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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2953–2957Cite as

Qualitative Temporal Reasoning

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Synonyms

Nonmetric temporal reasoning; Reasoning with qualitative temporal constraints

Definition

Qualitative temporal constraints are nonmetric temporal constraints stating the relative temporal position of facts that happen in time (e.g., fact F1 is before or during fact F2). Different types of qualitative constraints can be defined, depending on whether facts are instantaneous, durative, or repeated. Qualitative temporal reasoning is the process of reasoning with such temporal constraints. Given a set of qualitative temporal constraints, qualitative temporal reasoning can be used for different purposes, including checking their consistency, determining the strictest constraints between pairs of facts (e.g., for query-answering purposes), and pointing out a consistent scenario (i.e., a possible instantiation of all the facts on the timeline in such a way that all temporal constraints are satisfied).

Historical Background

In several domains and/or application areas, temporal...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica (DiSIT), Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro”, Alessandria, Italy

    Paolo Terenziani

Authors
  1. Paolo Terenziani
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Correspondence to Paolo Terenziani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Richard T. Snodgrass

  2. Aalborg University, Aalborg Øst, Denmark

    Christian S. Jensen

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Terenziani, P. (2018). Qualitative Temporal Reasoning. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_287

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