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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
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