pureXML in DB2 9: Which Way to Query Your XML Data?

Overview

DB2 9 introduces pureXML support, which means that XML data is stored and queried in its inherent hierarchical format. To query XML data, DB2 offers two languages, SQL/XML and XQuery. One can use XQuery and SQL separately, but one can also use XQuery embedded in SQL and vice versa. This gives the user a lot of flexibility and options for querying the XML data. Each of these options is useful under certain circumstances. This paper describes these options, their respective advantages and disadvantages, and guidelines for choosing the right one for one's needs. This paper has been updated for DB2 9.5.