Link Table Versus XML Column For One-to-many Relationship

I am designing a database schema where several tables have one-to-many relationships to records in other tables. One way to implement it is to create a link table for each pair of tables that have a relationship:





identity
Table1_ID
Table2_ID

1
12
9

2
12
15

3
18
42With the SQL 2005 support for the XML data type, there is the possibility of storing the IDs in an XML column. The XML stored with a record (equivalent to record 12 from the above example) might look like this:

<Links>
<Table2_LinkType>
<ID>9</ID>

<ID>15</ID>
</Table2_LinkType>
<Table8_LinkType>

. . .

</Table8_LinkType>
</Links>The XML column method has the advantage of not requiring that a separate table be created but does not enforce referential integrity. The link table method has the advantage of allowing constraints to enforce referential integrity but has the disadvantage of requiring the creation of a separate table for each pair of tables having a relationship and joining to an additional table has performance implications. Implementing standard Add, List and Delete operations for the link table method is straightforward. As a test and to familiarize myself with the new XML features, I created Set, List and Delete stored procedures for the XML method. Both methods will work.



In deciding which method to go with are there any other issues I should be considering besides database integrity, complexity and possible performance issues?
From the standpoint of best practices and coding standards is one method preferred over the other?
Here is some additional information. The data set I will be working with has table sizes numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Any given record will only be linked to at most a half-dozen records in any other table.

I searched on-line for information and I was able to find plenty of good articles discussing how to use the new XML data type in SQL. However, I was not able to find any information on when not to use the XML data type over equivalent joined-table methods.