Skip to main content

Querying Unranked Trees with Stepwise Tree Automata

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 3091))

Abstract

The problem of selecting nodes in unranked trees is the most basic querying problem for XML. We propose stepwise tree automata for querying unranked trees. Stepwise tree automata can express the same monadic queries as monadic Datalog and monadic second-order logic. We prove this result by reduction to the ranked case, via a new systematic correspondence that relates unranked and ranked queries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Baumgartner, R., Flesca, S., Gottlob, G.: Visual web information extraction with Lixto. The Very Large Data Bases Journal, 119–128 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Berlea, A., Seidl, H.: Binary queries. In: Proceedings of Extreme Markup Languages, Montreal (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Brüggemann-Klein, A., Murata, M., Wood, D.: Regular tree and regular hedge languages over unranked alphabets. Technical report (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Comon, H., Dauchet, M., Gilleron, R., Jacquemard, F., Lugiez, D., Tison, S., Tommasi, M.: Tree automata techniques and applications. Online book, 450 pages. Available at (1997), http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/tata

  5. Courcelle, B.: On recognizable sets and tree automata. In: Ait-Kaci, H., Nivat, M. (eds.) Resolution of Equations in Algebraic Structures, Algebraic Techniques, vol. 1, ch. 3, pp. 93–126. Academic Press, London (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Frick, M., Grohe, M., Koch, C.: Query evaluation on compressed trees. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Logic In Computer Sciences, Ottawa (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gottlob, G., Koch, C.: Monadic datalog and the expressive power of languages for web information extraction. In: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Principle of Databases Systems, pp. 17–28 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gottlob, G., Koch, C.: Monadic queries over tree-structured data. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Logic In Computer Sciences, Copenhagen (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gottlob, G., Koch, C., Pichler, R.: The complexity of XPATH query evaluation. In: Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Principle of Databases Systems, pp. 179–190 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gottlob, G., Koch, C., Pichler, R.: XPATH processing in a nutshell. ACM SIGMOD Record 32(2), 21–27 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Koch, C.: Efficient processing of expressive node-selecting queries on XML data in secondary storage: A tree automata-based approach. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Neumann, A., Seidl, H.: Locating matches of tree patterns in forests. Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, 134–145 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Neven, F., Schwentick, T.: Query automata over finite trees. Theoretical Computer Science 275(1-2), 633–674 (2002)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Niehren, J., Podelski, A.: Feature automata and recognizable sets of feature trees. In: Gaudel, M.-C., Jouannaud, J.-P. (eds.) CAAP 1993, FASE 1993, and TAPSOFT 1993. LNCS, vol. 668, pp. 356–375. Springer, Heidelberg (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Seidl, H., Schwentick, T., Muscholl, A.: Numerical document queries. In: Proc. of the IEEE Symposium on Principles of Database Systems, pp. 155–166 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Thatcher, J.W.: Characterizing derivation trees of context-free grammars through a generalization of automata theory. J. of Comp. and Syst. Sci. 1, 317–322 (1967)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Thatcher, J.W., Wright, J.B.: Generalized finite automata with an application to a decision problem of second-order logic. Math. System Theory 2, 57–82 (1968)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Zilio, S.D., Lugiez, D.: XML schema, tree logic and sheaves automata. In: Nieuwenhuis, R. (ed.) RTA 2003. LNCS, vol. 2706, pp. 246–263. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Carme, J., Niehren, J., Tommasi, M. (2004). Querying Unranked Trees with Stepwise Tree Automata. In: van Oostrom, V. (eds) Rewriting Techniques and Applications. RTA 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3091. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25979-4_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25979-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22153-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-25979-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics