An object query can include a path expression to traverse a number of related collections. The order of collection traversals given by the path expression may not be the most efficient to process the query. This generates a critical problem for an object query optimizer to select the best execution plan. This paper studies the different algorithms to process path expressions with predicates, including depth first navigation, forward and reverse joins. Using a cost model, it then compares their performances in different cases, according to memory size, selectivity of predicates, fan out between collections, etc.. It also presents a heuristic-based algorithm to find profitable n-ary operators for traversing collections, thus reducing the search space of query plans to process a query with a qualified path expression. An implementation based on the O2 system demonstrates the validity of the results.
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