Abstract
This paper discusses the update operators currently implemented in the functional database programming language PFL and the linear type system which regulates their use.
Updates in functional database programming languages pose a problem because if update operations are expressed as functions from an original database relation to a new updated relation then they are potentially inefficient. However destructive updates may compromise the confluence of the language, with the result that the meaning of an expression is ambiguous.
The update operators discussed here allow relations to be updated destructively but their use is constrained by a linear type system. The purpose of the linearity constraints is to ensure that at all stages in the evaluation of an expression intended to effect an update there is exactly one reference to each relation being updated. This means that the order in which updates are applied to each relation is always clear, and consequently that the meaning of every expression is unambiguous.
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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Sutton, D., Small, C. (1995). Extending functional database languages to update completeness. In: Goble, C., Keane, J. (eds) Advances in Databases. BNCOD 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 940. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0000540
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0000540
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