I'm not sure what you mean by "always the same." There are things that you can't do with Raw that you can with Path.

IF OBJECT_ID('XMLForHomework') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE XMLForHomework

CREATE TABLE XMLForHomework

(

ID INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY (1,1),

FirstName varchar(20),

LastName varchar(20),

FavoriteTeam varchar(10)

)

-- Add some stuff

INSERT INTO XMLForHomework VALUES

('Ben', 'Jamin', 'Tribe'),

('Chris', 'Smith', 'Sox'),

('Beth', 'Smith', 'Cubs'),

('Your', 'Mom', 'Yanks'),

('Your', 'Dad', 'Mets')

--

--SELECT * FROM XMLForHomework FOR XML AUTO

--SELECT * FROM XMLForHomework FOR XML RAW

SELECT * FROM XMLForHomework FOR XML RAW, ELEMENTS

--SELECT * FROM XMLForHomework FOR XML PATH('Path')

SELECT * FROM XMLForHomework FOR XML PATH, ELEMENTS

SELECT FavoriteTeam

, FirstName as [Name/@FirstName]

, LastName as [Name/@LastName]

FOR XML Path, ELEMENTS;

--

DROP TABLE XMLForHomework

This code creates a subelement for each row that has the name called Name, with two attributes. You can't do that with Raw.