A method for processing queries for a document of elements is provided. The document includes a plurality of subsections where each subsection includes at least a portion of elements in the document. The method comprises: receiving a query for a npath of elements in the document of elements; determining a plurality of step queries from the query, each step query including at least a part of the path of elements; for each step query in the plurality of step queries, determining one or more subsections that include elements that correspond to a step query; and determining at least one subsection that includes the path of elements of the query. A result for the query is generated using the at least one subsection.