XPath-based creation of relational indexes and constraints over XML data stored in relational tables

摘要

Techniques and approaches are provided for creating indexes and column constraints on structured XML data that is stored in a relational database. Data Definition Language (DDL) Create Index and Create Constraint commands have extended syntax that allows the specification of a path-based expression instead of requiring a column and table name. A mapping created by the system when an XML Schema is registered stores the correspondence of XML data elements to automatically-created database tables and columns that are given names only useful for the internal system. When a user provides a path-based expression in a DDL when creating an index or constraint, the path-based expression is translated to the underlying database constructs using the mapping. Issues are addressed for handling path-based expressions that evaluate to more than one element. Additional index optimization is described using data type information available in the XML schema to select the optimal index type.