The leading candidate for searching and retrieving fragments of XML text is XQuery. It is proposed that minor extensions to the SQL language might instead be employed to facilitate searching and retrieval of structured texts. This alternative approach has numerous advantages, since it builds upon existing database technology, and allows a tight integration of structured and semi-structured data, under a powerful and well-established query language.

Enhancements to the XPath pattern matching language are proposed, that facilitate the melding of relational database and structural queries, while offering the potential of being rapidly resolved by existing text engines.

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