[xquery-talk] large xml file

[Liam Quin]

On Fri, Apr 14, 2006 at 11:21:05PM -0700, fatma helmy wrote:
> refering to my question about running a recursive
> function over large xml file.
> should i give up trying with stylus studio version 6
> professional edition? if i switched into Qexo as one
> of the members advised, should i change any in my code?

It is impossible to answer your question without more
information.

What are you trying to achieve?  The XML Query home page
lists over 40 programs that say they implement some or
all of the XQuery language.  Some work with large
files (say, 4,000 gigabytes) and some don't.

It's possible to make a recursive function that will run
very very slowly even on a tiny input document.  Heck, you
can make one that never finishes running.

Which distribution of Linux are you running?  Is this
query intended to run on a server or on your desktop?
Do you run it often?  Why did you chose DataDirect's
Stylus Studio inthe first place?  As far as I can tell it's
a pretty good product overall, but maybe you're trying to
do something with it that's not really what its
makers intended?  You could try their server product.
Whether Quexo or Saxon or Galax or Qizx/open is what
you want, or whether you want something else, I can't
begin to guess right now.

You could probably make your query much faster by rewriting
it to avoid the parent axis.  Pass down the string path
so far as an argument and extend it each time; pass it a
single node and have it recurse on the node's children.

As with all query languages pwerful enough to be useful,
you sometimes have to be willing to try a different
approach to a problem.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin, W3C XML Activity Lead, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/