For me, using a select and copying the command out is not very efficient. When copying/pasting the command into an editor, you lose all formatting. If you have a code formatter, selecting the command is probably the best option because you can copy the command into a new window and click the format button. For those who do not have a formatter, this option is going to be worse because you have to reformat a huge tsql statement. I believe in the scenario, where a code formatter is not available, the XML method may be the easiest to implement even though it has character limitations.