[xquery-talk] Question about xml databse app design and xml file merging (using xquery maybe)

[Michael Kay]

On 04/06/2011 01:38, Josh Story wrote:
> So my question is can xquery be used to traverse a 'current state' 
> model and try to grab data from a data-instance that looks similar but 
> won't necessarily be identical and load it up 

It can; but the processing model you are describing is essentially the 
XSLT processing model rather than the XQuery model. XQuery makes it easy 
to select data from your input and perform computations on it; XSLT 
makes it easy to transform your input into an output that is 
structurally similar. The functionality of the two languages overlaps 
and most jobs that can be done with one can also be done with the other, 
but some jobs are much easier in XSLT and others are easier in XQuery.

Michael Kay
Saxonica