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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2–7Cite as

Abstract Versus Concrete Temporal Query Languages

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Synonyms

Historical query languages

Definition

Temporal query languages are a family of query languages designed to query (and access in general) time-dependent information stored in temporal databases. The languages are commonly defined as extensions of standard query languages for non-temporal databases with temporal features. The additional features reflect the way dependencies of data on time are captured by and represented in the underlying temporal data model.

Historical Background

Most databases store time-varying information. On the other hand, SQL is often the language of choice for developing applications that utilize the information in these databases. Plain SQL, however, does not seem to provide adequate support for temporal applications.

Example

To represent the employment histories of persons, a common relational design would use a schema

$$ \begin{array}{ll}...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Bettini C, Wang XS, Jajodia S. Temporal semantic assumptions and their use in databases. Knowl Data Eng. 1998;10(2):277–96.

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  2. Chomicki J. Temporal query languages: a survey. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Temporal Logic; 1994. p. 506–34.

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  3. Chomicki J, Toman D. Temporal databases. In: Fischer M, Gabbay D, Villa L, editors. Handbook of temporal reasoning in artificial intelligence. Elsevier Foundations of Artificial Intelligence; 2005. p. 429–67.

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  4. Chomicki J, Toman D, Böhlen MH. Querying ATSQL databases with temporal logic. ACM Trans Database Syst. 2001;26(2):145–78.

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  5. Law Y-N, Wang H, Zaniolo C. Query languages and data models for database sequences and data streams. In: Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases; 2004. p. 492–503.

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  6. Navathe SB, Ahmed R. Temporal extensions to the relational model and SQL. In: Tansel A, Clifford J, Gadia S, Jajodia S, Segev A, Snodgrass RT, editors. Temporal databases: theory, design, and implementation. Menlo Park: Benjamin/Cummings; 1993. p. 92–109.

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  7. Snodgrass RT. The temporal query language TQuel. ACM Trans Database Syst. 1987;12(2):247–98.

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  8. Toman D. Point vs. interval-based query languages for temporal databases. In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART Symposium on Principles of Database Systems; 1996. p. 58–67.

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  9. Toman D. Point-based temporal extensions of SQL. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Deductive and Object-Oriented Databases; 1997. p. 103–21.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Jan Chomicki

  2. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    David Toman

Authors
  1. Jan Chomicki
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  2. David Toman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Chomicki .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Richard T. Snodgrass

  2. Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark

    Christian S. Jensen

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Chomicki, J., Toman, D. (2018). Abstract Versus Concrete Temporal Query Languages. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_1559

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