>>Actually XML conversion and white space treatment in general is a big problem if you want to maintain data integrity. Real easy to lose carriage returns in strings in particular as XML turns all CR/LF to CHR(10)s which then requires manual fixups. Especially bad for memo type data from databases especially with XmlAdapter/XmlToCursor.
I agree that loading big blocks of text into an XML segment can turn real bad, especially when you encounter one of the non-MS XML implementations that set maximum segment size of as little as 32Kb. ;-)
But what about the OP's example of an array of integers and strings with email address given as a sample? I thought that the XML for that sort of array would be lightweight and fairly trouble-free... and maybe even overkill, since a delimited string would be very easy at both ends, even if some munging is needed.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
