Synonyms
Preference Definition
Definition
Usually, preference relations are formalized as strict partial orders (SPO), which means that a preference relation ≻ satisfies the following properties:
irreflexivity: \(\forall x\ (x\nsucc x)\),
transitivity: ∀x, y, z (x ≻ y ∧ y ≻ z → x≻z).
Additionally, an SPO ≻ is a weak order if ∀x, y, z (x ≻ y → x ≻ z ∨ z ≻ y), and a total order if ∀x, y (x ≻ y ∨ y ≻ x ∨ x = y).
The formal properties of orders capture the nature of preferences in an abstract, application-independent way. It is obvious that irreflexivity should hold: preferring an object over itself seems to violate the basic intuitions behind preference. But transitivity is debatable. On one hand, it captures the rationality of preferences [1, 2]. On the other, transitivity is sometimes violated by preference aggregation in voting scenarios [3]. The weak order property implies that the set ordered by the preference relation can be viewed as consisting of disjoint layers each of which...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsRecommended Reading
Fishburn PC. Utility theory for decision making. New York: Wiley; 1970.
Fishburn PC. Preference structures and their numerical representations. Theor Comput Sci. 1999;217(2):359–83.
Sen AK, Pattanaik PK. Necessary and sufficient conditions for rational choice under majority decision. J Econ Theory. 1969;1(2):178–202.
Hansson SO. Preference logic. In: Gabbay D, editor. Handbook of philosophical logic. vol 4. Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer; 2001.
Brafman RI, Domshlak C. Preference handling – an introductory tutorial. AI Mag. 2009;30(1): 58–86.
Stefanidis K, Koutrika G, Pitoura E. A survey on representation, composition and application of preferences in database systems. ACM Trans Database Syst. 2011;36(4):1–45.
Chomicki J. Preference formulas in relational queries. ACM Trans Database Syst. 2003;28(4): 427–66.
Kießling W. Foundations of preferences in database systems. In: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases; 2002. p. 311–22.
Kießling W, Köstler G. Preference SQL – design, implementation, experience. In: Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases; 2002. p. 990–1001.
Im H, Park S. Group skyline computation. Inf Sci. 2012;188(0):151–69.
Li C, Zhang N, Hassan N, Rajasekaran S, Das G. On skyline groups. In: Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management; 2012. p. 2119–23.
Zhang X, Chomicki J. Preference queries over sets. In: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Data Engineering; 2011. p. 1019–30.
Antony S, Wu P, Agrawal D, El Abbadi A. Aggregate skyline: analysis for online users. In: Proceedings of the 9th Annual International Symposium on Applications and the Internet; 2009. p. 50–56.
Koutrika G, Ioannidis Y. Personalization of queries in database systems. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Data Engineering; 2004. p. 597–608.
Arvanitis A, Koutrika G. PrefDB: supporting preferences as first-class citizens in relational databases. IEEE Trans Knowl Data Eng. 2014;26(6): 1430–46.
Kießling W, Fischer S, Döring S. COSIMA B2B – sales automation for E-procurement. IEEE Press; 2004. p. 59–68.
Köbberling V. Strength of preference and cardinal utility. Econ Theory. 2006;27(2):375–91.
Mindolin D, Chomicki J. Preference elicitation in prioritized skyline queries. VLDB J. 2011;20(2):157–82. Special issue: selected papers from VLDB 2009.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Chomicki, J. (2018). Preference Specification. 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_80707
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_80707
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8266-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8265-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceReference Module Computer Science and Engineering