Oracle Compliance with SQL/XML

The XML data type in the standard is XML. The Oracle equivalent data type is XMLType. A feature of the standard is considered to be fully supported if the only difference between Oracle and the standard is the spelling of the data type name.

Table C-3 describes Oracle's support for the features of SQL/XML.

Table C-3 Oracle Support for Features of SQL/XML

Feature ID, Feature	Support
X010, XML type	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X011, Arrays of XML types	Oracle supports this feature using named array types
X012, Multisets of XML type	The Oracle equivalent of a multiset of XML type is a nested table with a single column of XML type.
X013, Distinct types of XML	A distinct type can be emulated using an object type with a single attribute.
X014, Attributes of XML type	In Oracle, attributes of object types may be of type XMLType, but the syntax for creating object types is nonstandard.
X015, Fields of XML type	Oracle object types may be used instead of row types; Oracle supports object types with attributes of XMLType.
X016, Persistent XML values	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X020, XMLConcat	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X025, XMLCast	Oracle supports this feature, with the following restrictions: The source expression must be of XMLType and the target data type may not be XMLType. (Since Oracle has only one XML type, there is no need to cast from XML to XML.) Oracle does not support <XML passing mechanism>; the behavior is the same as BY VALUE in the standard. Oracle extends this feature with the ability to cast to type REF XMLTYPE.
X031, XMLElement	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X032, XMLForest	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X034, XMLAgg	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X035, XMLAgg: ORDER BY option	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X036, XMLComment	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X036, XMLPi	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X038, XMLText	The Oracle XMLCData function may be used to create a text node.
X040, Basic table mapping	Oracle table mappings are available through a Java interface and through a package. Oracle table mappings have been generalized to map queries and not just tables. To map only a table: SELECT * FROM table_name. This provides support for the following elements of this feature: X041, Basic table mapping: null absent X042, Basic table mapping: null as nil X043, Basic table mapping: table as forest X044, Basic table mapping: table as element X045, Basic table mapping: with target namespace X046, Basic table mapping: data mapping X047, Basic table mapping: metadata mapping X049, Basic table mapping: hex encoding Oracle does not support the following element of this feature: X048, Basic table mapping: base64 encoding
X041, Basic table mapping: null absent	See X040.
X042, Basic table mapping: null as nil	See X040.
X043, Basic table mapping: table as forest	See X040.
X044, Basic table mapping: table as element	See X040.
X045, Basic table mapping: with target namespace	See X040.
X046, Basic table mapping: data mapping	See X040.
X047, Basic table mapping: metadata mapping	See X040.
X049, Basic table mapping: hex encoding	See X040.
X060, XMLParse: Character string input and CONTENT option	Oracle does not support the {PRESERVE | STRIP} WHITESPACE syntax. The behavior is always STRIP WHITESPACE.
X061, XMLParse: Character string input and DOCUMENT option	Oracle does not support the {PRESERVE | STRIP} WHITESPACE syntax. The behavior is always STRIP WHITESPACE.
X069, XMLSERIALIZE: INDENT	Oracle extends this feature with the ability to specify an indent size.
X070, XMLSerialize: Character string serialization and CONTENT option	Oracle supports this feature, with this restriction: In the standard, the choice of DOCUMENT or CONTENT is optional; in Oracle, you must specify one of these. Oracle extends this feature as follows: the standard requires a target data type; Oracle defaults to CLOB.
X071, XMLSerialize: Character string serialization and DOCUMENT option	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X072, XMLSerialize: Character string serialization	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X073, XMLSerialize: BLOB serialization and CONTENT option	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X074, XMLSerialize: BLOB serialization and DOCUMENT option	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X075, XMLSerialize: BLOB serialization	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X076, XMLSerialize: VERSION option	Use XMLRoot to set the XML version prior to serialization.
X077, XMLSerialize: explicit ENCODING option	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X080, Namespaces in XML publishing	In the Oracle implementation of XMLElement, XMLAttributes are used to define namespaces (XMLNamespaces is not implemented). However, XMLAttributes is not supported for XMLForest.
X086, XML namespace declarations in XMLTable	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X090, XML document predicate	In Oracle, you can test whether an XML value is a document by using the ISFRAGMENT method.
X096, XMLExists	Oracle fully supports this feature, with this exception: Oracle only supports passing by value, so the keywords BY VALUE are optional at the beginning of the PASSING clause, and not supported on individual arguments.
X120, XML parameters in SQL routines	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X121, XML parameters in external routines	Oracle supports XML values passed to external routines using a non-standard interface.
X141, IS VALID predicate: data drive case	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and supports the data-driven case.
X142, IS VALID predicate: ACCORDING TO clause	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and includes the equivalent of the ACCORDING TO clause.
X143, IS VALID predicate: ELEMENT clause	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and includes the equivalent of the ELEMENT clause.
X144, IS VALID predicate: schema location	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and supports the specification of a schema location for a registered XML Schema.
X145, IS VALID predicate outside check constraints	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and may be used outside check constraints.
X151, IS VALID predicate with DOCUMENT option	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and performs validation equivalent to the DOCUMENT clause. (XMLISVALID does not support "content" validation.)
X156, IS VALID predicate: optional NAMESPACE with ELEMENT clause	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and may be used to validate against an element in any namespace.
X157, IS VALID predicate: NO NAMESPACE with ELEMENT clause	The XMLISVALID method is equivalent to the IS VALID predicate, and may be used to validate against an element in the "no name" namespace.
X160, Basic Information Schema for registered XML Schemas	The Oracle static data dictionary view ALL_XML_SCHEMAS provides a list of the registered XML schemas that are accessible to the current user. The ALL_XML_SCHEMAS.SCHEMA_URL column corresponds to the standard XML_SCHEMAS.XML_SCHEMA_LOCATION column. The target namespace of the registered XML Schemas can be learned by examining ALL_XML_SCHEMAS.SCHEMA. Oracle has no equivalents for the other columns of the standard's XML_SCHEMAS.
X161, Advanced Information Schema for registered XML Schemas	Oracle does not have static data dictionary views corresponding to XML_SCHEMA_NAMESPACES and XML_SCHEMA_ELEMENTS in the standard. However, all the information about registered XML Schemas may be learned by examining the actual XML Schema, which is found in the ALL_XML_SCHEMAS.SCHEMA column. This may also be examined to learn whether a registered XML Schema is nondeterministic, and which of its namespaces and elements are nondeterministic.
X191, XML(DOCUMENT (XMLSCHEMA)) type	Oracle does not support this syntax. However, a column of a table can be constrained by a registered XML Schema, in which case all values of the column will be of XML(DOCUMENT(XMLSCHEMA)) type.
X200, XMLQuery	Oracle fully supports the following elements of this feature: X201, XMLQuery: RETURNING CONTENT X203, XMLQuery: passing a context item X204, XMLQuery: initializing an XQuery variable X206, XMLQuery: NULL ON EMPTY option Oracle only supports passing by value, so the keywords BY VALUE are optional at the beginning of the PASSING clause, and not supported on individual arguments.
X201, XMLQuery: RETURNING CONTENT	See X200.
X203, XMLQuery: passing a context item	See X200.
X204, XMLQuery: initializing an XQuery variable	See X200.
X206, XMLQuery: NULL ON EMPTY option	See X200.
X221, XML passing mechanism BY VALUE	Oracle supports the BY VALUE clause in XMLQuery, XMLTable and XMLExists. In these, BY VALUE is supported as optional syntax at the beginning of an argument list, but not as a modifier on an individual argument or column.
X232, XML(CONTENT(ANY)) type	Oracle does not support this syntax as a type modifier, but the Oracle XMLType supports this data type for transient values. Persistent values are of type XML(DOCUMENT(ANY)), which is a subset of XML(CONTENT(ANY)).
X241, RETURNING CONTENT in XML publishing	Oracle does not support this syntax. In Oracle, the behavior of the publishing functions (XMLAgg, XMLComment, XMLConcat, XMLElement, XMLForest, and XMLPi) is always RETURNING CONTENT.
X251, Persistent XML values of XML(DOCUMENT(UNTYPED)) type	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X252, Persistent values of type XML(DOCUMENT(ANY))	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X256, Persistent values of XML(DOCUMENT(XMLSCHEMA)) type	Oracle fully supports this feature.
X260, XML type, ELEMENT clause	Oracle does not support this syntax. However, a column of a table may be constrained by a top-level element in a registered XML Schema.
X263, XML type: NO NAMESPACE with ELEMENT clause	Oracle does not support this syntax. However, a column of a table may be constrained by a top-level element in the "no name" namespace of a registered XML Schema.
X264, XML type: schema location	Oracle does not support this syntax. However, a column of a table may be constrained by a registered XML Schema that is identified by a schema location.
X271, XMLValidate: data driven case	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate, and supports the data-driven case.
X272, XMLValidate: ACCORDING TO clause	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate, and may be used to specify a particular registered XML Schema.
X273, XMLValidate: ELEMENT clause	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate, and may be used to specify a particular element of a particular registered XML Schema.
X274, XMLValidate: schema location	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate, and may be used to specify a particular registered XML Schema by its schema location URL.
X281, XMLValidate with DOCUMENT option	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate. SCHEMAVALIDATE performs validation only of XML documents (not content).
X286, XMLValidate: NO NAMESPACE with ELEMENT clause	The SCHEMAVALIDATE method is equivalent to XMLValidate, and may be used to specify a particular element in the "no name" namespace of a particular registered XML Schema.
X300, XMLTable	Oracle does not support reverse axes in the column path expressions. Aside from that restriction, Oracle fully supports the following elements of this feature: X086, XML namespace declarations in XMLTable X302, XMLTable with ordinality column X303, XMLTable: column default option X304, XMLTable: passing a context item X305, XMLTable: initializing an XQuery variable Oracle only supports passing by value, so the keywords BY VALUE are optional at the beginning of the PASSING clause, and not supported on individual arguments.
X302, XMLTable with ordinality column	See X300.
X303, XMLTable: column default option	See X300.
X304, XMLTable: passing a context item	See X300.
X305, XMLTable: initializing an XQuery variable	See X300.