I would only suggest not trying to put XML into a flat database file in the first place. I’d only ever have it stored in the streamfile that it’s intended to be in. That would be especially true if the data was ever going to be used on any other system, e.g., by a browser or other function on a PC or by a partner system. (If it was always totally generated and consumed on the single system so that I always had full control of the environment and programming, I might use a physical file for limited purposes.)

The effort involved in making the extra steps work for a physical file are usually more than the effort to learn to do it in the natural way.

Tom