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Logics for Databases and Information Systems pp 31–70Cite as

Temporal Logic in Information Systems

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Part of the book series: The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science ((SECS,volume 436))

Abstract

Temporal logic is obtained by adding temporal connectives to a logic language. Explicit references to time are hidden inside the temporal connectives. Different variants of temporal logic use different sets of such connectives. In this chapter, we survey the fundamental varieties of temporal logic and describe their applications in information systems.

Several features of temporal logic make it especially attractive as a query and integrity constraint language for temporal databases. First, because the references to time are hidden, queries and integrity constraints are formulated in an abstract, representation-independent way. Second, temporal logic is amenable to efficient implementation. Temporal logic queries can be translated to an algebraic language. Temporal logic constraints can be efficiently enforced using auxiliary stored information. More general languages, with explicit references to time, do not share these properties.

Recent research has proposed various implementation techniques to make temporal logic practically useful in database applications. Also, the relationships between different varieties of temporal logic and between temporal logic and other temporal languages have been clarified. We report on these developments and outline some of the remaining open research problems.

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Authors
  1. Jan Chomicki
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  2. David Toman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monmouth University, USA

    Jan Chomicki

  2. University of Magdeburg, Germany

    Gunter Saake

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Chomicki, J., Toman, D. (1998). Temporal Logic in Information Systems. In: Chomicki, J., Saake, G. (eds) Logics for Databases and Information Systems. The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 436. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5643-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5643-5_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7582-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5643-5

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