A technique is provided for creating metadata for fast search of XML documents stored as column data. Data is stored in a data store connected to a computer. A main table is created in a relational database management system, wherein the main table has a column for storing an extensible markup language (XML) document in a native XML format One or more side tables are created in the relational database management system, wherein each side table has one or more columns that store one or more attributes extracted from die XML document for fast searching of the XML document. Thereafter, the side tables are used to locate data in the main table.