Dataset Paths, Locators, Names, and Datatypes
When working with XML, JSON, or CSV datasets, there are three potentially troublesome areas that you can improve with specific techniques:
The data model for XML or JSON datasets is frequently hierarchical, including additional metadata beyond the flat rows of interest to
RAQL and adding additional layers of structure.
To simplify queries, RAQL automatically attempts to detect which objects in an XML or JSON dataset should be considered rows. This allows you to refer to rows in the dataset in RAQL queries using only the name of the variable containing the dataset, such as:
select firstname, lastname, state from congress
In some cases, you may also need to alter column names to make them valid for
RAQL or for
EMML. In cases with queries using multiple datasets, you may also need to clarify the specific context for column names.
