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Employing integrity constraints for query modification and intensional answer generation in multi-database systems

  • Logic Programming and Databases
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Advanced Database Systems (BNCOD 1992)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 618))

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Abstract

A significant number of database (DB) users today lack complete knowledge of the semantics of the DB(s) they desire to query. This is a very common phenomenon in the Multidatabase System (MBS) type of distributed database systems (DDBSs). In MBSs, a number of DBs, are loosely linked without creating a global schema in order to enable occasional sharing of their information contents. As some cost is normally associated with querying any particular site in this system, a lack of complete knowledge of the DB semantics can often result in fruitless but costly searches. The aim of the work described in this paper is to provide a tool which can assist Multidatabase users gain an understanding of the semantics of DBs accessible to them. Specifically, we use the explicit integrity constraints(ICs) of the database intension in two essential ways to elicit the semantics of those views of the DB addressed in the user's query; firstly to ascertain the relevance of a user query at a particular site and thus to advise the user in case of any constraint violations, suggesting a modification for the query in the process, and secondly to provide abstract or intensional answers to a user request.The first goal aims to provide a system free of the ambiguities associated with an empty response to some retrieval request while the second goal aims to improve the user's understanding of the semantics associated with the data values generated as answers by providing with the tuples of the answer the general rules that they obey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computing Mathematics, University of Wales College of Cardiff, CF2 4AG, Cardiff

    M. M. Fonkam & W. A. Gray

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  1. M. M. Fonkam
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  2. W. A. Gray
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Peter M. D. Gray Rob J. Lucas

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fonkam, M.M., Gray, W.A. (1992). Employing integrity constraints for query modification and intensional answer generation in multi-database systems. In: Gray, P.M.D., Lucas, R.J. (eds) Advanced Database Systems. BNCOD 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 618. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55693-1_42

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-55693-1_42

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-55693-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47272-8

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