VIEW MATCHING OF MATERIALIZED XML VIEWS

A materialized XML view matching system and method for processing of SQLXML queries using view matching of materialized XML views. The view matching process of the embodiments of the system and method use a multi-path tree (MPT) data structure. Embodiments of the materialized XML view matching system and method construct an MPT data structure for each input query and view expression. View matching is performed on the MPT data structures to generate a set of partial matches, which then are cleaned to generate a set of candidate matches. A valid match definition is generated by testing each candidate match for different forms of compliance. Using the valid match definition, a set of valid matches is identified and extracted. For each valid match, a substitute query expression is constructed that can serve as a replacement for the original query. These substitute queries can be used to evaluate the original query.