XQuery

XML Query (short: XQuery) is a specification of the W3C. XML Query is a query language that makes it possible to extract information from an XML document. It is semantically similar to SQL. XML Query uses XPath 2.0 syntax to address specific parts of an XML document.

There are two distinct syntaxes for XML Query:

• The syntax FLWR, whose name comes from the four principal instructions that are used; FOR, LET, WHERE and RETURN.
• XQueryX syntax ("XML Syntax for XML Query") is machine-readable and can be used for generation queries automatically and for embedding queries into XML documents.

The XQuery language possesses a formal model, which allows it to be used in formal underpinnings of other XML technologies.