Scalable storage schemes for native XML column data of relational tables

摘要

A method and system for providing a scalable storage scheme for native hierarchically structured data of relational tables, includes a base table with indicator columns with information pertaining to hierarchically structured data of a document, data tables for storing the hierarchically structured data corresponding to the indicator columns, and node identifier indexes corresponding to the data tables for mapping between the indicator columns and the hierarchically structured data in the data tables. In an embodiment, actual data for each hierarchically structured data (such as XML) column is stored in a separate data table, and each data table has a separate node identifier index. The node identifier index is searched with a key containing the document identifier and a logical node identifier is used, and a record identifier of a record in the data table containing the node assigned the logical node identifier is retrieved.