Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On the semantics of rules in database programming languages

  • Formal Foundations
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Next Generation Information System Technology (EWDW 1990)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 504))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

The tension between the notion of ‘type’ as found in programming languages and ‘class’ as found in semantic and object-oriented database models is examined. A class includes structural and behavioral information as does a type, and also an extent, i.e., set of members, associated with the class by the current database state. The membership of extents can change over time, but they are nevertheless used in a manner analogous to programming language types. As a result, verifying “type correctness” in this realm is centered around integrity constraints rather than traditional typing paradigms. The notion of dytype (‘dynamic type’) is introduced to capture this phenomenon of using mutable sets as types.

This paper reports on preliminary research focused on the design and investigation of database programming language (DBPL) features to facilitate programming with dytypes. The incorporation of rules into the update semantics of a DBPL is proposed as an appropriate mechanism for partially enforcing dytype conditions. The preliminary design of a DBPL, RUSE, which can serve as the basis for investigating formal properties of alternative syntax and semantics for rules in DBPLs is introduced. Some representative semantics based on “overwriting” and “accumulation” are discussed. Semantics based on overwriting have characteristics of imperative programming while semantics based on accumulation have characteristics of declarative programming.

This research supported in part by a grant from AT&T.

Research by this author supported in part by NSF grant IRI-8719875, and also by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under NASA-Ames Cooperative Agreement No. NCC 2-520.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. K. Apt, H. Blair, and A. Walker. Toward a theory of declarative knowledge. In Proc. of Workshop on Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Springer Verlag LNCS 106, Berlin. The Programming Language Ada, Reference Manual, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  3. S. Abiteboul and E. Simon. Fundamental properties of determinstic and nondeterministic extensions of Datalog. Technical report, INRIA, July 1990. to appear in Theoretical Computer Science.

    Google Scholar 

  4. S. Abiteboul and V. Vianu. Datalog extensions for database queries and updates. Technical Report 900, INRIA, September 1988. to appear in Journal of Computer and System Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  5. F. Bancilhon and P. Buneman, editors. Advances in Database Programming Languages. ACM Press, New York, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  6. N. Bidoit and R. Hull. Minimalism, justification and non-monotonicity in deductive databases. J. Comput. Syst. Sci., 38(2):290–325, April 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  7. A. Borgida, J. Mylopoulos, J. W. Schmidt, and I. Wetzel. Support for data-intensive applications: Conceptual design and software development. In R. Hull, R. Morrison, and D. Stemple, editors, Database Programming Languages: Second International Workshop, pages 258–280. Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  8. F. Cacace, S. Ceri, S. Crespi-Reghizzi, L. Tanca, and R. Zicari. Integrating object-oriented data modeling with a rule-based programming paradigm. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Symp. on the Management of Data, pages 225–236, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  9. I-M.A. Chen, R. Hull, and D. McLeod. An experimental rule-based approach to derived data update. Technical report, Computer Science Department, University of Southern California, May 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  10. D. Cohen. Programming by specification and annotation. In Proc. of AAAI, August 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  11. D. Cohen. Compiling complex database transition triggers. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Symp. on the Management of Data, pages 225–234, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  12. R. Hull and R. King. Semantic database modeling: Survey, applications, and research issues. ACM Computing Surveys, 19(3):201–260, September 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  13. R. Harper, D.B. MacQueen, and R. Milner. Standard ML. Technical Report ECS-LFCS-86-2, University of Edinburgh, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  14. R. Hull, R. Morrison, and D. Stemple, editors. Database Programming Languages: Second International Workshop. Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  15. T. Imielinski and S. Naqvi. Explicit control of logic programs through rule algebra. In Proc. ACM Symp. on Principles of Database Systems, pages 103–116, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  16. S. Khoshafian and G. Copeland. Object identity. In Proc. ACM Conf. on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications, pages 406–416, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  17. A.M. Kotz, K.R. Dittrich, and J.A. Mülle. Supporting semantic rules by as generalized event/trigger mechanism. In Intl. Conf. on Extending Data Base Technology, pages 76–91, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  18. P.G. Kolaitis and C.H. Papdimitriou. Why not negation by fixpoint? In Proc. ACM Symp. on Principles of Database Systems, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  19. F. Manola. Distributed object management technology. Technical Report TM-0014-06-88-165, GTE Laboratories, Inc., June 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  20. D. R. McCarthy and U. Dayal. The architecture of an active data base management system. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Symp. on the Management of Data, pages 215–224, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  21. C.B. Medeiros and P. Pfeffer. A mechanism for managing rules in an object-oriented database. Technical report, Altair, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  22. E. Simon and C. de Maindreville. Deciding whether a production rule is relational computable. In Intl. Conf. on Database Theory, pages 205–222, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  23. J. W. Schmidt, H. Eckhardt, and F. Matthes. DBPL Report. Technical Report DBPL-Membo 111-88, Fachbereich Informatik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  24. SIGMOD Record 18:9, “Special Issue on Rule Management and Processing in Expert Database Systems”, September 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  25. M. Stonebraker, A. Jhingran, J. Goh, and S. Potamianos. On rules, procedures, caching and views in data base systems. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Symp. on the Management of Data, pages 281–290, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  26. J. D. Ullman. Principles of Database and Knowledgebase Systems. Computer Science Press, Potomac, Maryland, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  27. A. van Gelder. Negation as failure using tight derivations for general logic programs. In Proc. of Workshop on Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  28. J. Widom and S. J. Finkelstein. Set-oriented production rules in relational database systems. In Proc. ACM SIGMOD Symp. on the Management of Data, pages 259–264, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Y. Zhou and M. Hsu. A theory for rule triggering systems. In Intl. Conf. on Extending Data Base Technology, pages 407–421, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  30. S. Zdonik and D. Maier. Readings in Object-Oriented Database Systems. Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, CA, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, University of Southern California, 90089-0782, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Richard Hull & Dean Jacobs

Authors
  1. Richard Hull
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dean Jacobs
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Joachim W. Schmidt Anatoly A. Stogny

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Hull, R., Jacobs, D. (1991). On the semantics of rules in database programming languages. In: Schmidt, J.W., Stogny, A.A. (eds) Next Generation Information System Technology. EWDW 1990. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 504. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54141-1_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-54141-1_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54141-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47444-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation