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Prioritized repairing and consistent query answering in relational databases

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Abstract

A consistent query answer in an inconsistent database is an answer obtained in every (minimal) repair. The repairs are obtained by resolving all conflicts in all possible ways. Often, however, the user is able to provide a preference on how conflicts should be resolved. We investigate here the framework of preferred consistent query answers, in which user preferences are used to narrow down the set of repairs to a set of preferred repairs. We axiomatize desirable properties of preferred repairs. We present three different families of preferred repairs and study their mutual relationships. Finally, we investigate the complexity of preferred repairing and computing preferred consistent query answers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mostrare project, INRIA & LIFL (CNRS UMR8022), Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Sławek Staworko

  2. Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Jan Chomicki

  3. Institute of Informatics, Wrocław University, Wrocław, Poland

    Jerzy Marcinkowski

Authors
  1. Sławek Staworko
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  2. Jan Chomicki
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  3. Jerzy Marcinkowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sławek Staworko.

Additional information

Research partially supported by NSF grants IIS-0119186 and IIS-0307434, Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Nord-Pas de Calais Regional Council and FEDER through the’ Contrat de Projets Etat Region (CPER) 2007–2013, Enumeration project ANR-07-blanc, and Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education research project N N206 371339.

Part of this research was done when S. Staworko was a PhD student at the University at Buffalo.

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Staworko, S., Chomicki, J. & Marcinkowski, J. Prioritized repairing and consistent query answering in relational databases. Ann Math Artif Intell 64, 209–246 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10472-012-9288-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10472-012-9288-8

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