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Constraint programming and database query languages

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Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software (TACS 1994)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 789))

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Abstract

The declarative programming paradigms used in constraint languages can lead to powerful extensions of Codd's relational data model. The development of constraint database query languages from logical database query languages has many similarities with the development of constraint logic programming from logic programming, but with the additional requirements of data efficient, set-at-a-time, and bottomup evaluation. In this overview of constraint query languages (CQLs) we first present the framework of [41]. The principal idea is that: “the k-tuple (or record) data type can be generalized by a conjunction of quantifier-free constraints over k variables”. The generalization must preserve various language properties of the relational data model, e.g., the calculus/algebra equivalence, and have time complexity polynomial in the size of the data. We next present an algebra for dense order constraints that is simpler to evaluate than the calculus described in [41], and we sharpen some of the related data complexity bounds. We note that CQLs are applicable to spatial databases. This is because these languages have “spatial point set” as the semantics of their record data type and because existing multi-dimensional searching data structures can support I/O efficient access to sets of records. Finally, we observe that CQLs can be augmented with complex object data types, aggregate operations, and null-values, just like the relational data model.

Research was supported by ONR grant N00014-91-J-4052 ARPA Order No. 8225.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brown University, 02192, Providence, RI, USA

    Paris C. Kanellakis & Dina Q. Goldin

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  1. Paris C. Kanellakis
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  2. Dina Q. Goldin
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Masami Hagiya John C. Mitchell

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kanellakis, P.C., Goldin, D.Q. (1994). Constraint programming and database query languages. In: Hagiya, M., Mitchell, J.C. (eds) Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software. TACS 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 789. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57887-0_92

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57887-0_92

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