MarkLogic 9 Product Documentation

xdmp:describe

xdmp:describe(
   $item as item()*,
   [$max-sequence-length as xs:unsignedInt?],
   [$max-item-length as xs:unsignedInt?]
) as xs:string

Summary

Returns a string representing the description of a given item sequence. If you take the output of this function and evaluate it as an XQuery program, it returns the item(s) input to the function.

Usage Notes

If you specify an item that is in a database, this function returns the path to the item (or to the items if you specify multiple items). If the item or items are constructed in XQuery, then it prints out the item, truncating the characters in each item according to the $max-item-length parameter.

Example

xdmp:describe(current-date())

=> xs:date("2007-01-15-08:00")

Example

  let $x := <mynode>Some text here.</mynode>
  return
  xdmp:describe($x)

  => <mynode>Some text here.</mynode>

Example

  (:  assume /mydoc.xml is an XML document with
      the following content:
      <mynode>Some text here.</mynode> :)
  xdmp:describe(doc("/mydoc.xml")/mynode)

  => doc("/mydoc.xml")/mynode