---
title: "Server-side XML Formatting (SQLXML)"
description: Learn about the server-side XML formatting of documents generated by SQLXML 4.0 queries executed against a Microsoft SQL Server database.
ms.date: "03/14/2017"
ms.prod: sql
ms.prod_service: "database-engine, sql-database"
ms.reviewer: ""
ms.technology: xml
ms.topic: "reference"
helpviewer_keywords: 
  - "FOR XML clause, formatting"
  - "server-side XML formatting"
ms.assetid: ae9ea068-0857-4505-a3b2-f53d256b644c
author: rothja
ms.author: jroth
ms.custom: "seo-lt-2019"
monikerRange: "=azuresqldb-current||>=sql-server-2016||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current"
---
# Server-side XML Formatting (SQLXML 4.0)
[!INCLUDE [SQL Server Azure SQL Database](../../../includes/applies-to-version/sql-asdb.md)]
  This topic provides information about formatting XML documents on the server side from the rowsets that are generated by queries executed against a database in Microsoft [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)].  
  
 In [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)], you can store and retrieve XML documents to and from database tables. To retrieve an XML document, use the FOR XML query extension in a SELECT query.  
  
 For example, assume a client application executes a command against [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] that consists of the following [!INCLUDE[tsql](../../../includes/tsql-md.md)] query:  
  
```  
SELECT FirstName, LastName  
FROM   Person.Contact  
FOR XML AUTO  
```  
  
 The server executes the query in two steps. First, the server executes this SELECT statement:  
  
```  
SELECT FirstName, LastName  
FROM   Person.Contact  
```  
  
 Then the server applies the FOR XML transformation to the generated rowset. The resulting XML is then sent to the client as a one-column rowset. In this documentation, this process is referred to as server-side XML formatting.  
  
 On the server side, you can specify the following modes with a FOR XML clause:  
  
-   RAW  
  
-   AUTO  
  
-   EXPLICIT  
  
 For more information about the FOR XML clause, see [Constructing XML Using FOR XML](../../../relational-databases/xml/for-xml-sql-server.md).  
  
## See Also  
 [Architecture of Client-side and Server-side XML Formatting (SQLXML 4.0)](../../../relational-databases/sqlxml/formatting/architecture-of-client-side-and-server-side-xml-formatting-sqlxml-4-0.md)   
 [Client-side XML Formatting (SQLXML 4.0)](../../../relational-databases/sqlxml/formatting/client-side-xml-formatting-sqlxml-4-0.md)   
 [FOR XML (SQL Server)](../../../relational-databases/xml/for-xml-sql-server.md)