All whitespace is preserved, and is significant in queries.
select xmlextract("/a[@atr=' this or that ' ]", "<a atr=' this or that '><b> which or what </b></a>") ------------------------------------------------- <a atr=" this or that "> <b> which or what </b></a> select xmlextract("/a[b=' which or what ']", "<a atr=' this or that '><b> which or what </b></a>") --------------------------------------------- <a atr=' this or that '> <b> which or what </b></a>