16. A system for mapping hierarchical data from a relational table comprising: a schema stored in a memory for a hierarchical data structure wherein the schema defines a hierarchical relationship of data elements; processing means coupled to said memory for identifying from the schema a node within the hierarchical data structure corresponding to a column in the relational table; and processing means for copying a predefined number of data values from the relational table to the hierarchical data structure wherein the predefined number of data values are from the same column of the relational table and each data value has a child relationship with another one of the data value and wherein the predefined number is determined from the schema.
20. The system as recited in claim 16 wherein the copying act is performed in response to an XPath query.