XQuery for Humanists (Coding for Humanists)

351 Pages·2020·4.963 MB·English

by  Clifford B. Anderson, Joseph C. Wicentowski

XQuery

for Humanists
Coding for Humanists

XQuery

for Humanists
Clifford B. Anderson and
Joseph C. Wicentowski
Texas A&M University Press
College Station
Copyright © 2020 by Clifford B. Anderson and Joseph C. Wicentowski
All rights reserved
First edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anderson, Clifford B., author. | Wicentowski, Joseph Charles, 1976– author.
Title: XQuery for humanists / Clifford B. Anderson, Joseph C. Wicentowski.
Description: First edition. | College Station, [Texas] : Texas A&M University
Press, [2020] | Series: Coding for humanists | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019044520 | ISBN 9781623498290 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781623498306 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: XQuery (Computer program language) | Digital humanities. |
XML (Document markup language)
Classification: LCC QA76.73.X575 A53 2020 | DDC 005.1/14—dc23
LC record available at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lccn.loc.
gov_2019044520&d=DwIFAg&c=u6LDEWzohnDQ01ySGnxMzg&r=Vb_cq2f6gpCkUTL
wv_VJN_5pQZyZ_AzWdjHt3-hValk&m=BjEP9eD-ufZgA2HbiCsRsiKZXJfztBslLe1753Umt
dI&s=HlpsNZFa_xo4BTLmXtzdireJOI8hRyKvi19O-Ar78zY&e=
The views expressed in this book are the authors’ alone
and not necessarily those of the US Government.
Clifford dedicates this book to his lovely wife, Rosanna, to their
inquisitive son, Theodore, and to the talented baristas at the
Revelator Coffee Company in Nashville, where he wrote most
of these pages over countless cups of coffee.
For Sue Jean and Miriam—JCW

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
viii Contents
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 75
with the Union Operator
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 96