MonetDB/XQuery: a fast XQuery processor powered by a relational engine

Relational XQuery systems try to re-use mature relational data management infrastructures to create fast and scalable XML database technology. This paper describes the main features, key contributions, and lessons learned while implementing such a system. Its architecture consists of (i) a range-based encoding of XML documents into relational tables, (ii) a compilation technique that translates XQuery into a basic relational algebra, (iii) a restricted (order) property-aware peephole relational query optimization strategy, and (iv) a mapping from XML update statements into relational updates. Thus, this system implements all essential XML database functionalities (rather than a single feature) such that we can learn from the full consequences of our architectural decisions. While implementing this system, we had to extend the state-of-theart with a number of new technical contributions, such as looplifted staircase join and efficient relational query evaluation strategies for XQuery t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: SIGMOD
• Authors: Peter A. Boncz, Torsten Grust, Maurice van Keulen, Stefan Manegold, Jan Rittinger, Jens Teubner
• Keywords: Database, Peephole Relational Query, Relational Xquery Processing, Relational XQuery Systems, SIGMOD 2006