ABSTRACT
Since the development of QBE, over fifty visual query languages have been proposed to facilitate easy database access. Although these languages have introduced some very useful paradigms, a number of these have some severe limitations, such as: (a) not extending beyond the relational model (b) not considering negation and safety, formally (c) using ad hoc constructs, with no analysis of expressivity or complexity done, etc. Note that visual database access is an important issue being revisted, with the emergence of different flavors of object-oriented databases. We believe that there is a need for developing a unified visual query language.
Specifically, our goal is to develop a visual query language that has the following properties: (i) It has a few core constructs using which “expert-users” can define new (derived) constructs easily (ii) “Normal users” can use easily either the core or the derived constructs for database querying (iii) It can implement representative constructs of other (textual or visual) query language straightforwardly, and (iv) It has formal semantics, with its theoretical properties, such as complexity, analyzed.
We believe that we make a first step towards the above goal by introducing a new logical construct called restricted universal quantifier and combining it with the hierarchical structure of windows to develop a Visual Query Language, called VQL. The core constructs of VQL can encode easily a number of representative constructs of different (about six visual and four non-visual) relational, nested and object-oriented query languages. We also study the theoretical aspects such as safety, complexity, etc., of VQL.
- AG88.Abiteboul, S. and Grumbach, S. Col: A logic-based language for complex objects. In Proceedings of Extended Database Technology (EDBT), pages 271-293, 1988. Google ScholarDigital Library
- AK89.Abiteboul, S. and Kanellalds, C.P. Object identity as a query language primitive. In Proceedings of the A CM SIGMOD International conference on Management of Data, pages 159-173, Portland, Oregon, June 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- AK90.Abiteboul, S. and Kanellakis, P. Database theory column: Query languages for complex object databases. In SIGACT news, 1990. Google ScholarDigital Library
- BBN91.Breazu-Tannen, V, Buneman, P., and Naqvi, S. Structural recursion as a query language. In Workshop on DPL, 1991. Google ScholarDigital Library
- BCCL91.Batini, C., Catarci, T., Costabile, M.F., and Levialdi, S. Visual query systems. Technical report, Department of Informatica E Sistemistica, Universita Degli Studi Di Roma "La Sapienza', 1991.Google Scholar
- BCD90.Bancillaon, F., Cluet, S., and Delobel, C. The 02 query language syntax and semantics. Technical report, INRIA, 1990.Google Scholar
- BNST91.Beeri, C., Naqvi, S., Shmueli, O., and Tsur, S. Set constructors in a logic database language. Journal of Logic Programming, 1991. Google ScholarDigital Library
- CH82.Chandra, A.K. and Hazel, D. Structure and complexity of relational queries. Journal of Computer Systems and Sciences, 25(1 ):99-128, 1982.Google Scholar
- CKW89.Chen, W., Kifer, M., and Warren, D. Hilog as a platform for database languages. In Workshop on DBPL, 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Cru89.Cruz, I. Declarative query languages for object-oriented databases. F.H. Lochovsky, editor, Office and Data base Systems Research, 1989.Google Scholar
- Cru92.Cruz, I. Doodle: A visual language for objectoriented databases. In Proceedings of the A CM SIGMOD, 1992. Google ScholarDigital Library
- HR.Heiler, S. and Rosenthal, A. G-whiz, a visual interface for the functional model with recursion. Proceedings of VLDB 85, Stockholm. Google ScholarDigital Library
- INV91.imielinski, T., Naqvi, S., and Vadaparty, K. Querying Designing and Planning Databases. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Deductive Object- Oriented Databases, Munich, Germany, December 1991.Google Scholar
- KKD89.Kim, K, Kim, W., and Dale A. Cyclic query processing in object-oriented databases. In IEEE Intl. Conference on Data Engineering, 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- KKS92.Kifer, M., Kim, W., and Sagiv, Y. Querying object-oriented databases. In Proceedings of the A CM SIGMOD, 1992. Google ScholarDigital Library
- KL89.Kifer, M. and Lausen, G. F-logic: A higherorder language for reasoning about objects, inheritance, and scheme. In Proceedings o} the A CM SIGMQD, 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- KN88.Krishnamurthy, R. and Naqvi, S. Towards a real horn clause language. In VLDB, 1988. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kup90.G.M. Kuper. Logic programming with sets. JCSS, 41(1), 1990. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Llo84.Lloyd, J. Foundations of Logic Programming. Springer Verlag, 1984. Google ScholarDigital Library
- LO91.Lou, Y. and Ozsoyoglu, Z.M. Llo: An object oriented deductive language with methods and method inheritence, in Proceedings of the 1991 A CM SIGMOD International conference on management of data, 1991. Google ScholarDigital Library
- OBB89.Ohori, A., Buneman, P., and Breazu-Tannen, V. Database programming in machiavelli - a polymorphic language with static type inference. In Proceedings of the A CM SIGMOD conference, 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- OH93.Ozsoyoglu, G. and H. Wang. Example-based graphical database query lamguages. To appear in IEEE, Computer, July, 1993. Google ScholarDigital Library
- OMO89.Ozsoyoglu, G, Matos, V., and Ozsoyoglu, Z.M. Query processing techniques in summary table by example database query language. Transactions of Database Systems, 14(4), December 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- OW89.Ozsoyoglu, G. and Wang It. A rdational calculus with set operators, its safety and equivalent graphical languages. IEEE Software Engineer. ing, 15(9):1041-1052, September 1989. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shi81.Shipman, D.W. The functional data model and the data language duplex, acre TODS, 6(1):140-173, March 1981. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Ull90.Ullmam, J.D. Databases and Knowledge Bases, volume 1 of Computer Science. Computer Science Press, 1990.Google Scholar
- Vad.Vadaparty, K. On the power of rule based language# with set#. In Proceedings of PODS 1991; extended version to be submitted to the Journal of Logic Programming. Google ScholarDigital Library
- VAO92.Vadaparty, K., Aslandogan, Y., and Ozsoyoglu, G. Towards a unified visual database access. Technical Report 92-19, Case Western Reserve University, 1992.Google Scholar
- Var82.M. Vardi. The complexity of relational query languages. In Proceedings o} the 1,1th STOG, pages 137-146, 1982. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Towards a unified visual database access
Recommendations
Towards a unified visual database access
Since the development of QBE, over fifty visual query languages have been proposed to facilitate easy database access. Although these languages have introduced some very useful paradigms, a number of these have some severe limitations, such as: (a) not ...
Efficient Database Access from Prolog
In designing the interface between a relational database and a Prolog interpreter, efficiency is a major issue. The authors present a method for loading into the memory-resident database of Prolog facts permanently stored in secondary storage. The ...
Making Database Schema Hierarchical for Visual Access to Databases
Making the database schema hierarchical can help a casual user retrieve information from a complex database. The hierarchical database schema provides further insight into database content and focuses on meaningful data by a top-down method. The user ...
Comments