Getting Started with DB2 Express-C

Chapter 15 - DB2 pureXML 265
Thus, depending on your background, if you are an SQL person you may see DB2 as a
world class RDBMS that also supports XML. If you are an XML person, you would see DB2
as a world class XML repository that also supports SQL.
Note that IBM uses the term pureXML instead of native XML to describe this technology.
While other vendors still use the old technologies of CLOB/varchar or shredding to store
XML documents, they call those old technologies “native XML”. To avoid confusion, IBM
decided to use the new term pureXML, and to trademark this name so that no other
database or XML vendor could use this same term to denote some differing technology.
pureXML support is provided for databases created as Unicode or non-Unicode.
15.3.1 pureXML technology advantages
Many advantages are provided by pureXML technology.
1. You can seamlessly leverage your relational investment, given that XML
documents are stored in columns of tables using the new XML data type.
2. You can reduce code complexity. For example, Figure 15.5 illustrates a PHP script
written with and without using pureXML. Using pureXML (the smaller box on the
left side) the lines of code are reduced. This not only means that the code is less
complex, but the overall performance is improved as there are fewer lines to parse
and maintain in the code.
Figure 15.5 – Code complexity with and without pureXML
3. Changes to your schema are easier using XML and pureXML technology. Figure
15.6 illustrates an example of this increased flexibility. In the figure, assume that