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Query Languages For XML: Xpath Xquery XSLT (Not Being Covered Today!)

This document discusses query languages for XML, including XPath, XQuery, and XSLT. It provides an overview of each language and their common querying tasks. XPath is used for navigation, selection, and extraction of XML values. XQuery is a strongly typed query language that can query XML to XML and supports features like FLWR expressions, joins, and conditional expressions. The document also provides examples of XML data and queries in each language.

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23 views19 pages

Query Languages For XML: Xpath Xquery XSLT (Not Being Covered Today!)

This document discusses query languages for XML, including XPath, XQuery, and XSLT. It provides an overview of each language and their common querying tasks. XPath is used for navigation, selection, and extraction of XML values. XQuery is a strongly typed query language that can query XML to XML and supports features like FLWR expressions, joins, and conditional expressions. The document also provides examples of XML data and queries in each language.

Uploaded by

raw.junk
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Query Languages for XML

XPath
XQuery
XSLT (not being covered today!)

(Slides courtesy Wenfei Fan, Univ Edinburgh and Bell Labs)

QSX (LN 3)

Common Querying Tasks


Filter, select XML values

Navigation, selection, extraction


Merge, integrate values from multiple XML sources

Joins, aggregation
Transform XML values from one schema to another

XML construction

QSX (LN 3)

Query Languages
XPath

Common language for navigation, selection, extraction


Used in XSLT, XQuery, XML Schema, . . .
XQuery 1.0: XML XML

Strongly-typed query language


Large-scale database access
Safety/correctness of operations on data
XSLT: XML XML, HTML, Text

Loosely-typed scripting language


Format XML in HTML for display in browser
Highly tolerant of variability/errors in data

QSX (LN 3)

XML data: Running example


XML input: www.a.b/bib.xml
<book year=1996>
<title> HTML </title>
<author> <last> Lee </last> <first> T. </first></author>
<author> <last> Smith</last> <first>C.</first></author>
<publisher> Addison-Wesley </publisher>
<price> 59.99 </price>
</book>
<book year=2003>
<title> WMD </title>
<author> <last> Bush</last> <first> G.</first></author>
<publisher> white house </publisher>
</book>

QSX (LN 3)

DTD
<!ELEMENT

bib

(book*) >

<!ELEMENT

book

(title, (author+ | editor+),


publisher?, price?) >

<!ATTLIST

book

year

CDATA

<!ELEMENT

author (last, first)>

<!ELEMENT

editor

<!ELEMENT

publisher (#PCDATA) >

#required >

(last, first, affiliation)>

QSX (LN 3)

Data model
Node-labeled, ordered tree
bib

book

book

title author author publisher phone @year

last

first

last

first

@year title author publisher

last

QSX (LN 3)

first

XPath
W3C standard: www.w3.org/TR/xpath
Navigating an XML tree and finding parts of the tree (node

selection and value extraction)


Given an XML tree T and a context node n, an XPath query Q
returns
the set of nodes reachable via Q from the node n in T if Q
is a unary query
truth value indicating whether Q is true at n in T if Q is a
Boolean query.
Implementations: XALAN, SAXON, Berkeley DB XML, Monet

XML freeware, which you can play with


A major element of XSLT, XQuery and XML Schema

QSX (LN 3)

XPath constructs
XPath query Q:
Tree traversal: downward, upward, sideways
Relational/Boolean expressions: qualifiers (predicates)
Functions: aggregation (e.g., count), string functions
//author[last=Bush]
//book[author/last=Bush]/title | //book[author/last=Blair]/title
bib
book

book

title author author publisher phone @year

last

first

last

first

@year title author publisher


last

QSX (LN 3)

first

Downward traversal
Syntax:
Q ::= . |
q ::= Q |

| @l
Q op c

| Q/Q

Q|Q

| q and q

| //Q
q or q

| /Q

Q[q]

| not(q)

.: self, the current node


l: either a tag (label) or *: wildcard that matches any label
@l: attribute
/, |: concatenation (child), union
//: descendants or self, recursion
[q]: qualifier (filter, predicate)

op: =, !=, <=, <, >, >=, >


c: constant
and, or, not(): conjunction, disjunction, negation
Existential semantics: /bib/book[author/last=Bush]
QSX (LN 3)

Examples:
parent/child: /bib/book
ancestor//descendant: bib//last, //last
wild card:

bib/book/*

attributes:

bib/book/@year

attributes with wild cards: //book/@*


union: editor | author

Are book/author and //author equivalent at context nodes (1) root,


(2) book, (3) author?
bib
book

book

title author author publisher phone @year

last

first

last

first

@year title author publisher

QSX (LN 3)last

first

10

Filters (qualifiers)
//book[price]/title

-- titles of books with a price

//book[@year > 1991]/title

-- titles of books published after

1991
//book[title and author and not(price)]/title

titles of books with authors, title but no price


//book[author/last = Bush]/title

titles of books with an author whose last name is Bush


//book[author or editor]/title

titles of books with either an author or an editor


Existential semantics:
What is /[//@id]?

/[//[not(@id)]]?

/[not(//[not(@id))]] ?

QSX (LN 3)

11

Upward traversal
Syntax:
Q ::=

...

| ../Q

| ancestor ::Q

ancestor-or-self::Q

../: parent
ancestor, ancestor-or-self: recursion

Example:
//author[../title = WMD]/last

find the last names of authors of books with the title WMD
ancestor :: book[//last=Bush]

find book ancestors with Bush as its last descendant


Are the following equivalent to each other (context node: a book)?
../book/author,

./author

QSX (LN 3)

12

Sideways
Syntax:
Q ::=

...

following-sibling ::Q

preceding-sibling::Q

following-sibling: the right siblings


preceding-sibling: the left siblings
position function (starting from 1): e.g., //author[position( ) < 2]

Example:
following-sibling :: book [//last=Bush]

find the books that are right siblings and are written by Bush
preceding-sibling :: book[//last=Bush]

find the books that are left siblings and are written by Bush

QSX (LN 3)

13

Query Languages for XML

XPath
XQuery
XSLT

QSX (LN 3)

14

XQuery
W3C working draft www.w3.org/TR/xquery
Functional, strongly typed query language: Turing-complete
XQuery = XPath +

for-let-where-return (FLWR) ~ SQLs SELECT-FROM-WHERE


Sort-by

XML construction (Transformation)


Operators on types (Compile & run-time type tests)
+ User-defined functions
Modularize large queries
Process recursive data
+ Strong typing
Enforced statically or dynamically
Implementation: GALAX, SAXON

http://www-db.research.bell-labs.com/galax/
QSX (LN 3)
http://www.saxonica.com

15

FLWR Expressions
For, Let, Where, OrderBy, return
Q1: Find titles and authors of all books published by AddisonWesley after 1991.
<answer>{
for $book in /bib/book
where $book/@year > 1991 and $book/publisher=Addison-Wesley
return

<book>
<title> {$book/title } </title>,
for $author in $book/author return
<author> {$author } </author>
</book>

}</answer>
for loop; $x: variable
where: condition test; selection

QSX
3)its value
return: evaluate an expression
and(LN
return

16

join
Find books that cost more at Amazon than at BN
<answer>{
let $amazon := doc(http://www.amozon.com/books.xml),
$bn := doc(http://www.BN.com/books.xml)
for

$a in $amozon/books/book,
$b in $bn/books/book

where

$a/isbn = $b/isbn

and

$a/price > $b/price

return <book> {$a/title, $a/price, $b/price } <book>


}</answer>
let clause
join: of two documents

QSX (LN 3)

17

Conditional expression
Q2: Find all book titles, and prices where available
<answer>{
for $book in /bib/book
return <book>
<title> {$book/title } </title>,
{ if $book[price]
then <price> {$book/price } </price>
else ( ) }
</book>
}</answer>

QSX (LN 3)

18

Summary and Review


Query languages for XML
XPath: navigating an XML tree
XQuery: XML query language

Very powerful (as opposed to relational algebra); however, query


processing/optimization is hard open issue!
For thought:
Write queries on the school document you created, using

XPath, XSLT and XQuery; display the query answers in HTML


Find some queries in XPath, XSLT and XQuery that are not

expressible in SQL, even when relational data is considered


(i.e., relational data represented in a canonical form in XML)

QSX (LN 3)

19

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