Columns with a Name Specified as a Wildcard Character

If the column name specified is a wildcard character (*), the content of that column is inserted as if there is no column name specified. If this column is a non-xml type column, the column content is inserted as a text node, as shown in the following example:

SELECT EmployeeID "@EmpID", 
       FirstName "*", 
       MiddleName "*", 
       LastName "*"
FROM   HumanResources.Employee E, Person.Contact C
WHERE  E.EmployeeID = C.ContactID
AND    E.EmployeeID=1
FOR XML PATH

This is the result:

<row EmpID="1">GustavoAchong</row>

If the column is of xml type, the corresponding XML tree is inserted. For example, the following query specifies "*" for the column name that contains the XML returned by the XQuery against the Instructions column.

SELECT 
       ProductModelID,
       Name,
       Instructions.query('declare namespace MI="https://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/07/adventure-works/ProductModelManuInstructions"
                /MI:root/MI:Location 
              ') as "*"
FROM Production.ProductModel
WHERE ProductModelID=7
FOR XML PATH 
go

This is the result. The XML returned by XQuery is inserted without a wrapping element.

<row>
  <ProductModelID>7</ProductModelID>
  <Name>HL Touring Frame</Name>
  <MI:Location LocationID="10">...</MI:Location>
  <MI:Location LocationID="20">...</MI:Location>
...
</row>