The function modifies the XML document of the given source XML tree entity by adding new children to the node specified by the entity. The source entity should be XML tree entity, not "persistent XML" entity. The value of source can be either an element entity or a root entity; source can not be an attribute entity or a leaf entity like text or processing instruction.
The values passed in parameters insertion1... insertionN will be converted into XML nodes according to rules described in section Composing Document Fragments From DOM Function Arguments.
After calling the function, parameter source is still a valid XML entity that points to the modified node. The value passed as source can be used in the rest of caller procedure.
The function returns NULL.
The sample procedure contains two calls of XMLAppendChildren. First call append three children to a node; second call demonstrates how text nodes can be merged.
create procedure XMLAppendChildren_demo() { declare DESCRIPTION varchar (40); declare ENTITY, ent any; result_names (DESCRIPTION, ENTITY); result ('EXAMPLE1', 'Plain appending of some children'); ent := xpath_eval ('//b', xtree_doc ('<a><b>Hello</b></a>')); result ('The document to modify', xpath_eval ('/', ent)); result ('The node to be extended', ent); XMLAppendChildren (ent, xtree_doc ('<comma/>'), ' world', xtree_doc ('<excl/>')); result ('The changed document', xpath_eval ('/', ent)); result ('The original entity is updated', ent); result ('EXAMPLE2', 'Appending that cause concatenation of text nodes'); result_names (DESCRIPTION, ENTITY); ent := xpath_eval ('//b', xtree_doc ('<a><b>Hello</b></a>')); result ('The document to modify', xpath_eval ('/', ent)); result ('The node to be extended', ent); XMLAppendChildren (ent, ', ', ' world', '!'); result ('The changed document', xpath_eval ('/', ent)); result ('The original entity is updated', ent); } Done. -- 00000 msec. XMLAppendChildren_demo() DESCRIPTION ENTITY VARCHAR VARCHAR _______________________________________________________________________________ EXAMPLE1 Plain appending of some children The document to modify <a><b>Hello</b></a> The node to be extended <b>Hello</b> The changed document <a><b>Hello<comma /> world<excl /></b></a> The original entity is updated <b>Hello<comma /> world<excl /></b> EXAMPLE2 Appending that cause concatenation of text nodes The document to modify <a><b>Hello</b></a> The node to be extended <b>Hello</b> The changed document <a><b>Hello, world!</b></a> The original entity is updated <b>Hello, world!</b> 10 Rows. -- 00000 msec.