Xquery Tutorial
Dan Goldberg & Craig Knoblock University of Southern California
References
XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language
[Link]/TR/xquery/
XML Query Use Cases
[Link]/TR/xmlquery-use-cases
What is XQuery: Katz, 2004. XQuery from the Experts
[Link]
XQuery Tutorial
[Link] [Link]
XQuery Tutorial
[Link]
Example XML Document: [Link]
<bib> <book year="1994"> <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> <author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <publisher>Addison-Wesley</publisher> <price> 65.95</price> </book> <book year="1992"> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> <author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <publisher>Addison-Wesley</publisher> <price>65.95</price> </book>
Example XML Document: [Link]
<book year="2000"> <title>Data on the Web</title> <author><last>Abiteboul</last><first>Serge</first></author> <author><last>Buneman</last><first>Peter</first></author> <author><last>Suciu</last><first>Dan</first></author> <publisher>Morgan Kaufmann Publishers</publisher> <price> 39.95</price> </book> <book year="1999"> <title>The Economics of Technology and Content for Digital TV</title> <editor> <last>Gerbarg</last><first>Darcy</first> <affiliation>CITI</affiliation> </editor> <publisher>Kluwer Academic Publishers</publisher> <price>129.95</price> </book> </bib>
Xquery Overview
Xquery is an expression language
Every statement evaluates to some result
let $x := 5 let $y := 6 return 10*$x+$y Evaluates to 56
Primitive types
Number, boolean, strings, dates, times, durations, and XML types
Nodes and Expressions
Various functions create or return nodes
Document function reads an XML file
doc("[Link] We will use doc([Link]) throughout, but you must use the expansion
Element constructor creates a node:
<doc><par>Blah Blah</par></doc>
Use curly braces to embed Xquery expressions inside an element constructor
Path Expressions
Xquery uses path expressions from Xpath (a W3C standard) Let $b := doc("[Link]") return <result>{$b/bib/book}</result> /book selects the child elements named book /book/author selects the author elements of the toplevel book elements
Path Expressions (cont.)
//book
returns all book elements that appear anywhere in the document
//book[author/last = Stevens]
all book elements with author = Hunter
//book[@year > 1999]
book elements with attribute year > 1999
//book[@pages]
all book elements that have a pages attribute
Advanced Path Expressions
//book/(author | editor) returns all author or editor elements from current node (//book | //collection)[publisher = $pub] books for collections where publisher equals $pub variable
let $d := doc("[Link] let $pub := "Morgan Kaufmann Publishers" return <result>{ ($d//book | $d//collection)[publisher = $pub] }</result>
(//book)[1]/title/text() returns the text nodes of the first book element
FLWOR Expressions
For/Let, Where, Order by, Result Expressions
<html>{ let $d := doc("[Link]") for $b in $d/bib/book where $b[@year > 1998] order by $b/publisher return <book>{$b/title, $b/price, $b/publisher}</book> }</html>
Projection
let $d := doc([Link]") return <result>{$d/bib/book/author}</result>
Return the names of all authors of books =
<result> <author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <author><last>Abiteboul</last><first>Serge</first></author> <author><last>Buneman</last><first>Peter</first></author> <author><last>Suciu</last><first>Dan</first></author> </result>
Project (cont.)
/bib/book/author = =
The same query can also be written as a for loop
for $bk in doc([Link])/bib/book return for $aut in $bk/author return $aut
<author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <author><last>Stevens</last><first>W.</first></author> <author><last>Abiteboul</last><first>Serge</first></author> <author><last>Buneman</last><first>Peter</first></author> <author><last>Suciu</last><first>Dan</first></author>
Selection
Return the titles of all books published before 1997 /bib/book[@year < "1997"]/title = <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title>
Selection (cont.)
Return the titles of all books published before 1997 /bib/book[@year < "1997"]/title = for $bk in doc([Link])/bib/book where $bk/@year < "1997" return $bk/title = <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title>
Selection (cont.)
Return book with the title Data on the Web /bib/book[title = "Data on the Web"] =
<book year="2000"> <title>Data on the Web</title> <author><last>Abiteboul</last><first>Serge</first></author> <author><last>Buneman</last><first>Peter</first></author> <author><last>Suciu</last><first>Dan</first></author> <publisher>Morgan Kaufmann Publishers</publisher> <price> 39.95</price> </book>
Selection (cont.)
Return the price of the book Data on the Web /bib/book[title = "Data on the Web"]/price = <price> 39.95</price> How would you return the book with a price of $39.95?
Selection (cont.)
for $bk in doc([Link])/bib/book where $bk/price = "39.95" return $bk = let $d:= doc("[Link]") return $d/bib/book[price = "39.95"]
=
Return the book with a price of $39.95
<book year="2000"> <title>Data on the Web</title> <author><last>Abiteboul</last><first>Serge</first></author> <author><last>Buneman</last><first>Peter</first></author> <author><last>Suciu</last><first>Dan</first></author> <publisher>Morgan Kaufmann Publishers</publisher> <price> 39.95</price> </book>
Construction
Return year and title of all books published before 1997 for $bk in doc([Link])/bib/book where $bk/@year < "1997" return <book>{ $bk/@year, $bk/title }</book> = <book year="1994"> <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> </book> <book year="1992"> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> </book>
Grouping
Return titles for each author
<result>{ let $d:= doc("[Link]") for $l in distinct-values($d//author/last) return <author name="{$l}"> { $d/bib/book[author/last = $l]/title } </author> }</result>
Grouping Cont.
= <result>
<author name="Stevens"> <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> </author> <author name="Abiteboul"> <title>Data on the Web</title> </author>
</result>
Join
Return the books that cost more at amazon than fatbrain Let $amazon := doc([Link] Let $fatbrain := doc([Link] For $am in $amazon/books/book, $fat in $fatbrain/books/book Where $am/isbn = $fat/isbn and $am/price > $fat/price Return <book>{ $am/title, $am/price, $fat/price }<book>
Functions
Define function reverse ($items) { let $count := count($items) for $i in 0 to $count return $items[$count - $i] } Reverse(1 to 5) Note: (1 to 5) = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Example Query 1
<bib> { for $b in doc("[Link]")/bib/book where $b/publisher = "Addison-Wesley" and $b[@year > 1991] return <book year="{ $b/@year }"> {$b/title} </book> } </bib> What does this do?
Result Query 1
<bib> <book year="1994"> <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> </book> <book year="1992"> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> </book> </bib>
Example Query 2
<results> { for $b in doc("[Link]")/bib/book, $t in $b/title, $a in $b/author/last return <result> { $t } { $a } </result> } </results>
Result Query 2
<results> <result><title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> <last>Stevens </last> </result> <result><title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> <last>Stevens</last> </result> <result><title>Data on the Web</title> <last>Abiteboul</last> </result> <result> <title>Data on the Web</title> <last>Buneman</last> </result> <result><title>Data on the Web</title> <last>Suciu</last> </result> </results>
Example Query 3
<bib> { for $b in doc("[Link]")//book where $b/publisher = "Addison-Wesley" and $b/@year > "1991" order by $b/title return <book> { $b/@year } { $b/title } </book> } </bib>
Example Result 3
<bib> <book year="1992"> <title>Advanced Programming in the Unix environment</title> </book> <book year="1994"> <title>TCP/IP Illustrated</title> </book> </bib>