Torsten Grust, Manuel Mayr, Jan Rittinger, Sherif Sakr, Jens Teubner. A SQL: 1999 code generator for the pathfinder xquery compiler. In Chee Yong Chan, Beng Chin Ooi, Aoying Zhou, editors, Proceedings of the ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Beijing, China, June 12-14, 2007. pages 1162-1164, ACM, 2007. [doi]
The Pathfinder XQuery compiler has been enhanced by a new code generator that can target any SQL:1999-compliant relational database system (RDBMS). This code generator marks an important next step towards truly relational XQuery processing, a branch of database technology that aims to turn RDBMSs into highly efficient XML and XQuery processors without the need to invade the relational database kernel. Pathfinder, a retargetable front-end compiler, translates input XQuery expressions into DAG-shaped relational algebra plans. The code generator then turns these plans into sequences of either SQL:1999 statements or view definitions which jointly implement the (sometimes intricate) XQuery semantics. In a sense, this demonstration thus lets relational algebra and SQL swap their traditional roles in database query processing. The result is a code generator that (1) supports an almost complete dialect of XQuery, (2) can target any RDBMS with a SQL:1999 language interface, and (3) exhibits quite promising performance characteristics when run against high-volume XML data as well as complex XQuery expressions.