• quote:


    How can a hierarchical xml file store complex relational sets?


    Because it is doing what XML is best at... storing a single or selection of records and not an entire database. A hierarchical xml file lends itself very well to a correctly structured relational database.

    On a one level, one of our outputs relates data across 5-6 tables with various join types. The output of this is fantastic via XML, customer query our data via a web service (Which can also take the query via XML or traditional query string items) and we return the matching record(s) via a very easy to use XML document.

    There would be no easy way of doing this output without XML.