Count Distinct Semantic Queries over Multiple Linked Datasets

In this paper, we revise count distinct queries and their semantics over datasets with incomplete knowledge, which is a typical case for the linked data integration scenario where datasets are viewed as ontologies. We focus on counting individuals present in the signature of the ontology. Specifically, we investigate the Certain Epistemic Count (CEC) and the Possible Epistemic Count (PEC) interval based semantics. In the case of CEC semantics, we propose an algorithm for its evaluation and we prove its correctness under a practical constraint of the queried ontology. We conduct and report experiments with the implementation of the proposed algorithm. We also prove decidability of the PEC semantics