Optimal Algorithms for Ranked Enumeration of Answers to Full Conjunctive Queries

We study ranked enumeration of join-query results according to very general orders defined by selective dioids. Our main contribution is a framework for ranked enumeration over a class of dynamic programming problems that generalizes seemingly different problems that had been studied in isolation. To this end, we extend classic algorithms that find the k-shortest paths in a weighted graph. For full conjunctive queries, including cyclic ones, our approach is optimal in terms of the time to return the top result and the delay between results. These optimality properties are derived for the widely used notion of data complexity, which treats query size as a constant. By performing a careful cost analysis, we are able to uncover a previously unknown tradeoff between two incomparable enumeration approaches: one has lower complexity when the number of returned results is small, the other when the number is very large. We theoretically and empirically demonstrate the superiority of our techniques over batch algorithms, which produce the full result and then sort it. Our technique is not only faster for returning the first few results, but on some inputs beats the batch algorithm even when all results are produced.Comment: 50 pages, 19 figure

Enumeration in Data Management (Dagstuhl Seminar 19211)

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 19211 "Enumeration in Data Management". The goal of the seminar was to bring together researchers from various fields of computer science, including the Databases, Computational Logic, and Algorithms communities, and establish the means of collaboration towards considerable progress on the topic. Specifically, we aimed at understanding the recent developments, identifying the important open problems, and initiating collaborative efforts towards solutions thereof. In addition, we aimed to build and disseminate a toolkit for data-centric enumeration problems, including algorithmic techniques, proof techniques, and important indicator problems. Towards the objectives, the seminar included tutorials on the topic, invited talks, presentations of open problems, working groups on the open problems, discussions on platforms to compile the community knowledge, and the construction of various skeletons of such compilations