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Achievements of relational database schema design theory revisited

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Semantics in Databases (SiD 1995)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1358))

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Abstract

Database schema design is seen as to decide on formats for time-varying instances, on rules for supporting inferences and on semantic constraints. Schema design aims at both faithful formalization of the application and optimization at design time. It is guided by four heuristics: Separation of Aspects, Separation of Specializations, Inferential Completeness and Unique Flavor. A theory of schema design is to investigate these heuristics and to provide insight into how syntactic properties of schemas are related to worthwhile semantic properties, how desirable syntactic properties can be decided or achieved algorithmically, and how the syntactic properties determine costs of storage, queries and updates. Some well-known achievements of design theory for relational databases are reviewed: normal forms, view support, deciding implications of semantic constraints, acyclicity, design algorithms removing forbidden substructures.

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  1. Fachbereich Informatik, Universität Dortmund, D-44221, Dortmund, Germany

    Joachim Biskup

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Bernhard Thalheim Leonid Libkin

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Biskup, J. (1998). Achievements of relational database schema design theory revisited. In: Thalheim, B., Libkin, L. (eds) Semantics in Databases. SiD 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1358. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0035004

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