Abstract
Most semantic data models and object-oriented data models allow entity and object classes to be organized according to a generalization taxonomy. In addition, range restrictions (or property typing) may be specified not only on properties associated with a given class, but also on properties inherited from superclasses. In this paper, we consider a more general form of specialization constraint in which range restrictions are associated with property value paths, instead of with the properties themselves. One consequence is that the constraints enable a form of molecular abstraction, in which the internals of more complicated objects can be defined in terms of a collection of more primitive types. Sound and complete axiomatizations are given for two models: one not assuming a most specialized class rule (MSC), and another satisfying MSC together with an additional almost lower semilattice condition. Efficient decision procedures for both cases are also presented.
This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; by Bell Northern Research, Ltd., Ottawa, Canada; and by ITRC: Information Technology Research Centre.
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Weddell, G.E., Coburn, N. (1990). A theory of specialization constraints for complex objects. In: Abiteboul, S., Kanellakis, P.C. (eds) ICDT '90. ICDT 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 470. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53507-1_80
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-53507-1_80
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