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Temporal Constraints

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Definition

Temporal Constraints describe relationships among variables that refer somehow to time. A set of temporal constraints can be stored in a temporal database, which is queried by temporal queries during problem solving. For example, a set of temporal constraints may form some requirements, all of which must be satisfied during some scheduling problem.

Most interesting temporal constraints derive from references to time in natural language. Such references typically compare two time points, two sets of time points, or two time intervals. The literature on temporal constraints and this entry focuses on the study of these types of comparative or binary constraints.

Historical Background

The seminal work on temporal intervals is by Allen [1]. Difference Bounded Matrices (see the Section on Scientific Fundamentals) were introduced by Dill [3]. A graph representation of difference constraints and efficient constraint satisfaction problem-based solutions for consistency of difference...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Peter Revesz

Authors
  1. Peter Revesz
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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)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Revesz, P. (2009). Temporal Constraints. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_391

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