Import arbitrary XML to SQL Server

Question

Is that possible to parse and import an arbitrary XML file to SQL Server tables using C#?

The XML file can be highly hierarchical.

I have 1 Gb XML-file, I do not know anything about it.

How can I determine what tables it contains, create them at SQL Server and bulk load the data to SQL Server?

Is that possible?

Answer 1

No.

XML and SQL are very, very different things. It is possible to take SQL data an save it into XML, and such SQL-like XML can be converted back to an SQL database, but arbitrary XML that did not originate in an SQL-like system is not likely to be easily convertible to an SQL database schema in any meaningful way.

You could work out an SQL schema that represents generic XML in a key-value type design but it would not be an SQL schema in the traditional meaning of the word.