agora inbox for [email protected]
help / color / mirror / Atom feedFrom: nobody <[email protected]>
Subject: [PATCH] Improve documentation about our XML functionality.
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2019 22:47:10 -0400
Add a section explaining how our XML features depart from current
versions of the SQL standard. Update and clarify the descriptions
of some XML functions.
Chapman Flack, reviewed by Ryan Lambert
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/[email protected]
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/[email protected]
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAN-V+g-6JqUQEQZ55Q3toXEN6d5Ez5uvzL4VR+8KtvJKj31taw@mail.gmail.com
This version for backpatching PG 10, taken from Tom's commit
for 12, then edited to correctly describe behaviors that are fixed
in 12 but still broken in 10.
---
doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml | 5 +
doc/src/sgml/features.sgml | 381 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
doc/src/sgml/func.sgml | 190 +++++++++--------
src/backend/catalog/sql_features.txt | 6 +-
4 files changed, 493 insertions(+), 89 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
index cd5f5f0..6b9010f 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
@@ -4228,6 +4228,11 @@ a0ee-bc99-9c0b-4ef8-bb6d-6bb9-bd38-0a11
value is a full document or only a content fragment.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Limits and compatibility notes for the <type>xml</type> data type
+ can be found in <xref linkend="xml-limits-conformance"/>.
+ </para>
+
<sect2>
<title>Creating XML Values</title>
<para>
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/features.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/features.sgml
index 6c22d69..253ec87 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/features.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/features.sgml
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@
Language SQL</quote>. A revised version of the standard is released
from time to time; the most recent update appearing in 2011.
The 2011 version is referred to as ISO/IEC 9075:2011, or simply as SQL:2011.
- The versions prior to that were SQL:2008, SQL:2003, SQL:1999, and SQL-92. Each version
+ The versions prior to that were SQL:2008, SQL:2006, SQL:2003, SQL:1999,
+ and SQL-92. Each version
replaces the previous one, so claims of conformance to earlier
versions have no official merit.
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> development aims for
@@ -155,4 +156,382 @@
</para>
</sect1>
+ <sect1 id="xml-limits-conformance">
+ <title>XML Limits and Conformance to SQL/XML</title>
+
+ <indexterm>
+ <primary>SQL/XML</primary>
+ <secondary>limits and conformance</secondary>
+ </indexterm>
+
+ <para>
+ Significant revisions to the XML-related specifications in ISO/IEC 9075-14
+ (SQL/XML) were introduced with SQL:2006.
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>'s implementation of the XML data
+ type and related functions largely follows the earlier 2003 edition,
+ with some borrowing from later editions. In particular:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Where the current standard provides a family of XML data types
+ to hold <quote>document</quote> or <quote>content</quote> in
+ untyped or XML Schema-typed variants, and a type
+ <type>XML(SEQUENCE)</type> to hold arbitrary pieces of XML content,
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> provides the single
+ <type>xml</type> type, which can hold <quote>document</quote> or
+ <quote>content</quote>. There is no equivalent of the
+ standard's <quote>sequence</quote> type.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> provides two functions
+ introduced in SQL:2006, but in variants that use the XPath 1.0
+ language, rather than XML Query as specified for them in the
+ standard.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ This section presents some of the resulting differences you may encounter.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2 id="functions-xml-limits-xpath1">
+ <title>Queries are restricted to XPath 1.0</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>-specific functions
+ <function>xpath()</function> and <function>xpath_exists()</function>
+ query XML documents using the XPath language.
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> also provides XPath-only variants
+ of the standard functions <function>XMLEXISTS</function> and
+ <function>XMLTABLE</function>, which officially use
+ the XQuery language. For all of these functions,
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> relies on the
+ <application>libxml2</application> library, which provides only XPath 1.0.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There is a strong connection between the XQuery language and XPath
+ versions 2.0 and later: any expression that is syntactically valid and
+ executes successfully in both produces the same result (with a minor
+ exception for expressions containing numeric character references or
+ predefined entity references, which XQuery replaces with the
+ corresponding character while XPath leaves them alone). But there is
+ no such connection between these languages and XPath 1.0; it was an
+ earlier language and differs in many respects.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There are two categories of limitation to keep in mind: the restriction
+ from XQuery to XPath for the functions specified in the SQL standard, and
+ the restriction of XPath to version 1.0 for both the standard and the
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>-specific functions.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Restriction of XQuery to XPath</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Features of XQuery beyond those of XPath include:
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XQuery expressions can construct and return new XML nodes, in
+ addition to all possible XPath values. XPath can create and return
+ values of the atomic types (numbers, strings, and so on) but can
+ only return XML nodes that were already present in documents
+ supplied as input to the expression.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XQuery has control constructs for iteration, sorting, and grouping.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XQuery allows declaration and use of local functions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Recent XPath versions begin to offer capabilities overlapping with
+ these (such as functional-style <function>for-each</function> and
+ <function>sort</function>, anonymous functions, and
+ <function>parse-xml</function> to create a node from a string),
+ but such features were not available before XPath 3.0.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3 id="xml-xpath-1-specifics">
+ <title>Restriction of XPath to 1.0</title>
+
+ <para>
+ For developers familiar with XQuery and XPath 2.0 or later, XPath 1.0
+ presents a number of differences to contend with:
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The fundamental type of an XQuery/XPath expression, the
+ <type>sequence</type>, which can contain XML nodes, atomic values,
+ or both, does not exist in XPath 1.0. A 1.0 expression can only
+ produce a node-set (containing zero or more XML nodes), or a single
+ atomic value.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Unlike an XQuery/XPath sequence, which can contain any desired
+ items in any desired order, an XPath 1.0 node-set has no
+ guaranteed order and, like any set, does not allow multiple
+ appearances of the same item.
+ <note>
+ <para>
+ The <application>libxml2</application> library does seem to
+ always return node-sets to <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ with their members in the same relative order they had in the
+ input document. Its documentation does not commit to this
+ behavior, and an XPath 1.0 expression cannot control it.
+ </para>
+ </note>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ While XQuery/XPath provides all of the types defined in XML Schema
+ and many operators and functions over those types, XPath 1.0 has only
+ node-sets and the three atomic types <type>boolean</type>,
+ <type>double</type>, and <type>string</type>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XPath 1.0 has no conditional operator. An XQuery/XPath expression
+ such as <literal>if ( hat ) then hat/@size else "no hat"</literal>
+ has no XPath 1.0 equivalent.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XPath 1.0 has no ordering comparison operator for strings. Both
+ <literal>"cat" < "dog"</literal> and
+ <literal>"cat" > "dog"</literal> are false, because each is a
+ numeric comparison of two <literal>NaN</literal>s. In contrast,
+ <literal>=</literal> and <literal>!=</literal> do compare the strings
+ as strings.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ XPath 1.0 blurs the distinction between
+ <firstterm>value comparisons</firstterm> and
+ <firstterm>general comparisons</firstterm> as XQuery/XPath define
+ them. Both <literal>sale/@hatsize = 7</literal> and
+ <literal>sale/@customer = "alice"</literal> are existentially
+ quantified comparisons, true if there is
+ any <literal>sale</literal> with the given value for the
+ attribute, but <literal>sale/@taxable = false()</literal> is a
+ value comparison to the
+ <firstterm>effective boolean value</firstterm> of a whole node-set.
+ It is true only if no <literal>sale</literal> has
+ a <literal>taxable</literal> attribute at all.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In the XQuery/XPath data model, a <firstterm>document
+ node</firstterm> can have either document form (i.e., exactly one
+ top-level element, with only comments and processing instructions
+ outside of it) or content form (with those constraints
+ relaxed). Its equivalent in XPath 1.0, the
+ <firstterm>root node</firstterm>, can only be in document form.
+ This is part of the reason an <type>xml</type> value passed as the
+ context item to any <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ XPath-based function must be in document form.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ The differences highlighted here are not all of them. In XQuery and
+ the 2.0 and later versions of XPath, there is an XPath 1.0 compatibility
+ mode, and the W3C lists of
+ <ulink url='https://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-xpath-functions-20101214/#xpath1-compatibility'>function library changes</ulink>
+ and
+ <ulink url='https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/#id-backwards-compatibility'>language changes</ulink>
+ applied in that mode offer a more complete (but still not exhaustive)
+ account of the differences. The compatibility mode cannot make the
+ later languages exactly equivalent to XPath 1.0.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3 id="functions-xml-limits-casts">
+ <title>Mappings between SQL and XML data types and values</title>
+
+ <para>
+ In SQL:2006 and later, both directions of conversion between standard SQL
+ data types and the XML Schema types are specified precisely. However, the
+ rules are expressed using the types and semantics of XQuery/XPath, and
+ have no direct application to the different data model of XPath 1.0.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ When <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> maps SQL data values to XML
+ (as in <function>xmlelement</function>), or XML to SQL (as in the output
+ columns of <function>xmltable</function>), except for a few cases
+ treated specially, <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> simply assumes
+ that the XML data type's XPath 1.0 string form will be valid as the
+ text-input form of the SQL datatype, and conversely. This rule has the
+ virtue of simplicity while producing, for many data types, results similar
+ to the mappings specified in the standard. In this release,
+ an explicit cast is needed if an <function>xmltable</function> column
+ expression produces a boolean or double value; see
+ <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-postgresql"/>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Where interoperability with other systems is a concern, for some data
+ types, it may be necessary to use data type formatting functions (such
+ as those in <xref linkend="functions-formatting"/>) explicitly to
+ produce the standard mappings.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2 id="functions-xml-limits-postgresql">
+ <title>
+ Incidental limits of the implementation
+ </title>
+
+ <para>
+ This section concerns limits that are not inherent in the
+ <application>libxml2</application> library, but apply to the current
+ implementation in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>
+ Cast needed for <function>xmltable</function> column
+ of boolean or double type
+ </title>
+
+ <para>
+ An <function>xmltable</function> column expression evaluating to an XPath
+ boolean or number result will produce an <quote>unexpected XPath object
+ type</quote> error. The workaround is to rewrite the column expression to
+ be inside the XPath <function>string</function> function;
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> will then assign the string value
+ successfully to an SQL output column of boolean or double type.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>
+ Column path result or SQL result column of XML type
+ </title>
+
+ <para>
+ In this release, a <function>xmltable</function> column expression
+ that evaluates to an XML node-set can be assigned to an SQL result
+ column of XML type, producing a concatenation of: for most types of
+ node in the node-set, a text node containing the XPath 1.0
+ <firstterm>string-value</firstterm> of the node, but for an element node,
+ a copy of the node itself. Such a node-set may be assigned to an SQL
+ column of non-XML type only if the node-set has a single node, with the
+ string-value of most node types replaced with an empty string, the
+ string-value of an element node replaced with a concatenation of only its
+ direct text-node children (excluding those of descendants), and the
+ string-value of a text or attribute node being as defined in XPath 1.0.
+ An XPath string value assigned to a result column of XML type must be
+ parsable as XML.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ It is best not to develop code that relies on these behaviors, which have
+ little resemblance to the spec, and are changed in
+ <productname>PostgreSQL 12</productname>.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Only <literal>BY VALUE</literal> passing mechanism is supported</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The SQL standard defines two <firstterm>passing mechanisms</firstterm>
+ that apply when passing an XML argument from SQL to an XML function or
+ receiving a result: <literal>BY REF</literal>, in which a particular XML
+ value retains its node identity, and <literal>BY VALUE</literal>, in which
+ the content of the XML is passed but node identity is not preserved. A
+ mechanism can be specified before a list of parameters, as the default
+ mechanism for all of them, or after any parameter, to override the
+ default.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ To illustrate the difference, if
+ <replaceable>x</replaceable> is an XML value, these two queries in
+ an SQL:2006 environment would produce true and false, respectively:
+
+<programlisting>
+SELECT XMLQUERY('$a is $b' PASSING BY REF <replaceable>x</replaceable> AS a, <replaceable>x</replaceable> AS b NULL ON EMPTY);
+SELECT XMLQUERY('$a is $b' PASSING BY VALUE <replaceable>x</replaceable> AS a, <replaceable>x</replaceable> AS b NULL ON EMPTY);
+</programlisting>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ In this release, <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> will accept
+ <literal>BY REF</literal> in an
+ <function>XMLEXISTS</function> or <function>XMLTABLE</function>
+ construct, but will ignore it. The <type>xml</type> data type holds
+ a character-string serialized representation, so there is no node
+ identity to preserve, and passing is always effectively <literal>BY
+ VALUE</literal>.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>Cannot pass named parameters to queries</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The XPath-based functions support passing one parameter to serve as the
+ XPath expression's context item, but do not support passing additional
+ values to be available to the expression as named parameters.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+
+ <sect3>
+ <title>No <type>XML(SEQUENCE)</type> type</title>
+
+ <para>
+ The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> <type>xml</type> data type
+ can only hold a value in <literal>DOCUMENT</literal>
+ or <literal>CONTENT</literal> form. An XQuery/XPath expression
+ context item must be a single XML node or atomic value, but XPath 1.0
+ further restricts it to be only an XML node, and has no node type
+ allowing <literal>CONTENT</literal>. The upshot is that a
+ well-formed <literal>DOCUMENT</literal> is the only form of XML value
+ that <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> can supply as an XPath
+ context item.
+ </para>
+ </sect3>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+
</appendix>
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
index 198f9c2..a7514c0 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
@@ -9903,17 +9903,26 @@ CREATE TYPE rainbow AS ENUM ('red', 'orange', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue', 'purple
<sect1 id="functions-xml">
+
<title>XML Functions</title>
+ <indexterm>
+ <primary>XML Functions</primary>
+ </indexterm>
+
<para>
The functions and function-like expressions described in this
- section operate on values of type <type>xml</type>. Check <xref
- linkend="datatype-xml"> for information about the <type>xml</type>
+ section operate on values of type <type>xml</type>. See <xref
+ linkend="datatype-xml"/> for information about the <type>xml</type>
type. The function-like expressions <function>xmlparse</function>
and <function>xmlserialize</function> for converting to and from
- type <type>xml</type> are not repeated here. Use of most of these
- functions requires the installation to have been built
- with <command>configure --with-libxml</>.
+ type <type>xml</type> are documented there, not in this section.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Use of most of these functions
+ requires <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> to have been built
+ with <command>configure --with-libxml</command>.
</para>
<sect2 id="functions-producing-xml">
@@ -10107,8 +10116,8 @@ SELECT xmlelement(name foo, xmlattributes('xyz' as bar),
encoding, depending on the setting of the configuration parameter
<xref linkend="guc-xmlbinary">. The particular behavior for
individual data types is expected to evolve in order to align the
- SQL and PostgreSQL data types with the XML Schema specification,
- at which point a more precise description will appear.
+ PostgreSQL mappings with those specified in SQL:2006 and later,
+ as discussed in <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-casts"/>.
</para>
</sect3>
@@ -10350,10 +10359,13 @@ SELECT xmlagg(x) FROM (SELECT * FROM test ORDER BY y DESC) AS tab;
</synopsis>
<para>
- The function <function>xmlexists</function> returns true if the
- XPath expression in the first argument returns any nodes, and
- false otherwise. (If either argument is null, the result is
- null.)
+ The function <function>xmlexists</function> evaluates an XPath 1.0
+ expression (the first argument), with the passed XML value as its context
+ item. The function returns false if the result of that evaluation
+ yields an empty node-set, true if it yields any other value. The
+ function returns null if any argument is null. A nonnull value
+ passed as the context item must be an XML document, not a content
+ fragment or any non-XML value.
</para>
<para>
@@ -10369,14 +10381,14 @@ SELECT xmlexists('//town[text() = ''Toronto'']' PASSING BY REF '<towns><town>Tor
</para>
<para>
- The <literal>BY REF</literal> clauses have no effect in
- PostgreSQL, but are allowed for SQL conformance and compatibility
- with other implementations. Per SQL standard, the
- first <literal>BY REF</literal> is required, the second is
- optional. Also note that the SQL standard specifies
- the <function>xmlexists</function> construct to take an XQuery
- expression as first argument, but PostgreSQL currently only
- supports XPath, which is a subset of XQuery.
+ The <literal>BY REF</literal> clauses
+ are accepted in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, but are ignored,
+ as discussed in <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-postgresql"/>.
+ In the SQL standard, the <function>xmlexists</function> function
+ evaluates an expression in the XML Query language,
+ but <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows only an XPath 1.0
+ expression, as discussed in
+ <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-xpath1"/>.
</para>
</sect3>
@@ -10482,12 +10494,12 @@ SELECT xml_is_well_formed_document('<pg:foo xmlns:pg="http://postgresql.org/stuf
</synopsis>
<para>
- The function <function>xpath</function> evaluates the XPath
- expression <replaceable>xpath</replaceable> (a <type>text</> value)
+ The function <function>xpath</function> evaluates the XPath 1.0
+ expression <replaceable>xpath</replaceable> (a <type>text</type> value)
against the XML value
<replaceable>xml</replaceable>. It returns an array of XML values
- corresponding to the node set produced by the XPath expression.
- If the XPath expression returns a scalar value rather than a node set,
+ corresponding to the node-set produced by the XPath expression.
+ If the XPath expression returns a scalar value rather than a node-set,
a single-element array is returned.
</para>
@@ -10549,9 +10561,10 @@ SELECT xpath('//mydefns:b/text()', '<a xmlns="http://example.com"><b>test</b></a
<para>
The function <function>xpath_exists</function> is a specialized form
of the <function>xpath</function> function. Instead of returning the
- individual XML values that satisfy the XPath, this function returns a
- Boolean indicating whether the query was satisfied or not. This
- function is equivalent to the standard <literal>XMLEXISTS</> predicate,
+ individual XML values that satisfy the XPath 1.0 expression, this function
+ returns a Boolean indicating whether the query was satisfied or not
+ (specifically, whether it produced any value other than an empty node-set).
+ This function is equivalent to the <literal>XMLEXISTS</literal> predicate,
except that it also offers support for a namespace mapping argument.
</para>
@@ -10592,8 +10605,8 @@ SELECT xpath_exists('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://example.com">test</m
<para>
The <function>xmltable</function> function produces a table based
- on the given XML value, an XPath filter to extract rows, and an
- optional set of column definitions.
+ on the given XML value, an XPath filter to extract rows, and a
+ set of column definitions.
</para>
<para>
@@ -10604,30 +10617,34 @@ SELECT xpath_exists('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://example.com">test</m
</para>
<para>
- The required <replaceable>row_expression</> argument is an XPath
- expression that is evaluated against the supplied XML document to
- obtain an ordered sequence of XML nodes. This sequence is what
- <function>xmltable</> transforms into output rows.
+ The required <replaceable>row_expression</replaceable> argument is
+ an XPath 1.0 expression that is evaluated, passing the
+ <replaceable>document_expression</replaceable> as its context item, to
+ obtain a set of XML nodes. These nodes are what
+ <function>xmltable</function> transforms into output rows. No rows
+ will be produced if the <replaceable>document_expression</replaceable>
+ is null, nor if the <replaceable>row_expression</replaceable> produces
+ an empty node-set or any value other than a node-set.
</para>
<para>
- <replaceable>document_expression</> provides the XML document to
- operate on.
- The <literal>BY REF</literal> clauses have no effect in PostgreSQL,
- but are allowed for SQL conformance and compatibility with other
- implementations.
- The argument must be a well-formed XML document; fragments/forests
- are not accepted.
+ <replaceable>document_expression</replaceable> provides the context
+ item for the <replaceable>row_expression</replaceable>. It must be a
+ well-formed XML document; fragments/forests are not accepted.
+ The <literal>BY REF</literal> clauses
+ are accepted but ignored, as discussed in
+ <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-postgresql"/>.
+ In the SQL standard, the <function>xmltable</function> function
+ evaluates expressions in the XML Query language,
+ but <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows only XPath 1.0
+ expressions, as discussed in
+ <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-xpath1"/>.
</para>
<para>
The mandatory <literal>COLUMNS</literal> clause specifies the list
of columns in the output table.
- If the <literal>COLUMNS</> clause is omitted, the rows in the result
- set contain a single column of type <literal>xml</> containing the
- data matched by <replaceable>row_expression</>.
- If <literal>COLUMNS</literal> is specified, each entry describes a
- single column.
+ Each entry describes a single column.
See the syntax summary above for the format.
The column name and type are required; the path, default and
nullability clauses are optional.
@@ -10635,48 +10652,57 @@ SELECT xpath_exists('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://example.com">test</m
<para>
A column marked <literal>FOR ORDINALITY</literal> will be populated
- with row numbers matching the order in which the
- output rows appeared in the original input XML document.
+ with row numbers, starting with 1, in the order of nodes retrieved from
+ the <replaceable>row_expression</replaceable>'s result node-set.
At most one column may be marked <literal>FOR ORDINALITY</literal>.
</para>
+ <note>
+ <para>
+ XPath 1.0 does not specify an order for nodes in a node-set, so code
+ that relies on a particular order of the results will be
+ implementation-dependent. Details can be found in
+ <xref linkend="xml-xpath-1-specifics"/>.
+ </para>
+ </note>
+
<para>
- The <literal>column_expression</> for a column is an XPath expression
- that is evaluated for each row, relative to the result of the
- <replaceable>row_expression</>, to find the value of the column.
- If no <literal>column_expression</> is given, then the column name
- is used as an implicit path.
+ The <replaceable>column_expression</replaceable> for a column is an
+ XPath 1.0 expression that is evaluated for each row, with the current
+ node from the <replaceable>row_expression</replaceable> result as its
+ context item, to find the value of the column. If
+ no <replaceable>column_expression</replaceable> is given, then the
+ column name is used as an implicit path.
</para>
<para>
- If a column's XPath expression returns multiple elements, an error
- is raised.
- If the expression matches an empty tag, the result is an
- empty string (not <literal>NULL</>).
- Any <literal>xsi:nil</> attributes are ignored.
+ If a column's XPath expression returns a non-XML value (limited to
+ string, boolean, or double in XPath 1.0) and the column has a
+ PostgreSQL type other than <type>xml</type>, the column will be set
+ as if by assigning the value's string representation to the PostgreSQL
+ type. In this release, an XPath boolean or double result must be explicitly
+ cast to string (that is, the XPath 1.0 <function>string</function> function
+ wrapped around the original column expression);
+ <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> can then successfully assign the
+ string to an SQL result column of boolean or double type.
+ These conversion rules differ from those of the SQL
+ standard, as discussed in <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-casts"/>.
</para>
<para>
- The text body of the XML matched by the <replaceable>column_expression</>
- is used as the column value. Multiple <literal>text()</literal> nodes
- within an element are concatenated in order. Any child elements,
- processing instructions, and comments are ignored, but the text contents
- of child elements are concatenated to the result.
- Note that the whitespace-only <literal>text()</> node between two non-text
- elements is preserved, and that leading whitespace on a <literal>text()</>
- node is not flattened.
+ In this release, SQL result columns of <type>xml</type> type, or
+ column XPath expressions evaluating to an XML type, regardless of the
+ output column SQL type, are handled as described in
+ <xref linkend="functions-xml-limits-postgresql"/>; the behavior
+ changes significantly in <productname>PostgreSQL 12</productname>.
</para>
<para>
- If the path expression does not match for a given row but
- <replaceable>default_expression</> is specified, the value resulting
- from evaluating that expression is used.
- If no <literal>DEFAULT</> clause is given for the column,
- the field will be set to <literal>NULL</>.
- It is possible for a <replaceable>default_expression</> to reference
- the value of output columns that appear prior to it in the column list,
- so the default of one column may be based on the value of another
- column.
+ If the path expression returns an empty node-set
+ (typically, when it does not match)
+ for a given row, the column will be set to <literal>NULL</literal>, unless
+ a <replaceable>default_expression</replaceable> is specified; then the
+ value resulting from evaluating that expression is used.
</para>
<para>
@@ -10688,20 +10714,14 @@ SELECT xpath_exists('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://example.com">test</m
</para>
<para>
- Unlike regular PostgreSQL functions, <replaceable>column_expression</>
- and <replaceable>default_expression</> are not evaluated to a simple
- value before calling the function.
- <replaceable>column_expression</> is normally evaluated
- exactly once per input row, and <replaceable>default_expression</>
- is evaluated each time a default is needed for a field.
- If the expression qualifies as stable or immutable the repeat
+ A <replaceable>default_expression</replaceable>, rather than being
+ evaluated immediately when <function>xmltable</function> is called,
+ is evaluated each time a default is needed for the column.
+ If the expression qualifies as stable or immutable, the repeat
evaluation may be skipped.
- Effectively <function>xmltable</> behaves more like a subquery than a
- function call.
This means that you can usefully use volatile functions like
- <function>nextval</> in <replaceable>default_expression</>, and
- <replaceable>column_expression</> may depend on other parts of the
- XML document.
+ <function>nextval</function> in
+ <replaceable>default_expression</replaceable>.
</para>
<para>
diff --git a/src/backend/catalog/sql_features.txt b/src/backend/catalog/sql_features.txt
index 8e746f3..ccd3450 100644
--- a/src/backend/catalog/sql_features.txt
+++ b/src/backend/catalog/sql_features.txt
@@ -593,7 +593,7 @@ X085 Predefined namespace prefixes NO
X086 XML namespace declarations in XMLTable NO
X090 XML document predicate YES
X091 XML content predicate NO
-X096 XMLExists NO XPath only
+X096 XMLExists NO XPath 1.0 only
X100 Host language support for XML: CONTENT option NO
X101 Host language support for XML: DOCUMENT option NO
X110 Host language support for XML: VARCHAR mapping NO
@@ -661,11 +661,11 @@ X282 XMLValidate with CONTENT option NO
X283 XMLValidate with SEQUENCE option NO
X284 XMLValidate: NAMESPACE without ELEMENT clause NO
X286 XMLValidate: NO NAMESPACE with ELEMENT clause NO
-X300 XMLTable NO XPath only
+X300 XMLTable NO XPath 1.0 only
X301 XMLTable: derived column list option YES
X302 XMLTable: ordinality column option YES
X303 XMLTable: column default option YES
-X304 XMLTable: passing a context item YES
+X304 XMLTable: passing a context item YES must be XML DOCUMENT
X305 XMLTable: initializing an XQuery variable NO
X400 Name and identifier mapping YES
X410 Alter column data type: XML type YES
--
2.7.3
--------------060806070207090601090509--
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Subject: Re: [PATCH] Improve documentation about our XML functionality.
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