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IQL: A Graphical Interface for Full SQL Queries

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Database and Expert Systems Applications

Abstract

IQL (Interactive Query Language) provides interactive formulation and optimization of relational queries. IQL’s query interface supports fast and easy formulation of full SQL queries by using a novel object-oriented representation of query concepts. A query is a graph made up of a set of tree-like expressions (predicates, arithmetic and boolean expressions) specified at different graphic levels on subsets of relations of a database schema. The power and flexibility of query graphs derive from the independent metamodelization of implied formalisms, so complex queries may be expressed graphically in their entirety. Querying performances are improved in several ways: syntax and consistency issues are permanently verified during query formulation, a variety of abstraction mechanisms like the denomination of queries (or expressions) and the use of parameters, permit modular and generic reusability, even on different database schemas, and query optimization mechanisms are used to generate compiled versions of less-cost equivalent queries in relation to a given operational context (i. e., logic access and data schémas). IQL has been implemented as a part of an integrated environment for the design of databases using Graphtalk™, the object-oriented graph-based development tool from Rank Xerox.

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag/Wien

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Ramos, H.B. (1992). IQL: A Graphical Interface for Full SQL Queries. In: Tjoa, A., Ramos, I. (eds) Database and Expert Systems Applications. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7557-6_53

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7557-6_53

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-82400-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-7091-7557-6

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