Abstract text

Techniques are provided for indexing XML documents using abridged indexes. According to one embodiment, a value index is created for each node of an XML documents as specified by one or more criteria. The criteria are used to determine one or more paths of XML documents. For each path specified, a abridged index is created and maintained. When processing a query in a DBMS that utilizes abridged indexes the abridged indexes are used instead the XML index, provided the abridged index can satisfy the query. Use of the abridged indexes improves the efficiency of XPath queries performance.