Parse a varchar column containing XML like data into row wise

i have a column in table which contain data like XML,i would like to get data in rows.

My table data as-

select printDataColumn from Mytable 

It returns value-

  <PrintData>
    <Line1>.MERCHANT ID: *****4005</Line1>
    <Line2>.CLERK ID: ADMIN</Line2>
    <Line3>.</Line3>
    <Line4>.                VOID SALE</Line4>
    <Line5>.</Line5>
    <Line6>.VISA                   ************0006</Line6>
    <Line7>.ENTRY METHOD: SWIPED</Line7>
    <Line8>.DATE: 03/05/2019  TIME: 16:57:20</Line8>
    <Line9>.</Line9>
    <Line10>.INVOICE: 1551785225020</Line10>
    <Line11>.REFERENCE: 1008</Line11>
    <Line12>.AUTH CODE: 08354A</Line12>
    <Line13>.</Line13>
    <Line14>.AMOUNT                       USD$ 1.14</Line14>
    <Line15>.                            ==========</Line15>
    <Line16>.TOTAL                        USD$ 1.14</Line16>
    <Line17>.</Line17>
    <Line18>.          APPROVED - THANK YOU</Line18>
    <Line19>.</Line19>
    <Line20>.I AGREE TO PAY THE ABOVE TOTAL AMOUNT</Line20>
    <Line21>.ACCORDING TO CARD ISSUER AGREEMENT</Line21>
    <Line22>.(MERCHANT AGREEMENT IF CREDIT VOUCHER)</Line22>
    <Line23>.</Line23>
    <Line24>.</Line24>
    <Line25>.</Line25>
    <Line26>.x_______________________________________</Line26>
    <Line27>.           Merchant Signature</Line27>
    <Line28>.</Line28>
  </PrintData>

but i want to use this information in another way like that

MERCHANT ID: *****4005
CLERK ID: ADMIN

                  SALE

AMEX                    ***********1006
ENTRY METHOD: CHIP
DATE: 03/07/2019  TIME: 14:37:23

INVOICE: 1551949638173
REFERENCE: 1005
AUTH CODE: 040749. . . .  .and so on.

any help is appreciable.

Answer

Besides the fact, that it always is a good idea to use the appropriate type to store your data, you can use a cast on the fly to use your xml-like-data with XML methods:

DECLARE @tbl TABLE(ID INT IDENTITY,PrintData VARCHAR(4000));
INSERT INTO @tbl VALUES
('<PrintData>
    <Line1>.MERCHANT ID: *****4005</Line1>
    <Line2>.CLERK ID: ADMIN</Line2>
    <Line3>.</Line3>
    <Line4>.                VOID SALE</Line4>
    <!-- more lines -->
  </PrintData>');

  SELECT t.ID
        ,A.Casted.value(N'(/PrintData/Line1/text())[1]','nvarchar(max)') AS Line1
  FROM @tbl t
  CROSS APPLY(SELECT CAST(t.PrintData AS XML)) A(Casted);

In this case I use CROSS APPLY to add a column A.Casted to the result set, which is a row-wise casted XML.

This will break, in cases of invalid XML (of course). You might try TRY_CAST instead. This would return NULL, but will hide data errors…

Some more background
The cast to XML is a rather expensive operation. Doing this whenever you want to read out of your data is some heavy load for your server. Furthermore, using VARCHAR is prone to two major errors:

• If there are foreign characters you might get question marks
• If the XML is not valid, you will not see it – until you use it.

If possible, try to change the table’s design to use native XML.

And one more hint
It is a bad approach to name-number elements (same for columns). Instead of <Line1><Line2><Line3> better use <Line nr="1"><Line nr="2"><Line nr="3">…