Union in SQL while creating XML file

Question

I got some problem with my SQL query which create a XML file. I want to do UNION it this query but it doesn't work.

(SELECT 1 AS "ns0:kindOfItem",
code AS "ns0:wholeCode",
REPLACE(weight, ',', '.') AS "ns0:weight",
1 AS "ns0:ammountOfNumbers",
(SELECT price AS "ns0:value",
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:sendedItems'), TYPE),
(SELECT 
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:present'), TYPE)
FROM [PL].[dbo].[dk_documents] where id in (1,2,3)
FOR XML PATH('test'))

This query works fine but when I try to do UNION like here:

(SELECT 1 AS "ns0:kindOfItem",
code AS "ns0:wholeCode",
REPLACE(weight, ',', '.') AS "ns0:weight",
1 AS "ns0:ammountOfNumbers",
(SELECT price AS "ns0:value",
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:sendedItems'), TYPE),
(SELECT 
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:present'), TYPE)
FROM [PL].[dbo].[dk_documents] where id in (1,2,3)

UNION

(SELECT 1 AS "ns0:kindOfItem",
code AS "ns0:wholeCode",
REPLACE(weight, ',', '.') AS "ns0:weight",
1 AS "ns0:ammountOfNumbers",
(SELECT price AS "ns0:value",
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:sendedItems'), TYPE),
(SELECT 
'EUR' as "ns0:currency"
FOR XML PATH ('ns0:present'), TYPE)
FROM [PL2].[dbo].[dk_documents] where id in (1,2,3)
FOR XML PATH('test'))

This query give me an error:

The data type xml cannot be used as an operand to the UNION, INTERSECT or EXCEPT operators because it is not comparable.

Answer 1

Using UNION will remove duplicate values for the result so SQL Server has to compare the XML from the first part with the second part and decide if they are equal and that is not implemented for XML.

You probably don't want the duplicate check so change to UNION ALL instead and it will work fine for XML data as well.