Hello, I have a question, whether MonetDB/XQuery is native XML database or not. To clarify what is native or not, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_database : " Two major classes of XML database exist: XML-enabled: these map all XML to a traditional database (such as a relational database), accepting XML as input and rendering XML as output. This term implies that the database does the conversion itself (as opposed to relying on middleware). Native XML (NXD): the internal model of such databases depends on XML and uses XML documents as the fundamental unit of storage, which are, however, not necessarily stored in the form of text files. " Then according to this page, monetDB is native XML: http://monetdb.cwi.nl/MonetDB/Version4/Documentation/monet/index.html " 2 MonetDB Features MonetDB is database engine geared at high performance on systems with (complex) queries that have to analyze large amounts of data (i.e. OLAP, not OLTP). The features in which it most differs from other DBMSs are summarized below: Independence of SQL: MonetDB has a front-end/back-end design allowing the storage of more than just relational tables (such as object-oriented or native XML data), and allowing the use of querying paradigms other than just SQL (such as OQL and XQuery). " Whereas according to this one, it is not: http://monetdb.cwi.nl/projects/monetdb/XQuery/Documentation/Separate-Documen ts-vs-Document-Collections.html#Separate-Documents-vs-Document-Collections : " 2.9.1.1 Storage Overhead In MonetDB/XQuery all XML is stored in relational tables. " Is then monetDB really native? Thanks in advance for clarification... Regards, M. Tekel