Convert SQL to XML – Complete Guide

Turn your SQL query results into XML – the classic format for data exchange, SOAP APIs, and configuration files. Our SQL to XML Converter supports all major SQL dialects and gives you full control over element naming, attributes, and structure.

How It Works

You provide a SQL SELECT query. Our engine executes it and transforms each row into an XML element. You can choose between element-based or attribute-based representation, customize root and row tags, and handle NULLs and special characters.

Supported SQL Dialects

Code Example & Output

-- Input SQL (MySQL)
SELECT id, product_name, price FROM inventory WHERE quantity > 0;

-- Output XML (element-based)


  
    1
    Laptop
    999.99
  
  
    2
    Mouse
    19.99
  


-- Output XML (attribute-based)


  
  

Advanced Options

• Root element name: custom (default "root")
• Row element name: custom (default "row")
• Representation: elements or attributes
• NULL handling: omit element, empty element, or self-closing
• CDATA wrapper: wrap text fields in CDATA (preserves special chars)
• XML declaration: include or omit
• Encoding: UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1

Use Cases

• Generate XML feeds for legacy systems or SOAP APIs
• Export data for XML-based databases (eXist, BaseX)
• Create configuration files from SQL tables
• Data exchange between partners requiring XML format
• Backup data in a human-readable hierarchical format

Special characters like <, >, & are automatically escaped to < > &. For large result sets, the tool streams XML to avoid memory issues. You can also combine multiple SELECT queries into a single XML file with multiple root-level elements.

Example with CDATA: If your text contains HTML or XML markup, enable CDATA to preserve it without escaping. This is useful for storing formatted content.

No registration, no watermarks, completely free.