XQuery from the Experts: A Guide to the W3C XML Query Language

Combining and Restructuring Nodes

Queries in XQuery often combine information from one or more sources and restructure it to create a new result. This section focuses on the expressions and functions most commonly used for combining and restructuring XML data.

FLWOR Expressions

FLWOR expressions, pronounced “flower expressions,” are one of the most powerful and common expressions in XQuery. They are similar to the SELECT-FROM-WHERE statements in SQL. However, a FLWOR expression is not defined in terms of tables, rows, and columns; instead, a FLWOR expression binds variables to values in for and let clauses, and uses these variable bindings to create new results. A combination of variable bindings created by the for and let clauses of a FLWOR ...