Querying XML Documents in Logic Programming

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to implement XPath queries on XML documents using logic programming, including representation, indexing, and evaluation techniques to improve querying efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to represent XML documents in logic programs and combines indexing with top-down evaluation for XPath querying.

Findings

XML documents can be effectively represented in logic programming.

Indexing strategies improve query performance.

The approach supports complex XPath queries efficiently.

Abstract

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML. Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere. XPath language is the result of an effort to provide address parts of an XML document. In support of this primary purpose, it becomes in a query language against an XML document. In this paper we present a proposal for the implementation of the XPath language in logic programming. With this aim we will describe the representation of XML documents by means of a logic program. Rules and facts can be used for representing the document schema and the XML document itself. In particular, we will present how to index XML documents in logic programs: rules are supposed to be stored in main memory, however facts are stored in secondary memory by using two kind of indexes: one for each XML tag, and other for each group of terminal items. In addition, we will study how to query by means of the XPath language against a logic program representing an XML document. It evolves the specialization of the logic program with regard to the XPath expression. Finally, we will also explain how to combine the indexing and the top-down evaluation of the logic program. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP)"