Disclosed are a method, information processing system, and computer readable medium for processing queries. The method includes receiving a data query for a set of hierarchical markup documents. At least one query path expression is extracted from the data query. The query path is processed against at least one shared hierarchical markup document in a plurality of shared hierarchical markup documents. The plurality of shared hierarchical documents is associated with the set of hierarchical markup documents. In response to the shared hierarchical markup document completely matching the query path expression, a query result for the data query is generated. The query result is based on the processing of the query path expression against at least one of the shared hierarchical markup document and the difference hierarchical markup document.