1,245 research outputs found
Towards an Efficient Evaluation of General Queries
Database applications often require to
evaluate queries containing quantifiers or disjunctions,
e.g., for handling general integrity constraints. Existing
efficient methods for processing quantifiers depart from the
relational model as they rely on non-algebraic procedures.
Looking at quantified query evaluation from a new angle,
we propose an approach to process quantifiers that makes
use of relational algebra operators only. Our approach
performs in two phases. The first phase normalizes the
queries producing a canonical form. This form permits to
improve the translation into relational algebra performed
during the second phase. The improved translation relies
on a new operator - the complement-join - that generalizes
the set difference, on algebraic expressions of universal
quantifiers that avoid the expensive division operator in
many cases, and on a special processing of disjunctions by
means of constrained outer-joins. Our method achieves an
efficiency at least comparable with that of previous
proposals, better in most cases. Furthermore, it is considerably
simpler to implement as it completely relies on
relational data structures and operators
Constrained Query Answering
Traditional answering methods evaluate queries only against positive
and definite knowledge expressed by means of facts and deduction rules. They do
not make use of negative, disjunctive or existential information. Negative or indefinite
knowledge is however often available in knowledge base systems, either as
design requirements, or as observed properties. Such knowledge can serve to rule out
unproductive subexpressions during query answering. In this article, we propose an
approach for constraining any conventional query answering procedure with general,
possibly negative or indefinite formulas, so as to discard impossible cases and to
avoid redundant evaluations. This approach does not impose additional conditions
on the positive and definite knowledge, nor does it assume any particular semantics
for negation. It adopts that of the conventional query answering procedure it
constrains. This is achieved by relying on meta-interpretation for specifying the
constraining process. The soundness, completeness, and termination of the underlying
query answering procedure are not compromised. Constrained query answering
can be applied for answering queries more efficiently as well as for generating more
informative, intensional answers
A Database Interface for Complex Objects
We describe a formal design for a logical query language using psi-terms as data structures to interact effectively and efficiently with a relational database. The structure of psi-terms provides an adequate representation for so-called complex objects. They generalize conventional terms used in logic programming: they are typed attributed structures, ordered thanks to a subtype ordering. Unification of psi-terms is an effective means for integrating multiple inheritance and partial information into a deduction process. We define a compact database representation for psi-terms, representing part of the subtyping relation in the database as well. We describe a retrieval algorithm based on an abstract interpretation of the psi-term unification process and prove its formal correctness. This algorithm is efficient in that it incrementally retrieves only additional facts that are actually needed by a query, and never retrieves the same fact twice
Magic Sets for Disjunctive Datalog Programs
In this paper, a new technique for the optimization of (partially) bound
queries over disjunctive Datalog programs with stratified negation is
presented. The technique exploits the propagation of query bindings and extends
the Magic Set (MS) optimization technique.
An important feature of disjunctive Datalog is nonmonotonicity, which calls
for nondeterministic implementations, such as backtracking search. A
distinguishing characteristic of the new method is that the optimization can be
exploited also during the nondeterministic phase. In particular, after some
assumptions have been made during the computation, parts of the program may
become irrelevant to a query under these assumptions. This allows for dynamic
pruning of the search space. In contrast, the effect of the previously defined
MS methods for disjunctive Datalog is limited to the deterministic portion of
the process. In this way, the potential performance gain by using the proposed
method can be exponential, as could be observed empirically.
The correctness of MS is established thanks to a strong relationship between
MS and unfounded sets that has not been studied in the literature before. This
knowledge allows for extending the method also to programs with stratified
negation in a natural way.
The proposed method has been implemented in DLV and various experiments have
been conducted. Experimental results on synthetic data confirm the utility of
MS for disjunctive Datalog, and they highlight the computational gain that may
be obtained by the new method w.r.t. the previously proposed MS methods for
disjunctive Datalog programs. Further experiments on real-world data show the
benefits of MS within an application scenario that has received considerable
attention in recent years, the problem of answering user queries over possibly
inconsistent databases originating from integration of autonomous sources of
information.Comment: 67 pages, 19 figures, preprint submitted to Artificial Intelligenc
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