If you only occasionally dabble in XML and XPath utilizing the XML data type in SQL Server can be a bit daunting. I found it very useful in passing parameters to stored procedures containing object graphs. The same can be accomplished the table parameter if you only have a list of one type of objects, but if you need to pass an object graph of parent/child objects of different types, using XML will be your best bet.Below I demonstrate how one could represent a list of Contact objects in an XML document and subsequently access the data via a select statement. the @Contacts parameter could be used as a parameter to a stored procedure if you’re running SQL 2005 or higher. Use your imagination for the rest.[sourcecode language="sql"]declare @Contacts xmlset @Contacts = '<root><Contact><ContactID>1</ContactID><Email>contact1@contact1.com</Email></Contact><Contact><ContactID>2</ContactID><Email>contact2@contact2.com</Email></Contact><Contact><ContactID>3</ContactID><Email>contact3@contact3.com</Email></Contact></root>'select ContactID = Contact.value('ContactID[1]', 'int'), Email = Contact.value('Email[1]', 'varchar(255)')from @Contacts.nodes('root/Contact') as Contacts([Contact])[/sourcecode]