Abstract
To extract and restructure information in XML documents, various query languages have been proposed in the past decade. These languages take navigational or pattern-based approach to data extraction and often claim to be declarative. However, declarativeness in them is not as prominent as in SQL because they often exhibit a procedural style in handling heterogeneity and presenting tree-like document structure.
In this paper, a new XML query language called XTQ is proposed to address this challenge. XTQ is a pattern-based language which introduces disjunction as well as conjunction operators in composing tree-like patterns named LXT (Logic XML Tree) for data extraction. LXT can expressively handle heterogeneity common in XML queries. Based on a hierarchically structured pattern with considerate restructuring rules, XTQ deploys a flexible hierarchically grouping mechanism in data construction so that complex tree-like structure can be intuitively presented. Examples from common query request show that XTQ can present XML queries more declaratively than existing studies.
This research is partially supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China under contract No.6082010, the Wuhan ChenGuang Youth Sci.&Tech. Project under contract No.200850731369, and the National Science Foundation of China under contract No.60688201.
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Li, X., Liu, M., Zhang, Y. (2010). Towards a “More Declarative” XML Query Language. In: Bringas, P.G., Hameurlain, A., Quirchmayr, G. (eds) Database and Expert Systems Applications. DEXA 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6262. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15251-1_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15251-1_30
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