Xquery Tutorial

XQUERY TUTORIAL
Introduction to XQuery
XQuery is to XML what SQL is to database tables.
XQuery is designed to query XML data - not just XML files, but anything that can appear as XML, including
databases.
What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
• HTML / XHTML
• XML / XML Namespaces
• XPath
What is XQuery?
• XQuery is the language for querying XML data
• XQuery for XML is like SQL for databases
• XQuery is built on XPath expressions
• XQuery is supported by all the major database engines (IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, etc.)
• XQuery is a W3C Recommendation
• XQuery is About Querying XML
XQuery is a language for finding and extracting elements and attributes from XML documents.
Here is an example of a question that XQuery could solve:

"Select all CD records with a price less than $10 from the CD collection stored in the XML document called
cd_catalog.xml"
XQuery and XPath
XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 share the same data model and support the same functions and operators. If you
have already studied XPath you will have no problems with understanding XQuery.
You can read more about XPath in our XPath Tutorial.
XQuery - Examples of Use

XQuery can be used to:
• Extract information to use in a Web Service
• Generate summary reports
• Transform XML data to XHTML
• Search Web documents for relevant information
• XQuery is a W3C Recommendation
XQuery is compatible with several W3C standards, such as XML, Namespaces, XSLT, XPath, and XML
Schema.
XQuery 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation January 23, 2007.
XQuery Example
The XML Example Document

We will use the following XML document in the examples below.
"books.xml":
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<bookstore>
<book category="COOKING">
<title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>30.00</price>
</book>
<book category="CHILDREN">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
1
</book>
<book category="WEB">
<title lang="en">XQuery Kick Start</title>
<author>James McGovern</author>
<author>Per Bothner</author>
<author>Kurt Cagle</author>
<author>James Linn</author>
<author>Vaidyanathan Nagarajan</author>
<year>2003</year>
</book>
<book category="WEB">
<title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
<author>Erik T. Ray</author>
<year>2003</year>
</book>
</bookstore>
View the "books.xml" file in your browser.
How to Select Nodes From "books.xml"?
Functions
• XQuery uses functions to extract data from XML documents.
• The doc() function is used to open the "books.xml" file:doc("books.xml")
Path Expressions
XQuery uses path expressions to navigate through elements in an XML document.
The following path expression is used to select all the title elements in the "books.xml"
file:doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book/title
(/bookstore selects the bookstore element, /book selects all the book elements under the bookstore element,
and /title selects all the title elements under each book element)
The XQuery above will extract the following:

Predicates
XQuery uses predicates to limit the extracted data from XML documents.
The following predicate is used to select all the book elements under the bookstore element that have a
price element with a value that is less than 30:doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book[price<30]
The XQuery above will extract the following:

<book category="CHILDREN">
<year>2005</year>
</book>
XQuery FLWOR Expressions

We will use the "books.xml" document in the examples below (same XML file as in the previous chapter).
How to Select Nodes From "books.xml" With FLWOR
2
Look at the following path expression:
doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book[price>30]/title
The expression above will select all the title elements under the book elements that are under the bookstore
element that have a price element with a value that is higher than 30.
The following FLWOR expression will select exactly the same as the path expression above:for $x in
doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book
where $x/price>30
return $x/title
The result will be:

With FLWOR you can sort the result:for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book

where $x/price>30
order by $x/title
return $x/title
FLWOR is an acronym for "For, Let, Where, Order by, Return".

The for clause selects all book elements under the bookstore element into a variable called $x.
The where clause selects only book elements with a price element with a value greater than 30.
The order by clause defines the sort-order. Will be sort by the title element.
The return clause specifies what should be returned. Here it returns the title elements.
The result of the XQuery expression above will be:

XQuery FLWOR + HTML

We will use the "books.xml" document in the examples below (same XML file as in the previous chapters).
Present the Result In an HTML List
Look at the following XQuery FLWOR expression:

for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book/title
order by $x
return $x
The expression above will select all the title elements under the book elements that are under the bookstore
element, and return the title elements in alphabetical order.
Now we want to list all the book-titles in our bookstore in an HTML list. We add <ul> and <li> tags to
the FLWOR expression:
<ul>
{
order by $x
return <li>{$x}</li>
}
</ul>
XQuery Terms
In XQuery, there are seven kinds of nodes: element, attribute, text, namespace, processing-instruction,
comment, and document (root) nodes.
XQuery Terminology
Nodes
3
In XQuery, there are seven kinds of nodes: element, attribute, text, namespace, processing-instruction,
comment, and document (root) nodes. XML documents are treated as trees of nodes. The root of the tree is
called the document node (or root node).
Look at the following XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<bookstore>
<book>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
</bookstore>
Example of nodes in the XML document above:<bookstore> (document node)

<author>J K. Rowling</author> (element node)
lang="en" (attribute node)
Atomic values
Atomic values are nodes with no children or parent.
Example of atomic values:J K. Rowling
"en"
Items
Items are atomic values or nodes.
Relationship of Nodes
Parent
Each element and attribute has one parent.
In the following example; the book element is the parent of the title, author, year, and price:
<book>
<title>Harry Potter</title>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
Children
Element nodes may have zero, one or more children.
In the following example; the title, author, year, and price elements are all children of the book
element:
<book>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
Siblings
Nodes that have the same parent.
In the following example; the title, author, year, and price elements are all siblings:
<book>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
Ancestors
4
A node's parent, parent's parent, etc.
In the following example; the ancestors of the title element are the book element and the bookstore
element:
<bookstore>
<book>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
</bookstore>
Descendants
A node's children, children's children, etc.
In the following example; descendants of the bookstore element are the book, title, author, year, and
price elements:
<bookstore>
<book>
<year>2005</year>
</book>
</bookstore>
The result of the above will be:

<ul>
<li><title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title></li>
<li><title lang="en">Harry Potter</title></li>
<li><title lang="en">Learning XML</title></li>
<li><title lang="en">XQuery Kick Start</title></li>
</ul>
Now we want to eliminate the title element, and show only the data inside the title element:
<ul>
{
order by $x
return <li>{data($x)}</li>
}
</ul>
The result will be (an HTML list):<ul>
<li>Everyday Italian</li>
<li>Harry Potter</li>
<li>Learning XML</li>
<li>XQuery Kick Start</li>
</ul>
XQuery Syntax
XQuery is case-sensitive and XQuery elements, attributes, and variables must be valid XML names.
XQuery Basic Syntax Rules

Some basic syntax rules:
• XQuery is case-sensitive
• XQuery elements, attributes, and variables must be valid XML names
• An XQuery string value can be in single or double quotes
• An XQuery variable is defined with a $ followed by a name, e.g. $bookstore
• XQuery comments are delimited by (: and :), e.g. (: XQuery Comment :)
• XQuery Conditional Expressions
5
• "If-Then-Else" expressions are allowed in XQuery.
Look at the following example:

for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book
return if ($x/@category="CHILDREN")
then <child>{data($x/title)}</child>
else <adult>{data($x/title)}</adult>
Notes on the "if-then-else" syntax:

parentheses around the if expression are required. else is required, but it can be just else ().
The result of the example above will be:

<adult>Everyday Italian</adult>
<child>Harry Potter</child>
<adult>Learning XML</adult>
<adult>XQuery Kick Start</adult>
XQuery Comparisons
In XQuery there are two ways of comparing values.
1. General comparisons: =, !=, <, <=, >, >=
2. Value comparisons: eq, ne, lt, le, gt, ge
The difference between the two comparison methods are shown below.
The following expression returns true if any q attributes have a value greater than 10:
$bookstore//book/@q > 10
The following expression returns true if there is only one q attribute returned by the expression, and
its value is greater than 10. If more than one q is returned, an error occurs:
$bookstore//book/@q gt 10
XQuery Adding Elements and Attributes

Adding Elements and Attributes to the Result

As we have seen in a previous chapter, we may include elements and attributes from the input document
("books.xml) in the result:
order by $x
return $x
The XQuery expression above will include both the title element and the lang attribute in the result,
like this:
The XQuery expression above returns the title elements the exact same way as they are described in the
input document.
We now want to add our own elements and attributes to the result!
Add HTML Elements and Text

Now, we want to add some HTML elements to the result. We will put the result in an HTML list - together
with some text:
<html>
<body>
<h1>Bookstore</h1>
<ul>
6
{
order by $x/title
return <li>{data($x/title)}. Category: {data($x/@category)}</li>
}
</ul>
</body></html>
The XQuery expression above will generate the following result:

<html>
<body>
<h1>Bookstore</h1>
<ul>
<li>Everyday Italian. Category: COOKING</li>
<li>Harry Potter. Category: CHILDREN</li>
<li>Learning XML. Category: WEB</li>
<li>XQuery Kick Start. Category: WEB</li>
</ul>
</body></html>
Add Attributes to HTML Elements

Next, we want to use the category attribute as a class attribute in the HTML list:
<html>
<body>
<h1>Bookstore</h1>
<ul>
{
order by $x/title
return <li class="{data($x/@category)}">{data($x/title)}</li>
}
</ul>
</body></html>
The XQuery expression above will generate the following result:

<html>
<body>
<h1>Bookstore</h1>
<ul>
<li class="COOKING">Everyday Italian</li>
<li class="CHILDREN">Harry Potter</li>
<li class="WEB">Learning XML</li>
<li class="WEB">XQuery Kick Start</li>
</ul>
</body></html>
XQuery Selecting and Filtering

Selecting and Filtering Elements

As we have seen in the previous chapters, we are selecting and filtering elements with either a Path
expression or with a FLWOR expression.
Look at the following FLWOR expression:

where $x/price>30
order by $x/title
7
return $x/title
• for - (optional) binds a variable to each item returned by the in expression

• let - (optional)
• where - (optional) specifies a criteria
• order by - (optional) specifies the sort-order of the result
• return - specifies what to return in the result
The for Clause

The for clause binds a variable to each item returned by the in expression. The for clause results in iteration.
There can be multiple for clauses in the same FLWOR expression.
To loop a specific number of times in a for clause, you may use the to keyword:
for $x in (1 to 5)
return <test>{$x}</test>
Result:
<test>1</test>
<test>2</test>
<test>3</test>
<test>4</test>
<test>5</test>
The at keyword can be used to count the iteration:

for $x at $i in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book/title
return <book>{$i}. {data($x)}</book>
Result:
<book>1. Everyday Italian</book>
<book>2. Harry Potter</book>
<book>3. XQuery Kick Start</book>
<book>4. Learning XML</book>
It is also allowed with more than one in expression in the for clause. Use comma to separate each in
expression:
for $x in (10,20), $y in (100,200)
return <test>x={$x} and y={$y}</test>
Result:
<test>x=10 and y=100</test>
The let Clause

The let clause allows variable assignments and it avoids repeating the same expression many times. The let
clause does not result in iteration.let $x := (1 to 5)
return <test>{$x}</test>
Result:
<test>1 2 3 4 5</test>
The where Clause

The where clause is used to specify one or more criteria for the result:where $x/price>30 and $x/price<100
The order by Clause

The order by clause is used to specify the sort order of the result. Here we want to order the result by
category and title:
order by $x/@category, $x/title
8
return $x/title
Result:
The return Clause

The return clause specifies what is to be returned.for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book
return $x/title
Result:
XQuery Functions
XQuery 1.0, XPath 2.0, and XSLT 2.0 share the same functions library.
XQuery Functions
XQuery includes over 100 built-in functions. There are functions for string values, numeric values, date and
time comparison, node and QName manipulation, sequence manipulation, Boolean values, and more. You
can also define your own functions in XQuery.
XQuery Built-in Functions

The URI of the XQuery function namespace is:
http://www.w3.org/2005/02/xpath-functions
The default prefix for the function namespace is fn:.

Tip: Functions are often called with the fn: prefix, such as fn:string(). However, since fn: is the default prefix
of the namespace, the function names do not need to be prefixed when called.
The reference of all the built-in XQuery 1.0 functions is located in our XPath tutorial.
Examples of Function Calls

A call to a function can appear where an expression may appear. Look at the examples below:
Example 1: In an element<name>{uppercase($booktitle)}</name>
Example 2: In the predicate of a path expressiondoc("books.xml")/bookstore/book[substring(title,1,5)='Harry']
Example 3: In a let clauselet $name := (substring($booktitle,1,4))
XQuery User-Defined Functions

If you cannot find the XQuery function you need, you can write your own.
User-defined functions can be defined in the query or in a separate library.
Syntaxdeclare function prefix:function_name($parameter AS datatype)
AS returnDatatype
{
...function code here...
}
Notes on user-defined functions:

• Use the declare function keyword
• The name of the function must be prefixed
• The data type of the parameters are mostly the same as the data types defined in XML Schema
• The body of the function must be surrounded by curly braces
Example of a User-defined Function Declared in the Querydeclare function local:minPrice($p as
xs:decimal?,$d as xs:decimal?)
AS xs:decimal?
{
let $disc := ($p * $d) div 100
return ($p - $disc)
}
9
Below is an example of how to call the function above:
<minPrice>{local:minPrice($book/price,$book/discount)}</minPrice>
XQuery Summary
This tutorial has taught you how to query XML data.
You have learned that XQuery was designed to query anything that can appear as XML, including
databases.
You have also learned how to query the XML data with FLWOR expressions, and how to construct XHTML
output from the collected data.
Now You Know XQuery, What's Next?

The next step is to learn about XLink and XPointer.
• XLink and XPointer
• Linking in XML is divided into two parts: XLink and XPointer.
• XLink and XPointer define a standard way of creating hyperlinks in XML documents.
XQuery Reference
XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 share the same data model and support the same functions and operators.
XQuery Functions
XQuery is built on XPath expressions. XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 share the same data model and support
the same functions and operators.
• XPath Operators
Below is a list of the operators that can be used in XPath expressions:
Operator Description Example Return value
| Computes two node-sets //book | //cd Returns a node-set with

all book and cd elements
+ Addition 6+4 10
- Subtraction 6-4 2
* Multiplication *
div Division 8 div 4 2
= Equal price=9.80 true if price is 9.80

false if price is 9.90
!= Not equal price!=9.80 true if price is 9.90

< Less than price<9.80 true if price is 9.00

<= Less than or equal to price<=9.80 true if price is 9.00

> Greater than price>9.80 true if price is 9.90

10
>= Greater than or equal to price>=9.80 true if price is 9.90
or or price=9.80 or price=9.70 true if price is 9.80

and and price>9.00 and price<9.90 true if price is 9.80

mod Modulus (division remainder) 5 mod 2 1
XPath, XQuery, and XSLT Functions

The following reference library defines the functions required for XPath 2.0, XQuery 1.0 and XSLT 2.0.
Functions Reference
The default prefix for the function namespace is fn:, and the URI is:
http://www.w3.org/2005/02/xpath-functions.
Accessor Functions
Name Description
fn:node name(node) Returns the node
fn:nilled(node) Returns a Boolean value indicating whether the

argument node is nilled
fn:data(item.item,...) Takes a sequence of items and returns a sequence of
atomic values
fn:base-uri() Returns the value of the base-uri property of the
fn:base-uri(node) current or specified node
fn:document uri(node) Returns the value of the document
Error and Trace Functions

Name Description
fn:error() Example: error(fn:QName('http://example.com/test',
fn:error(error) 'err:toohigh'), 'Error: Price is too high')
fn:error(error,description)
fn:error(error,description,error-object) Result: Returns http://example.com/test#toohigh and
the string "Error: Price is too high" to the external
processing environment
fn:trace(value,label) Used to debug queries
Functions on Numeric Values

Name Description
fn:string(arg) Returns the string value of the argument. The

argument could be a number, boolean, or node-set
Example: string(314)
Result: "314"
fn:codepoints-to-string(int,int,...) Returns a string from a sequence of code points
Example: codepoints-to-string(84, 104, 233, 114, 232,

115, 101)
Result: 'Thérèse'
fn:string-to-codepoints(string) Returns a sequence of code points from a string
11
Example: string-to-codepoints("Thérèse")
Result: 84, 104, 233, 114, 232, 115, 101
fn:codepoint-equal(comp1,comp2) Returns true if the value of comp1 is equal to the
value of comp2, according to the Unicode code point
collation (http://www.w3.org/2005/02/xpath-
functions/collation/codepoint), otherwise it returns
false
fn:compare(comp1,comp2) Returns -1 if comp1 is less than comp2, 0 if comp1 is
fn:compare(comp1,comp2,collation) equal to comp2, or 1 if comp1 is greater than comp2
(according to the rules of the collation that is used)
Example: compare('ghi', 'ghi')

Result: 0
fn:concat(string,string,...) Returns the concatenation of the strings
Example: concat('XPath ','is ','FUN!')

Result: 'XPath is FUN!'
fn:string-join((string,string,...),sep) Returns a string created by concatenating the string
arguments and using the sep argument as the
separator
Example: string-join(('We', 'are', 'having', 'fun!'), ' ')

Result: ' We are having fun! '
Example: string-join(('We', 'are', 'having', 'fun!'))

Result: 'Wearehavingfun!'
Example:string-join((), 'sep')
Result: ''
fn:substring(string,start,len) Returns the substring from the start position to the
fn:substring(string,start) specified length. Index of the first character is 1. If
length is omitted it returns the substring from the start
position to the end
Example: substring('Beatles',1,4)
Result: 'Beat'
Example: substring('Beatles',2)
Result: 'eatles'
fn:string-length(string) Returns the length of the specified string. If there is no
fn:string-length() string argument it returns the length of the string value
of the current node
Example: string-length('Beatles')
Result: 7
fn:normalize-space(string) Removes leading and trailing spaces from the
fn:normalize-space() specified string, and replaces all internal sequences of
white space with one and returns the result. If there is
no string argument it does the same on the current
node
Example: normalize-space(' The XML ')

Result: 'The XML'
fn:normalize-unicode()
fn:upper-case(string) Converts the string argument to upper-case
Example: upper-case('The XML')

Result: 'THE XML'
fn:lower-case(string) Converts the string argument to lower-case
Example: lower-case('The XML')
12
Result: 'the xml'
fn:translate(string1,string2,string3) Converts string1 by replacing the characters in string2

with the characters in string3
Example: translate('12:30','30','45')
Result: '12:45'
Example: translate('12:30','03','54')
Result: '12:45'
Example: translate('12:30','0123','abcd')
Result: 'bc:da'
fn:escape-uri(stringURI,esc-res) Example: escape-uri("http://example.com/test#car",
true())
Result: "http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ftest#car"
Example: escape-uri("http://example.com/test#car",
false())
Result: "http://example.com/test#car"
Example: escape-uri ("http://example.com/~bébé",

false())
Result: "http://example.com/~b%C3%A9b%C3%A9"
fn:contains(string1,string2) Returns true if string1 contains string2, otherwise it
returns false
Example: contains('XML','XM')
Result: true
fn:starts-with(string1,string2) Returns true if string1 starts with string2, otherwise it
returns false
Example: starts-with('XML','X')
Result: true
fn:ends-with(string1,string2) Returns true if string1 ends with string2, otherwise it
returns false
Example: ends-with('XML','X')
Result: false
fn:substring-before(string1,string2) Returns the start of string1 before string2 occurs in it
Example: substring-before('12/10','/')
Result: '12'
fn:substring-after(string1,string2) Returns the remainder of string1 after string2 occurs in
it
Example: substring-after('12/10','/')
Result: '10'
fn:matches(string,pattern) Returns true if the string argument matches the
pattern, otherwise, it returns false
Example: matches("Merano", "ran")

Result: true
fn:replace(string,pattern,replace) Returns a string that is created by replacing the given
pattern with the replace argument
Example: replace("Bella Italia", "l", "*")

Result: 'Be**a Ita*ia'
Example: replace("Bella Italia", "l", "")
Result: 'Bea Itaia'
fn:tokenize(string,pattern) Example: tokenize("XPath is fun", "\s+")
Result: ("XPath", "is", "fun")
13
Functions on Numeric Values
Name Description
fn:number(arg) Returns the numeric value of the argument. The

argument could be a boolean, string, or node-set
Example: number('100')
Result: 100
fn:abs(num) Returns the absolute value of the argument
Example: abs(3.14)
Result: 3.14
Example: abs(-3.14)
Result: 3.14
fn:ceiling(num) Returns the smallest integer that is greater than the
number argument
Example: ceiling(3.14)
Result: 4
fn:floor(num) Returns the largest integer that is not greater than the
number argument
Example: floor(3.14)
Result: 3
fn:round(num) Rounds the number argument to the nearest integer
Example: round(3.14)
Result: 3
fn:round-half-to-even() Example: round-half-to-even(0.5)
Result: 0
Example: round-half-to-even(1.5)
Result: 2
Example: round-half-to-even(2.5)
Result: 2
Functions for anyURI

Name Description
fn:resolve-uri(relative,base)
Functions on Boolean Values

Name Description
fn:boolean(arg) Returns a boolean value for a number, string, or node-

set
fn:not(arg) The argument is first reduced to a boolean value by
applying the boolean() function. Returns true if the
boolean value is false, and false if the boolean value
is true
Example: not(true())
Result:
fn:true() Returns the boolean value true
Example: true()
Result: true
14
fn:false() Returns the boolean value false
Example: false()
Result: false
Functions on Durations, Dates and Times

Component Extraction Functions on Durations, Dates and Times
Name Description
fn:dateTime(date,time) Converts the arguments to a date and a time
fn:years-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns an integer that represents the years

component in the canonical lexical representation of
the value of the argument
fn:months-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns an integer that represents the months
fn:days-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns an integer that represents the days
fn:hours-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns an integer that represents the hours
fn:minutes-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns an integer that represents the minutes
fn:seconds-from-duration(datetimedur) Returns a decimal that represents the seconds
fn:year-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns an integer that represents the year component
in the localized value of the argument
Example: year-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-01-
10T12:30-04:10"))
Result: 2005
fn:month-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns an integer that represents the month
component in the localized value of the argument
Example: month-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-
01-10T12:30-04:10"))
Result: 01
fn:day-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns an integer that represents the day component
in the localized value of the argument
Example: day-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-01-
10T12:30-04:10"))
Result: 10
fn:hours-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns an integer that represents the hours
Example: hours-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-01-
10T12:30-04:10"))
Result: 12
fn:minutes-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns an integer that represents the minutes
Example: minutes-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-
01-10T12:30-04:10"))
Result: 30
fn:seconds-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns a decimal that represents the seconds
15
Example: seconds-from-dateTime(xs:dateTime("2005-
01-10T12:30:00-04:10"))
Result: 0
fn:timezone-from-dateTime(datetime) Returns the time zone component of the argument if
any
fn:year-from-date(date) Returns an integer that represents the year in the
localized value of the argument
Example: year-from-date(xs:date("2005-04-23"))
Result: 2005
fn:month-from-date(date) Returns an integer that represents the month in the
Example: month-from-date(xs:date("2005-04-23"))
Result: 4
fn:day-from-date(date) Returns an integer that represents the day in the
Example: day-from-date(xs:date("2005-04-23"))
Result: 23
fn:timezone-from-date(date) Returns the time zone component of the argument if
any
fn:hours-from-time(time) Returns an integer that represents the hours
Example: hours-from-time(xs:time("10:22:00"))
Result: 10
fn:minutes-from-time(time) Returns an integer that represents the minutes
Example: minutes-from-time(xs:time("10:22:00"))
Result: 22
fn:seconds-from-time(time) Returns an integer that represents the seconds
Example: seconds-from-time(xs:time("10:22:00"))
Result: 0
fn:timezone-from-time(time) Returns the time zone component of the argument if
any
fn:adjust-dateTime-to-timezone(datetime,timezone) If the timezone argument is empty, it returns a
dateTime without a timezone. Otherwise, it returns a
dateTime with a timezone
fn:adjust-date-to-timezone(date,timezone) If the timezone argument is empty, it returns a date
without a timezone. Otherwise, it returns a date with a
timezone
fn:adjust-time-to-timezone(time,timezone) If the timezone argument is empty, it returns a time
without a timezone. Otherwise, it returns a time with a
timezone
Functions Related to QNames

Name Description
fn:QName()
fn:local-name-from-QName()
fn:namespace-uri-from-QName()
fn:namespace-uri-for-prefix()
fn:in-scope-prefixes()
16
fn:resolve-QName()
Functions on Nodes
Name Description
fn:name() Returns the name of the current node or the
fn:name(nodeset) first node in the specified node set
fn:local-name() Returns the name of the current node or the
fn:local-name(nodeset) first node in the specified node set - without the
namespace prefix
fn:namespace-uri() Returns the namespace URI of the current
fn:namespace-uri(nodeset) node or the first node in the specified node set
fn:lang(lang) Returns true if the language of the current
node matches the language of the specified language
Example: Lang("en") is true for
<p xml:lang="en">...</p>
Example: Lang("de") is false for
<p xml:lang="en">...</p>
fn:root() Returns the root of the tree to which the
fn:root(node) current node or the specified belongs. This will
usually be a document node
Functions on Sequences
General Functions on Sequences
Name Description
fn:index-of((item,item,...),searchitem) Returns the positions within the sequence of items
that are equal to the searchitem argument
Example: index-of ((15, 40, 25, 40, 10), 40)

Result: (2, 4)
Example: index-of (("a", "dog", "and", "a", "duck"), "a")

Result (1, 4)
Example: index-of ((15, 40, 25, 40, 10), 18)

Result: ()
fn:remove((item,item,...),position) Returns a new sequence constructed from the value
of the item arguments - with the item specified by the
position argument removed
Example: remove(("ab", "cd", "ef"), 0)

Result: ("ab", "cd", "ef")

Result: ("cd", "ef")

Result: ("ab", "cd", "ef")
n:empty(item,item,...) Returns true if the value of the arguments IS an
empty sequence, otherwise it returns false
Example: empty(remove(("ab", "cd"), 1))

Result: false
fn:exists(item,item,...) Returns true if the value of the arguments IS NOT an
empty sequence, otherwise it returns false
Example: exists(remove(("ab"), 1))

Result: false
fn:distinct-values((item,item,...),collation) Returns only distinct (different) values
Example: distinct-values((1, 2, 3, 1, 2))
17
Result: (1, 2, 3)
fn:insert-before((item,item,...),pos,inserts) Returns a new sequence constructed from the value
of the item arguments - with the value of the inserts
argument inserted in the position specified by the pos
argument
Example: insert-before(("ab", "cd"), 0, "gh")

Result: ("gh", "ab", "cd")

Result: ("gh", "ab", "cd")

Result: ("ab", "gh", "cd")

Result: ("ab", "cd", "gh")
fn:reverse((item,item,...)) Returns the reversed order of the items specified
Example: reverse(("ab", "cd", "ef"))

Result: ("ef", "cd", "ab")
Example: reverse(("ab"))
Result: ("ab")
fn:subsequence((item,item,...),start,len) Returns a sequence of items from the position
specified by the start argument and continuing for the
number of items specified by the len argument. The
first item is located at position 1
Example: subsequence(($item1, $item2, $item3,...),

3)
Result: ($item3, ...)
Example: subsequence(($item1, $item2, $item3, ...),

2, 2)
Result: ($item2, $item3)
fn:unordered((item,item,...)) Returns the items in an implementation dependent
order
Functions That Test the Cardinality of Sequences

Name Description
fn:zero-or-one(item,item,...) Returns the argument if it contains zero or one items,
otherwise it raises an error
fn:one-or-more(item,item,...) Returns the argument if it contains one or more items,
fn:exactly-one(item,item,...) Returns the argument if it contains exactly one item,
Equals, Union, Intersection and Except

Name Description
fn:deep equal(param1,param2,collation) Returns true if param1 and param2 are deep
Aggregate Functions
Name Description
fn:count((item,item,...)) Returns the count of nodes
fn:max((arg,arg,...)) Returns the argument that is greater than the others
Example: max((1,2,3))
18
Result: 3
Example: max(('a', 'k'))

Result: 'k'
fn:avg((arg,arg,...)) Returns the average of the argument values
Example: avg((1,2,3))
Result: 2
fn:min((arg,arg,...)) Returns the argument that is less than the others
Example: min((1,2,3))
Result: 1
Example: min(('a', 'k'))

Result: 'a'
fn:sum(arg,arg,...) Returns the sum of the numeric value of each node in
the specified node-set
Functions that Generate Sequences

Name Description
fn:id((string,string,...),node) Returns a sequence of element nodes that have an
ID value equal to the value of one or more of the
values specified in the string argument
fn:idref((string,string,...),node) Returns a sequence of element or attribute nodes
that have an IDREF value equal to the value of one or
more of the values specified in the string argument
fn:doc(URI)
fn:doc available(URI ) Returns true if the doc() function returns a
document node, otherwise it returns false
ffn:collection()
fn:collection(string)
Context Functions
Name Description
fn:position() Returns the index position of the node that is
currently being processed
Example: //book[position()<=3]
Result: Selects the first three book elements
fn:last() Returns the number of items in the processed node
list
Example: //book[last()]
Result: Selects the last book element
fn:current-dateTime() Returns the current dateTime (with timezone)
fn:current-date() Returns the current date (with timezone)
fn:current-time() Returns the current time (with timezone)
fn:implicit-timezone() Returns the value of the implicit timezone
fn:default-collation() Returns the value of the default collation
fn:static-base-uri() Returns the value of the base-uri
By: DataIntegratedEntity
Source: http://w3schools.com/xquery/default.asp
19
20

Xquery Tutorial

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Xquery Tutorial

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Xquery Tutorial

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

XQUERY TUTORIAL

What You Should Already Know

Here is an example of a question that XQuery could solve:

XQuery - Examples of Use

The XML Example Document

XQuery uses path expressions to navigate through elements in an XML document.

The XQuery above will extract the following:

The XQuery above will extract the following:

XQuery FLWOR Expressions

The XML Example Document

The result will be:

With FLWOR you can sort the result:for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book

FLWOR is an acronym for "For, Let, Where, Order by, Return".

The result of the XQuery expression above will be:

XQuery FLWOR + HTML

The XML Example Document

Look at the following XQuery FLWOR expression:

Look at the following XML document:

Example of nodes in the XML document above:<bookstore> (document node)

The result of the above will be:

XQuery Basic Syntax Rules

Look at the following example:

Notes on the "if-then-else" syntax:

The result of the example above will be:

XQuery Adding Elements and Attributes

The XML Example Document

Adding Elements and Attributes to the Result

Add HTML Elements and Text

The XQuery expression above will generate the following result:

Add Attributes to HTML Elements

The XQuery expression above will generate the following result:

XQuery Selecting and Filtering

The XML Example Document

Selecting and Filtering Elements

Look at the following FLWOR expression:

• for - (optional) binds a variable to each item returned by the in expression

The for Clause

The at keyword can be used to count the iteration:

The let Clause

The where Clause

The order by Clause

The return Clause

XQuery Built-in Functions

The default prefix for the function namespace is fn:.

Examples of Function Calls

XQuery User-Defined Functions

Notes on user-defined functions:

Now You Know XQuery, What's Next?

Operator Description Example Return value

| Computes two node-sets //book | //cd Returns a node-set with

div Division 8 div 4 2

= Equal price=9.80 true if price is 9.80

!= Not equal price!=9.80 true if price is 9.90

< Less than price<9.80 true if price is 9.00

<= Less than or equal to price<=9.80 true if price is 9.00

> Greater than price>9.80 true if price is 9.90

or or price=9.80 or price=9.70 true if price is 9.80

and and price>9.00 and price<9.90 true if price is 9.80

mod Modulus (division remainder) 5 mod 2 1