CLR Procedure with XML parameter returns Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1

Question

I have following CLR stored procedure, which is throwing error on this command

xmlDoc.LoadXml(inputXml);

code

    public static int spGetTaxOfficeXML(SqlXml _inputXml)
    {
        // this procedure rename Row elements name with NodeName attribute value
        string inputXml = _inputXml.ToString();
        XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
        xmlDoc.LoadXml(inputXml);

// procedure Logic

        SqlContext.Pipe.Send(inputXml);
        return 0;
    }

it works well, when the XML text is inside variable inside visual studio as a text. But when i upload code to the SQL server as CLR, and try to execute it from SQL Management Studio:

DECLARE @XML XML
SET @XML = '<NodeA><NodeB></NodeB><NodeC AttributeX=""><Row NodeName="RowA" AttributeA="" AttributeB="abcd" AttributeC="efgh" /><Row NodeName="RowB" AttributeA="wxyz" /><Row NodeName="RowC" AttributeB="qwer" AttributeC="tyui" /><Row NodeName="RowD" AttributeA="stuv" AttributeB="erty" AttributeC="fghj" /></NodeC></NodeA>'

EXEC dbo.spGetTaxOfficeXML @XML

then this error is throwed:

Msg 6522, Level 16, State 1, Procedure spGetTaxOfficeXML, Line 0
A .NET Framework error occurred during execution of user-defined routine or aggregate "spGetTaxOfficeXML": 
System.Xml.XmlException: Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1.
System.Xml.XmlException: 
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml)
   at StoredProcedures.spGetTaxOfficeXML(String inputXml)

I tried to solve the error with following code, because i though the utf8 byte could cause the error, but it did not help.

// if byte mark exception happens
    string _byteOrderMarkUtf8 = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Encoding.UTF8.GetPreamble());
    if (inputXml.StartsWith(_byteOrderMarkUtf8))
    {
        inputXml = inputXml.Remove(0, _byteOrderMarkUtf8.Length);
    }

What is wrong here ?

Answer 1

The problem is that you made a bad assumption about what value is returned by the SqlXml.ToString() method, and then in testing in Visual Studio, you injected a value but did not check to see what ToString() was actually returning (which is: "System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlXml"). Though you probably would have seen this had you placed the SqlContext.Pipe.Send(inputXml); line above the xmlDoc.LoadXml(inputXml); line ;-).

When working with the Sql* types, you want to almost always access them via the Value property, which they all have. The Value property does return the string version of the XML as you were wanting to get. However, this is less than ideal since you will be converted the XML to a string, only to convert that back to XML again when you call XmlDocument.LoadXml().

A better way is to use the SqlXml.CreateReader() method which returns an XmlReader, and that can be used with the XmlDocument.Load() method.

I reworked your test code (below) to be an example showing all 3 of these variations:

using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.Xml;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

public partial class StoredProcedures
{
    [Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure()]
    public static int spGetTaxOfficeXML(SqlXml InputXml)
    {
        // this procedure rename Row elements name with NodeName attribute value
        XmlDocument _XmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
        _XmlDoc.Load(InputXml.CreateReader());

        // procedure Logic

        SqlContext.Pipe.Send("Incorrect:\n" + InputXml.ToString());

        SqlContext.Pipe.Send("\nBetter, but not an XmlDocument:\n" + InputXml.Value);

        SqlContext.Pipe.Send("\nCorrect:\n" + _XmlDoc.OuterXml);

        return 0;
    }
}

Running the code above with the original test SQL returns the following in the "Messages" tab:

Incorrect:
System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlXml

Better, but not an XmlDocument:
<NodeA><NodeB /><NodeC AttributeX=""><Row NodeName="RowA" AttributeA="" AttributeB="abcd" AttributeC="efgh" /><Row NodeName="RowB" AttributeA="wxyz" /><Row NodeName="RowC" AttributeB="qwer" AttributeC="tyui" /><Row NodeName="RowD" AttributeA="stuv" AttributeB="erty" AttributeC="fghj" /></NodeC></NodeA>

Correct:
<NodeA><NodeB /><NodeC AttributeX=""><Row NodeName="RowA" AttributeA="" AttributeB="abcd" AttributeC="efgh" /><Row NodeName="RowB" AttributeA="wxyz" /><Row NodeName="RowC" AttributeB="qwer" AttributeC="tyui" /><Row NodeName="RowD" AttributeA="stuv" AttributeB="erty" AttributeC="fghj" /></NodeC></NodeA>

P.S. You don't need to worry about UTF-8, especially for NCHAR / NVARCHAR / XML data generated from within SQL Server, since SQL Server is UTF-16 LE.