XML-to-SQL query mapping in the presence of multi-valued schema mappings and recursive XML schemas

Abstract

Several query mapping algorithms have been proposed to translate XML queries into SQL queries for a schema-based relational XML storage. However, existing query mapping algorithms only support single-valued mapping schemes, in which each XML element type is mapped to exactly one relation, and do not support multi-valued mapping schemes, in which each XML element type can be mapped to multiple relations. In this paper, we propose a generic query mapping algorithm, ID-XMLToSQL, for a schema-based relational XML storage. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm provides the first generic solution to the XML-to-Relational query mapping problem that is applicable to both single-valued and multi-valued mapping schemes. Moreover, our algorithm also provides an elegant solution to the query mapping problem in the presence of recursive XML schemas and recursive queries. While existing algorithms need special recursion operators, our algorithm only requires the traditional relational operators and thus, can work with all relational databases. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.