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International Workshop on Logic in Databases

LID 1996: Logic in Databases pp 435–453Cite as

Unification of bounded simple set terms in deductive databases

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1154))

Abstract

In this paper we consider the problem of unification of bounded simple set terms in the field of deductive databases. Simple set terms are of the form {e1,..., en}, where e i is a constant or a variable and are much used in deductive database systems such as \(\mathcal{L}\mathcal{D}\mathcal{L}\) and Coral. In this paper we consider a restricted form of unification, called “weak unification”, which is mainly used in the field of deductive databases where the database may contain both constants and variables and the program is “safe”. The main results are: (a) the detailed complexity analysis of the weak unification problem by providing a formula for determining the number of weak unifiers, and (b) the invention of an optimal weak unification algorithm.

Work partially supported by a European Union grant under the EU-US project “DEUS EX MACHINA: non-determinism for deductive databases” and by a MURST project “Sistemi formali e strumenti per basi di dati evolute”.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DEIS, Univ. della Calabria, 87030, Rende, Italy

    Sergio Greco & Cristinel Mateis

  2. ISI-CNR, c/o DEIS, Univ. della Calabria, 87030, Rende, Italy

    Eugenio Spadafora

Authors
  1. Sergio Greco
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  2. Cristinel Mateis
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  3. Eugenio Spadafora
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Dino Pedreschi Carlo Zaniolo

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Greco, S., Mateis, C., Spadafora, E. (1996). Unification of bounded simple set terms in deductive databases. In: Pedreschi, D., Zaniolo, C. (eds) Logic in Databases. LID 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1154. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0031755

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0031755

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61814-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70683-0

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