Synonyms
Bitemporal algebras; Historical algebras; Transaction-time algebras; Valid-time algebras
Definition
Temporal algebra is a generic term for an algebra defined for a data model that organizes temporal data. A temporal data model may support valid-time (the time over which a data value is valid), transaction-time (time when a data value is recorded in the database), or both (bitemporal). So an algebra can be defined for each case, a valid-time relational algebra, a transaction-time relational algebra, or a bitemporal relational algebra, respectively. For the relational data model, temporal algebras include the temporal versions of relational algebra operations in addition to new operations for manipulating temporal data like time-slice, rollback, temporal coalesce, temporal restructuring operations, and others. For a temporal algebra, it is desirable to be closed (common algebras are closed), a consistent extension of the relational algebra, and to reduce to relational algebra...
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Tansel, A.U. (2018). Temporal Algebras. 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_387
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