To select specific data from an XML file in SQL Server, you can use the built-in functions provided by SQL Server for XML querying. One commonly used function is the `nodes()` method in combination with XQuery. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

```html

How to select specific data from an XML file in SQL Server

1. Load the XML data into a SQL Server table column using the `xml` data type.
2. Use the `nodes()` method in conjunction with XQuery to shred the XML and extract the specific data you need.
3. Write a SQL query that includes the `nodes()` method to retrieve the desired data. For example:

       
       SELECT
           XMLColumn.value('(XPath Expression)[1]','Data Type') AS ColumnName
       FROM
           YourTable
       CROSS APPLY
           XMLColumn.nodes('RootNode/ParentNode') AS Tablename(XMLColumn)
       
       

4. Execute the SQL query to retrieve the specific data from the XML file stored in the SQL Server table.

By following these steps and using the appropriate XQuery expressions, you can effectively select specific data from an XML file in SQL Server.

```

By using the `nodes()` method along with XQuery in your SQL queries, you can efficiently extract and manipulate the data within XML files stored in SQL Server tables. This approach allows for precise selection and retrieval of the desired information from the XML data.