That will work though with SQLCLR around, that should be choice #2 IMO for 3
reasons
a) Performance
b) The fact that you must clean up after sp_xml_preparedocument <-- (or
something like that).
c) You have to be careful in XML serializing the dataset, with the changes
inclusive.
Anyway, yes that will also work, so thanks for adding to the list.
BTW, if you're on .NET 1.1/SQL2k, then OPENXML is about your only choice.