Considering User Intention in Differential Graph Queries

Empty answers are a major problem by processing pattern matching queries in graph databases. Especially, there can be multiple reasons why a query failed. To support users in such situations, differential queries can be used that deliver missing parts of a graph query. Multiple heuristics are proposed for differential queries, which reduce the search space. Although they are successful in increasing the performance, they can discard query subgraphs relevant to a user. To address this issue, the authors extend the concept of differential queries and introduce top-k differential queries that calculate the ranking based on users’ preferences and significantly support the users’ understanding of query database management systems. A user assigns relevance weights to elements of a graph query that steer the search and are used for the ranking. In this paper the authors propose different strategies for selection of relevance weights and their propagation. As a result, the search is modelled along the most relevant paths. The authors evaluate their solution and both strategies on the DBpedia data graph