XQuery Training Course

XQuery Introduction

• What Is XQuery?
• Path Expressions
• FLWOR (for, let, where, order by, return)
• Functions
• Joins

XQuery Basics

• The Design of the XQuery Language
• XQuery in Context
• Processing Queries
• The XQuery Data Model
• Types
• Namespaces

Expressions

• Categories of Expressions
• Keywords and Names
• Whitespace in Queries
• Literals
• Variables
• Function Calls
• Comments
• Evaluation Order
• Comparison Expressions
• "if-then-else" Expressions
• "and/or" Expressions

Paths

• Path Expressions
• Predicates
• Dynamic Paths
• Input Documents
• Context

Constructors

• Including Elements and Attributes from the Input Document
• Direct Constructors
• Computed Constructors

Selecting and Joining Using FLWORs

• Selecting with Path Expressions
• FLWOR Expressions
• Quantified Expressions
• Selecting Distinct Values
• Joins

Sorting and Grouping

• Sorting in XQuery
• Grouping
• Aggregating Values

Functions

• Built-in Functions
• User-Defined Functions

Advanced Queries

• Copying Input Elements with Modifications
• Working with Positions and Sequence Numbers
• Combining Results
• Using Intermediate XML Documents

XML Namespace

• XQuery and a Namespace
• Namespace Declaration

Types

• The XQuery Type System
• The Built-in Types
• Types, Nodes, and Atomic Values
• Type Checking in XQuery
• Automatic Type Conversions
• Sequence Types
• Constructors and Casting

Prolog and Module

• Structure of a Query: Prolog and Body
• Assembling Queries from Multiple Modules
• Variable Declarations
• Declaring External Functions

Using Schemas

• What Is a Schema?
• Why Use Schemas with Queries?
• W3C XML Schema: A Brief Overview
• In-Scope Schema Definitions
• Schema Validation and Type Assignment
• Sequence Types and Schemas

Static Typing

• What Is Static Typing?
• The Typeswitch Expression
• The Treat Expression
• Type Declarations
• The zero-or-one, one-or-more, and exactly-one Functions

Principles of Query Design

• Query Design:
  • Clarity
  • Modularity
  • Robustness
• Error Handling
• Performance

Numbers

• Constructing and comparing Numeric Values
• Arithmetic Operations
• Functions on Numbers

Strings

• xs:string Type
• Constructing, comparing and manipulating Strings
• Substrings, length
• Concatenating and Splitting Strings
• Whitespace
• Internationalization

Regular Expressions

• The Structure of a Regular Expression
• Representing Individual Characters
• Representing Any Character
• Representing Groups of Characters
• Character Class Expressions
• Reluctant Quantifiers
• Anchors
• Back-References
• Using Flags
• Using Sub-Expressions with Replacement Variables

Date and Time Types

• Extracting Components of Dates, Times, and Durations
• Using Arithmetic Operators on Dates, Times, and Durations
• The Date Component Types

Qualified Names

• Working with Qualified Names
• URIs, IDs

Other XML Components

• Documents
• Text Nodes
• Comments
• PI (Processing Instructions)
• XML Entity
• CDATA

XQuery-Related Standards

• XML Serialization
• XQueryX
• XQuery Update Facility
• Full-Text Search
• XQJ - XQuery API for Java

Implementation-Specific Features

• XML Version
• Setting the Query Context
• Option Declarations and Extension Expressions
• Serialization Parameters

XQuery vs. SQL

• XML Data vs. Relational Data
• SQL Syntax vs. XQuery Syntax
• SQL and XQuery

XQuery vs. XSLT

• XQuery and XPath
• XQuery vs. XSLT