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Encyclopedia of Big Data Technologies pp 883–890Cite as

Graph Query Languages

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Definitions

A query language is a high-level computer language for the retrieval and modification of data held in databases or files. Query languages usually consist of a collection of operators which can be applied to any valid instances of the data structure types of a data model, in any combination desired.

In the context of graph data management, a graph query language (GQL) defines the way to retrieve or extract data which have been modeled as a graph and whose structure is defined by a graph data model. Therefore, a GQL is designed to support specific graph operations, such as graph pattern matching and shortest path finding.

Overview

Research on graph query languages has at least 30 years of history. Several GQLs were proposed during the 1980s, most of them oriented to study and define the theoretical foundations of the area. During the 1990s, the research on GQLs was overshadowed by the appearance of XML, which was arguably seen as the main alternative to relational databases...

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://tinkerpop.apache.org/

  2. 2.

    http://www.opencypher.org/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile

    Renzo Angles

  2. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Juan Reutter

  3. Dresden Database Systems Group, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Hannes Voigt

Authors
  1. Renzo Angles
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  2. Juan Reutter
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  3. Hannes Voigt
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Renzo Angles , Juan Reutter or Hannes Voigt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Sherif Sakr

  2. School of Information Technologies, Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

    Albert Y. Zomaya

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Angles, R., Reutter, J., Voigt, H. (2019). Graph Query Languages. In: Sakr, S., Zomaya, A.Y. (eds) Encyclopedia of Big Data Technologies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77525-8_75

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