could you post a screenshot how did you configure Query XML action?

and how does your input looks like?

usually XML decode need to be done in a separate action/step before query itself.

Should I split these two actions?

ok,  imho this should work.

so, the question is what exactly your FormData contains and whether your xpath does reflect this content.

if you try to parse your FormData content in xpath builder, does it recognize the structure and is it there what you expect?

please, explain as well what you mean with "but the output data doesn't change".

comparing to what your output doesn't change?

The output that I see is the same no matter if I enter the xpath query or not, that's i what I meant by "but the output data doesn't change".

Also the formdata variable is supposed to hold everything on the form right? When I look at the content of it it looks cut off.

The xml is not well formed, I couldn't even parse it manually using a xpath builder.

The output that I see is the same no matter if I enter the xpath query or not, that's i what I meant by "but the output data doesn't change".

that might mean that your xpath + request to get "outer xml" address whole content of FormData.

or maybe you just haven't spot small difference (missing 1-2 xml levels/tags) since you noted 'content is not very readable'

hard to say it definitely without seeing it.

Also the formdata variable is supposed to hold everything on the form right?

I'm not sure, I haven't seen it nowhere documented.

I've seen some blogposts that read out some data  from this hidden column, but I'm not sure whether it's reliable in long term.

I would suggest to create multiline text field in list and connect repeating section in form to that field. that way you get a field in list that contains just pure repeating section data, and as well you can see the content in a list view.

When I look at the content of it it looks cut off. The xml is not well formed, I couldn't even parse it manually using a xpath builder.

where do you look on it resp. where do you take content of FormData column from?

have you written it to history log and check it there? then you see just first 255chars of whole content...

follow the above suggestion.

thanks for your help. finally I made some progress.

I was able to get the details from repeating the section in the multiple lines text field.

However it copies all the fields as plain text,I guess i need to work on this text now to retrieve the values from it.

have you changed return result to text?

if you used inner/outer XML option (as on your screenshot above) you should get XML.

It is set like that, still it returns like that.

I'm emailing the value to myself, is that the only to debug this?

could you post a screenshot what exactly do you get and describe what would you like to get?

Vadim Tabakman wrote a complete blog about this that includes a sample form, UDA, and workflow that calls the UDA.  You can find this here:  http://www.vadimtabakman.com/nintex-formsworkflow-parsing-repeating-section-data.aspx​. Also, Ayman El-Hattab presented a very interesting talk about this and other aspects of manipulating data in repeating sections at the Inspirex conference.

‌ did you resolve this in the end?  are you able to elaborate on the solution if so?