 Ask Our Expert: January 2006
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I've heard that XQuery is a programming language - what does that mean?
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XQuery is a query language, providing functionality that's similar to SQL relational queries. But at the same time XQuery goes beyond what SQL can do. Using MarkLogic Server, you can build entire web applications or web services in pure XQuery. All by itself, our implementation of XQuery knows how to read HTTP request fields, fetch RSS feeds, work with documents on the filesystem, and much more.
What skills are needed to get started with XQuery?
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To get started, it's enough to have basic familiarity with XML and XPath. As you go along, you'll learn more about advanced topics, such as namespaces, schemas, XPath functions and operators, and XPath axes. The language is very approachable: you can be doing useful work within a few hours. But learning curve has fairly long tail, and you'll continue to learn new things for several months.
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