XQuery for Humanists

by Clifford B. Anderson, Joseph C. Wicentowski

Overview

XQuery is the best language for querying, manipulating, and transforming XML and JSON documents. Because XML is in many ways the lingua franca of the digital humanities, learning XQuery empowers humanists to discover and analyze their data in new ways.

Until now, though, XQuery has been difficult to learn because there was no textbook designed for non- or beginner programmers. XQuery for Humanists fills this void with an approachable guidebook aimed directly at digital humanists.

Clifford B. Anderson and Joseph C. Wicentowski introduce XQuery in terms accessible to humanities scholars and do not presuppose any prior background in programming. It provides an informed, opinionated overview and recommends the best implementations, libraries, and paradigms to empower those who need it most. Emphasizing practical applicability, the authors go beyond the XQuery language to include the basics of underlying standards like XPath, related standards like XQuery Full Text and XQuery Update, and explain the difference between XQuery and languages like Python and R. This book will afford readers the skills they need to build and analyze large-scale documentary corpora in XML.

XQuery for Humanists is immeasurably valuable to instructors of digital humanities and library science courses alike and likewise is a ready reference for faculty, graduate students, and librarians who seek to master XQuery for their projects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623498290
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	03/12/2020
Series:	Coding for Humanists
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

CLIFFORD B. ANDERSON is associate university librarian for research and digital initiatives at Vanderbilt University. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. JOSEPH C. WICENTOWSKI is digital history advisor in the Office of the Historian at the US Department of State. He resides in Arlington, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Why XQuery for Humanists? 1

1.1 Built for the Kind of Data Most Digital Humanists Use 1

1.2 Easy for Beginning Programmers to Learn 4

1.3 XML and Digital Humanities Data 7

1.3.1 XML Compared to Other Formats 9

1.3.1.1 JSON 9

1.3.1.2 RDF 11

1.4 XQuery Compared to XSLT 13

1.5 A Great Digital Humanities Community 15

1.6 Questions 17

Chapter 2 Setting Up Your XQuery Environment 18

2.1 Installing Java 21

2.2 Setting Up BaseX 21

2.3 Setting Up eXist 22

2.4 Setting Up oXygen 24

2.5 Setting Up Saxon 26

2.6 Accessing Online Companion Materials 27

2.7 Preserving and Sharing Code with GitHub 27

2.8 Questions and Exercises 31

Chapter 3 Reviewing XML and Related Standards 33

3.1 History and Goals of XML 33

3.2 XML Basics 35

3.2.1 Writing Well-Formed XML 35

3.2.2 Writing Valid XML 39

3.3 XML as a Data Standard 41

3.4 XML Gotchas 44

3.4.1 Embracing Namespaces 46

3.4.2 Escaping Strings 49

3.4.3 Whitespace 50

3.5 Questions and Exercises 52

Chapter 4 Finding Your Way Around with XPath 55

4.1 XPath Axes 57

4.2 Node Tests by Kind 58

4.3 XPath's Abbreviated Syntax 61

4.4 XPath Functions 63

4.5 XPath Tips and Tricks 72

4.5.1 Wildcards 72

4.5.2 Value Comparisons 73

4.5.3 Selecting Multiple Element Names with the Union Operator 75

4.5.4 Selecting the "Nth" Item or a Range of Items 75

4.6 Questions and Exercises 76

Chapter 5 XQuery Basics 79

5.1 The Parts of an XQuery 80

5.2 Enclosed Expressions and Curly Braces 84

5.3 FLWOR Expressions 85

5.3.1 Binding Variables 86

5.3.2 Iterating over Variables 88

5.3.3 Filtering Results 90

5.3.3.1 A Short Note on Comparisons 92

5.3.4 Ordering Results 94

5.3.5 Counting Results 95

5.3.6 Grouping Results 98

5.4 Conditional Expressions 101

5.4.1 Effective Boolean Values 102

5.4.2 The Else Clause Is Required: A Few Tips About Using Conditional Expressions 103

5.4.3 Chaining Conditional Expressions 104

5.5 Questions and Exercises 105

Chapter 6 Next Steps with XQuery 107

6.1 The Built-In Function Library 107

6.2 Writing Your Own Functions 114

6.3 Using Library Modules 119

6.3.1 Importing Library Modules 119

6.3.2 Creating Your Own Library Modules 121

6.3.3 Public and Private Functions 124

6.3.4 Wrapping Up 127

6.4 Questions and Exercises 127

Chapter 7 Advanced XQuery 131

7.1 String Constructors 131

7.2 Maps and Arrays 136

7.2.1 Revisiting Sequences 136

7.2.2 Maps 139

7.2.3 Arrays 145

7.2.4 Combining Maps and Arrays 147

7.2.5 Modifying Maps and Arrays 149

7.3 Windowing 152

7.3.1 Understanding Tuple Streams 152

7.3.2 Tumbling Windows 154

7.3.3 Sliding Windows 156

7.4 Questions and Exercises 160

Chapter 8 Thinking Functionally 163

8.1 Immutability 164

8.2 Maps 167

8.3 Folds 172

8.4 Recursion 176

8.4.1 Transforming Data with Recursive Typeswitch 179

8.5 Higher-Order Functions 191

8.6 Questions and Exercises 198

Chapter 9 Modifying Your Data with XQuery Update 200

9.1 Copying Data 201

9.2 Transform Expressions 204

9.2.1 Insert 204

9.2.2 Delete 206

9.2.3 Replace 207

9.2.4 Rename 209

9.2.5 Transform With 211

9.3 Updating Expressions 215

9.3.1 Changing the World 215

9.3.2 Updating Functions 219

9.4 Questions and Exercises 222

Chapter 10 Searching with XQuery Full Text 224

10.1 Finding Patterns with XPath 224

10.1.1 Searching Substrings 225

10.1.2 Regular Expressions 226

10.2 The Full Text Contains Text Operator 230

10.2.1 Scoring 233

10.2.2 Any-All Options 234

10.2.3 Cardinality 236

10.2.4 Positional Filters 237

10.2.5 Weighting 242

10.2.6 Match Options 244

10.3 Questions and Exercises 249

Chapter 11 Handling Errors Gracefully 251

11.1 Documenting Your XQuery with XQDoc 252

11.2 Catching Mistakes Before You Run Anything 257

11.3 Catching Errors at Runtime 260

11.4 Unit Testing with XQuery 265

11.5 Questions and Exercises 266

Chapter 12 Using XQuery with Other Digital Humanities Tools 269

12.1 XQuery and JSON 271

12.2 XQuery and CSV 280

12.3 XQuery and XSLT 290

12.4 Questions and Exercises 294

Chapter 13 Conclusion 296

13.1 XQuery Paralipomena 296

13.1 Web Applications 297

13.1.2 Databases 299

13.2 The XQuery Community 300

13.2.1 Books 300

13.2.2 Digital Forums 301

13.2.3 Conferences and Training 303

13.3 Questions and Exercises 304

Acknowledgments 305

Notes 307

About the Authors 319

Index 321