You just can't believe all the examples I've been through in the last 24 hours never mind the ones I've seen over the last decade or so. I've NEVER seen mention of "CDATA" anywhere before. Thanks Eirikur.

That does bring up another question, though. I'm nearly a total idiot when it comes to XML usage in SQL Server especially when it comes to playing it against a whole column XML in a table. I have to bite the bloody bullet and learn it, especially how it should be/can be used in SQL Server.

I know that it "only" takes studying it and practicing with it but, as with my early days using T-SQL, I've not actually found a good book or internet article on the subject or at least not one that I like very much. I absolutely do understand hierarchies in XML and elements vs entities but I don't know how to interrogate them in T-SQL. I can read and understand examples that others have written but I'lll be damned if I can write them from scratch myself never mind be creative or innovative.

I've seen it before... you seem to handle XML in SQL almost by second nature. Can you make a recommendation as to some good places/books to study XML in T-SQL that actually do explain things like why you need a "name space" line in some cases and not others or even what it actually is and does. I need something that starts out with the basics like when and how to use "@" instead of something else (I know it works with entities rather than elements but don't know how to use such things when shredding an entire column or even a single blob).

And, much like T-SQL, I'd eventually like to get to where you're at with XML where someone asks a question and you go "sure... no problem... all you need to do is add this to your code and you're done".

And very well done on that. Thanks again for the timely and accurate help, Eirikur.