Patent Document ID: 7991768
Application ID: 11937268

Base Claim:
1. A method comprising: receiving a query that specifies a particular path expression; normalizing the query to generate a normalized query, wherein normalizing the query comprises generating, based on the particular path expression, a plurality of normalized path expressions; generating, based on the particular path expression, from a subset of the plurality of normalized path expressions, one or more temporary path expressions; determining whether each of the one or more temporary path expressions is subsumed by a path of a node that is indexed by a path-subsetted XML index that is associated with one or more subsetted path expressions that indicate a set of one or more nodes that are indexed by said path-subsetted XML index; and in response to determining that each of the one or more temporary path expressions is subsumed by a path of a node that is indexed by said path-subsetted XML index, using the path-subsetted XML index to process the plurality of normalized path expressions; wherein the method is performed by one or more computers.

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Claim 9:
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein: the normalized query includes a plurality of extract operators, none of which appear in said query; each extract operator of the plurality of extract operators takes as input a different normalized path expression of the plurality of normalized path expressions; and using the path-subsetted XML index to process the plurality of normalized path expressions comprises rewriting each extract operator to use the path-subsetted XML index.