Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Data Types in Scientific Data Management

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 248 Accesses

Synonyms

Data sorts; Many sorted algebra; Type theory

Definition

In mathematics, logic and computer science, the term “type” has a formal connotation. By assigning a variable to a type in a programming language, one implicitly defines constraints on the domains and operations on the variable. The term “data type” as used in data management derives from the same basic idea. A data type is a specification that concretely defines the “structure” of a data variable of that type, the operations that can be performed on that variable, and any constraints that might apply to them. For example, a “tuple” is a data type defined as a finite sequence (i.e., an ordered list) of objects, each of a specified type; it allows operations like “projection” popularly used in relational algebra.

In science, the term “data type” is sometimes used less formally to refer to a kind of scientific data. For example, one would say “gene expression” or “4D surface mesh of a beating heart” is a data type.

Foundations...

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

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 2,500.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Baumann P. A database array algebra for spatio-temporal data and beyond. In Proc. Fourth Int. Workshop on Next Generation Information Technologies and Systems, 1999, pp. 76–93.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bettini C., Jajodia S., and Wang S.X. Time Granularities in Database, Data Mining, and Temporal Reasoning. Springer, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Borgatti S.P. and Everett M.G. A graph-theoretic perspective on centrality. Soc. Netw., 28(4):466–484, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Eckman B.A. and Brown P.G. Graph data management for molecular and cell biology. IBM J. Res. Dev., 50(6):545–560, 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Howe B. and Maier D. Algebraic manipulation of scientific data sets. VLDB J., 14(4):397–416, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Marathe A.P. and Salem K. A language for manipulating arrays. In Proc. 23rd Int. Conf. on Very Large Data Bases, 1997, pp. 46–55.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Marathe A.P. and Salem K. Query processing techniques for arrays. ACM SIGMOD Rec., 28(2):323–334, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Merlo I., Bertino E., Ferrari E., Gadia S., and Guerrini G. Querying multiple temporal granularity data. In Proc. Seventh Int. Conf. on Temporal Representation and Reasoning, 2000, pp. 103–114.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Popivanov I. and Miller R.J. Similarity search over time-series data using wavelets. In Proc. 18th Int. Conf. on Data Engineering, 2002, pp. 212–221.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Reiner B., Hahn K., Höfling G., and Baumann P. Hierarchical storage support and management for large-scale multidimensional array database management systems. In Proc. 13th Int. Conf. Database and Expert Syst. Appl., pp. 689 –700.2002,

    Google Scholar 

  11. Tong H. and Faloutsos C. Center-piece subgraphs: problem definition and fast solutions. In Proc. 12th ACM SIGKDD Int. Conf. on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, 2006, pp. 404–413.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Amarnath Gupta

Authors
  1. Amarnath Gupta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Gupta, A. (2009). Data Types in Scientific Data Management. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_1277

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation