How to use FOR XML in Subqueries?

Question

I'd like to return the below xml:

<ResultDetails>
<Node1>hello</Node1>
<Sites>
<Site><SiteId>1</SiteId></Site>
<Site><SiteId>2</SiteId></Site>
</Sites>
</ResultDetails>

I wrote the below code but doesn't work:

SELECT 'hello' AS Node1,    
    (SELECT TOP 2 SiteId
     FROM [dbo].[Sites]
       FOR XML PATH('Site')) AS Sites
FOR XML PATH('ResultDetails')

but it returns:

<ResultDetails>
  <row>
    <Node1>hello</Node1>
    <Sites>&lt;Site&gt;&lt;siteId&gt;102&lt;/siteId&gt;&lt;/Site&gt;&lt;Site&gt;&lt;siteId&gt;1&lt;/siteId&gt;&lt;/Site&gt;</Sites>
  </row>
</ResultDetails>

What sql should I write?

thanks,

Answer 1

You need to add the TYPE modifier to your inner query:

SELECT
    'hello' AS Node1
    , (
        SELECT TOP 2 SiteId 
            FROM [dbo].[Sites] 
        FOR XML PATH('Site'), TYPE
    ) AS Sites 
FOR XML PATH('ResultDetails')