

Specifies the result type. The implicit or explicit length attribute of the specified result data type must be sufficient to contain the serialized output.

If a CCSID is specified and the data-type is GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC, or DBCLOB, the CCSID must be a Unicode CCSID.

If the CCSID attribute is not specified, the CCSID is determined as described in CAST specification.

VERSION '1.0'

Specifies the XML version of the serialized value. The only version supported is '1.0' which must be specified as a string constant.

EXCLUDING XMLDECLARATION or INCLUDING XMLDECLARATION

Specifies whether an XML declaration is included in the result. The default is EXCLUDING XMLDECLARATION.

EXCLUDING XMLDECLARATION: Specifies that an XML declaration is not included in the result.
INCLUDING XMLDECLARATION: Specifies that an XML declaration is included in the result. The XML declaration is the string '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="encoding-name"?>, where encoding-name matches the CCSID of the result data type.

If the result of XML-expression can be null, the result can be null; if the result of XML-expression is null, the result is the null value.

Examples

Example 1: Serialize into CLOB of UTF-8, the XML value that is returned by the XMLELEMENT function, which is a simple XML element with "Emp" as the element name and an employee name as the element content:

    SELECT e.empno, XMLSERIALIZE(XMLELEMENT(NAME "Emp",
                                         e.firstnme || ' ' ||e.lastname)
                             AS CLOB(100) CCSID 1208) AS "result"
        FROM employee e WHERE e.lastname = 'SMITH'

The result looks similar to the following results:

 EMPNO   result
 -----   ---------------------
 000250  <Emp>DANIEL SMITH</Emp>
 000300  <Emp>PHILIP SMITH</Emp>

Example 2: Serialize into a string of BLOB type, the XML value that is returned by the XMLELEMENT function:

    SELECT XMLSERIALIZE(XMLELEMENT(NAME "Emp",
                                         e.firstnme || ' ' ||e.lastname)
                       AS BLOB(1K) 
                       VERSION '1.0') AS "result"
        FROM employee e WHERE e.empno = '000300'

The result looks similar to the following results:

 result
 ---------------------
 <Emp>PHILIP SMITH</Emp>

Example 3: Serialize into a string of CLOB type, the XML value that is returned by the XMLELEMENT function. Include the XMLDECLARATION:

    SELECT e.empno, e.firstnme, e.lastname,
         XMLSERIALIZE(XMLELEMENT(NAME "xmp:Emp",
                                 XMLNAMESPACES('http://www.xmp.com' as "xmp"),
                                 XMLATTRIBUTES(e.empno as "serial"),
                                 e.firstnme, e.lastname
                                 OPTION NULL ON NULL)
                       AS CLOB(1000) CCSID 1208
                       INCLUDING XMLDECLARATION) AS "Result"
        FROM employee e WHERE e.empno = '000300'

The result looks similar to the following results:

 EMPNO   FIRSTNME   LASTNAME   Result
 ------  ---------  ---------  -----------------------
 000300  PHILIP     SMITH      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
                               <xmp:Emp xmlns:xmp="http://www.xmp.com"
                                   serial="000300">PHILIPSMITH</xmp:Emp>