Hi John,

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Kevin could use IDs and IDREFs to simulate primary foreign key relationships, but this would require the insertion of the ID values into the XML. Not really an option if the XML doesn't already contain the IDs and the IDREFs.
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I don't think the lack of existing ID's should an insurmountable problem. They could be arbitary and need only to be unique within the document.

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My point about normalization is that XML is hierarchial and it is awkward to represent a relational structure within a hierarchial structure.
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I've used IDREF's on a few occasions (for example where the document has a couple of hundred people names related to maybe only a dozen addresses) but have always created the source XML to suit in the first place. Guess I was just interested in how to achieve a transformation into a relational structure as an intellectual exercise (and at the moment it's beyond my intellect <g>)

Best,
Viv