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An Abstract Object-Oriented Query Execution Language

  • Conference paper
Database Programming Languages (DBPL-4)

Part of the book series: Workshops in Computing ((WORKSHOPS COMP.))

Abstract

What is an appropriate generalization of relational join to object-oriented query algebras? No satisfactory answer has yet been given; the difficulty of the question prompts us to address a different, though related question: What are appropriate abstractions for expressing object-oriented query execution plans? Our answer takes the form of a language that can serve as the interface between an optimizer and an execution engine. Our query execution language is designed to express arbitrary object-oriented queries, and to couch them in terms of efficient algorithms—such as join algorithms—when possible. By carefully choosing our query execution abstractions, we are able to optimize join-like queries in ways that had been inaccessible at the algebraic level. Yet the optimizations we achieve have an “algebraic flavor.” Indeed, the execution language may be thought of as a kind of low-level algebra; moreover, through its data abstraction facilities it may be extended with new types and operators in such a way that it acquires the functionality of a higher-level algebra. Our language thus creates a framework in which both the inputs and outputs of an optimizer can be expressed, and their semantics compared.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Bennet Vance

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  1. Bennet Vance
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Givat-Ram, Jerusalem, Israel

    Catriel Beeri PhD

  2. Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, 606-01, Kyoto, Japan

    Atsushi Ohori PhD

  3. Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, 10012-1185, New York, NY, USA

    Dennis E. Shasha PhD

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Vance, B. (1994). An Abstract Object-Oriented Query Execution Language. In: Beeri, C., Ohori, A., Shasha, D.E. (eds) Database Programming Languages (DBPL-4). Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3564-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3564-7_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19853-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3564-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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