Abstract
A meta-logic statement over a language is characterised by a formula in typed ω-order λ-calculus. The head of the λ-term corresponding to a meta-logic statement is always a constant when it is in normal form. It is shown that both deductive database statements and integrity constraints, particularly those involving aggregate operations, can be represented conveniently in meta-logic statements. A special case of Huet’s unification algorithm is considered on the domain of meta-logic terms and a proof procedure based on this unification is presented to answer database queries and to verify integrity constraints. Although, the main focus is to handle deductive databases problems, the results of this paper deal indirectly with a metalevel extension of first-order logic programming.
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Das, S.K. (1992). Specifying Deductive Databases and Integrity Constraints in Meta-logic. In: Harper, D.J., Norrie, M.C. (eds) Specifications of Database Systems. Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3864-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3864-8_4
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