RE: [XPath/XQuery] unpredictable error handling

> 
> The handling of errors in cases such as 'and', 'or', 
> 'some',... is really dangerous, because it is highly 
> unpredictable, not only between different implementations but 
> also in a single implementation.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that the speed advantages can be obtained 
> with other methods that don't introduce that much unpredictability.
> 

I share some of your concerns here. However, it wouldn't be acceptable
given the expression

employee[is-retired() and ssn="12345"]

to do a serial search, and not to use the index on ssn, just in case the
is-retired() function throws an error when applied to the employee with
ssn="98541".

I personally think the way forward on this is to have fewer dynamic
errors, which is how XPath 1.0 tackled the problem. But it's a
trade-off.

Michael Kay (speaking personally)

Received on Sunday, 15 February 2004 18:41:32 UTC