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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2968–2973Cite as

Temporal Granularity

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Synonyms

Time granularity; Temporal type

Definition

In the context of databases, a temporal granularity can be used to specify the temporal qualification of a set of data, similar to its use in the temporal qualification of statements in natural languages. For example, in a relational database, the timestamp associated with an attribute value or a tuple may be interpreted as associating that data with one or more granules of a given temporal granularity (e.g., one or more days). As opposed to using instants from a system-specific time domain, the use of user-defined granularities enables both more compact representations and temporal qualifications at different levels of abstraction. Temporal granularities include very common ones like hours, days, weeks, months, and years, as well as the evolution and specialization of these granularities for specific contexts or applications: trading days, banking days, academic semesters, etc.. Intuitively, a temporal granularity is defined by...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Claudio Bettini

  2. University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA

    X. Sean Wang

  3. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Sushil Jajodia

Authors
  1. Claudio Bettini
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  2. X. Sean Wang
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  3. Sushil Jajodia
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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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Bettini, C., Wang, X.S., Jajodia, S. (2009). Temporal Granularity. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_397

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