Steve Jones - SSC Editor (1/16/2013)
The XML part is definitely challenging for beginners. It's the same with Extended Events and a number of other systems introduced in R2/2012. I don't think it's that hard, but it's certainly off-putting. A little work to return a table of some sort would seem to me, to be a good direction for the SQL Server team.
I would agree that it is challenging for beginners. It is a different paradigm and requires some creativity and imagination about data. By taking an XML document and converting it to a in memory dataset you can gain access to the data without much problem. You just have to change your perspective. It is challenging and does take some time and effort. But you can wade through it and make it work.
M.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!