Multiway SLCA-based keyword search in XML data

Abstract

Keyword search for smallest lowest common ancestors (SLCAs)in XML data has recently been proposed as a meaningful way to identify interesting data nodes inXML data where their subtrees contain an input set of keywords. In this paper, we generalize this useful search paradigm to support keyword search beyond the traditional AND semantics to include both AND and OR boolean operators as well. We first analyze properties of the LCA computation and propose improved algorithms to solve the traditional keyword search problem (with only AND semantics). We then extend our approach to handle general keyword search involving combinations of AND and OR boolean operators. The effectiveness of our new algorithms is demonstrated with a comprehensive experimental performance study.