MCTS 70-431 Exam Cram: Implementing and Maintaining Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Exam

Terms you'll need to understand:

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

XML schema definition (XSD)

XQuery

XML document

Schema

Element

Attribute

Node

FOR XML

ELEMENTS

XSINIL

value()

nodes()

query()

exist()

modify()

replace value of

insert

delete

XML index

Techniques you'll need to master:

Writing queries that return XML

Using the xml data type

Using xml data type methods

Creating XML indexes

The language of business communication, in particular between data storage systems, is Extensible Markup Language (XML). SQL Server 2005 leverages XML with many features that implement XML functionality. This chapter looks at the breadth of XML coverage within the application. You can expect XML coverage on the 70-431 exam to encompass much of this functionality.

There are a variety of methods for storing XML, from using the data type itself to variations of standard types, which may actually be preferred in most instances. When XML is stored, indexing the XML is important for performance and quick response times. There has been much advancement in terms of data queries in SQL Server as well.

This chapter covers a lot of ground when it comes to the integration of XML within SQL Server. You don't need to be an XML expert to work with it, but you definitely have to know how to operate with XML within a SQL Server database.