The complexity of acyclic conjunctive queries revisited

In this paper, we consider first-order logic over unary functions and study the complexity of the evaluation problem for conjunctive queries described by such kind of formulas. A natural notion of query acyclicity for this language is introduced and we study the complexity of a large number of variants or generalizations of acyclic query problems in that context (Boolean or not Boolean, with or without inequalities, comparisons, etc...). Our main results show that all those problems are \textit{fixed-parameter linear} i.e. they can be evaluated in time $f(|Q|).|\textbf{db}|.|Q(\textbf{db})|$ where $|Q|$ is the size of the query $Q$, $|\textbf{db}|$ the database size, $|Q(\textbf{db})|$ is the size of the output and $f$ is some function whose value depends on the specific variant of the query problem (in some cases, $f$ is the identity function). Our results have two kinds of consequences. First, they can be easily translated in the relational (i.e., classical) setting. Previously known bounds for some query problems are improved and new tractable cases are then exhibited. Among others, as an immediate corollary, we improve a result of \~\cite{PapadimitriouY-99} by showing that any (relational) acyclic conjunctive query with inequalities can be evaluated in time $f(|Q|).|\textbf{db}|.|Q(\textbf{db})|$. A second consequence of our method is that it provides a very natural descriptive approach to the complexity of well-known algorithmic problems. A number of examples (such as acyclic subgraph problems, multidimensional matching, etc...) are considered for which new insights of their complexity are given.Comment: 30 page

Towards Efficient Reasoning under Guarded-based Disjunctive Existential Rules

International audienceThe complete picture of the complexity of answering (unions of) conjunctive queries under the main guarded-based classes of disjunc- tive existential rules has been recently settled. It has been shown that the problem is very hard, namely 2ExpTime-complete, even for fixed sets of rules expressed in lightweight formalisms. This gives rise to the question whether its complexity can be reduced by restricting the query language. Several subclasses of conjunctive queries have been proposed with the aim of reducing the complexity of classical database problems such as query evaluation and query containment. Three of the most prominent subclasses of this kind are queries of bounded hypertree-width, queries of bounded treewidth and acyclic queries. The central objective of the present paper is to understand whether the above query languages have a positive impact on the complexity of query answering under the main guarded-based classes of disjunctive existential rules. We show that (unions of) conjunctive queries of bounded hypertree- width and of bounded treewidth do not reduce the complexity of our problem, even if we focus on predicates of bounded arity, or on fixed sets of disjunctive existential rules. Regarding acyclic queries, although our problem remains 2ExpTime-complete in general, in some relevant set- tings the complexity reduces to ExpTime-complete; in fact, this requires to bound the arity of the predicates, and for some expressive guarded- based formalisms, to fix the set of rules

On Low Treewidth Approximations of Conjunctive Queries

We recently initiated the study of approximations of conjunctive queries within classes that admit tractable query evaluation (with respect to combined complexity). Those include classes of acyclic, bounded treewidth, or bounded hypertreewidth queries. Such approximations are always guaranteed to exist. However, while for acyclic and bounded hypertreewidth queries we have shown a number of examples of interesting approximations, for queries of bounded treewidth the study had been restricted to queries over graphs, where such approximations usually trivialize. In this note we show that for relations of arity greater than two, the notion of low treewidth approximations is a rich one, as many queries possess them. In fact we look at approximations of queries of maximum possible treewidth by queries of minimum possible treewidth (i.e., one), and show that even in this case the structure of approximations remain rather rich as long as input relations are not binary

Evaluation Trade-Offs for Acyclic Conjunctive Queries

We consider the evaluation of acyclic conjunctive queries, where the evaluation time is decomposed into preprocessing time and enumeration delay. In a seminal paper at CSL\u2707, Bagan, Durand, and Grandjean showed that acyclic queries can be evaluated with linear preprocessing time and linear enumeration delay. If the query is free-connex, the enumeration delay becomes constant. Further prior work showed that constant enumeration delay can be achieved for arbitrary acyclic conjunctive queries at the expense of a preprocessing time that is characterised by the fractional hypertree width. We introduce an approach that exposes a trade-off between preprocessing time and enumeration delay for acyclic conjunctive queries. The aforementioned prior works represent extremes in this trade-off space. Yet our approach also allows for the enumeration delay and the preprocessing time between these extremes, in particular the delay may lie between constant and linear time. Our approach decomposes the given query into subqueries and achieves for each subquery a trade-off that depends on a parameter controlling the times for preprocessing and enumeration. The complexity of the query is given by the Pareto optimal points of a bi-objective optimisation program whose inputs are possible query decompositions and parameter values

Evaluation Trade-Offs for Acyclic Conjunctive Queries

We consider the evaluation of acyclic conjunctive queries, where the evaluation time is decomposed into preprocessing time and enumeration delay. In a seminal paper at CSL\u2707, Bagan, Durand, and Grandjean showed that acyclic queries can be evaluated with linear preprocessing time and linear enumeration delay. If the query is free-connex, the enumeration delay becomes constant. Further prior work showed that constant enumeration delay can be achieved for arbitrary acyclic conjunctive queries at the expense of a preprocessing time that is characterised by the fractional hypertree width. We introduce an approach that exposes a trade-off between preprocessing time and enumeration delay for acyclic conjunctive queries. The aforementioned prior works represent extremes in this trade-off space. Yet our approach also allows for the enumeration delay and the preprocessing time between these extremes, in particular the delay may lie between constant and linear time. Our approach decomposes the given query into subqueries and achieves for each subquery a trade-off that depends on a parameter controlling the times for preprocessing and enumeration. The complexity of the query is given by the Pareto optimal points of a bi-objective optimisation program whose inputs are possible query decompositions and parameter values

THE DATA COMPLEXITY OF DESCRIPTION LOGIC ONTOLOGIES

We analyze the data complexity of ontology-mediated querying where the ontologies are formulated in a description logic (DL) of the ALC family and queries are conjunctive queries, positive existential queries, or acyclic conjunctive queries. Our approach is non-uniform in the sense that we aim to understand the complexity of each single ontology instead of for all ontologies formulated in a certain language. While doing so, we quantify over the queries and are interested, for example, in the question whether all queries can be evaluated in polynomial time w.r.t. a given ontology. Our results include a PTime/coNP-dichotomy for ontologies of depth one in the description logic ALCFI, the same dichotomy for ALC- and ALCI-ontologies of unrestricted depth, and the non-existence of such a dichotomy for ALCF-ontologies. For the latter DL, we additionally show that it is undecidable whether a given ontology admits PTime query evaluation. We also consider the connection between PTime query evaluation and rewritability into (monadic) Datalog

Rewriting with Acyclic Queries: Mind Your Head

The paper studies the rewriting problem, that is, the decision problem whether, for a given conjunctive query Q and a set ? of views, there is a conjunctive query Q\u27 over ? that is equivalent to Q, for cases where the query, the views, and/or the desired rewriting are acyclic or even more restricted. It shows that, if Q itself is acyclic, an acyclic rewriting exists if there is any rewriting. An analogous statement also holds for free-connex acyclic, hierarchical, and q-hierarchical queries. Regarding the complexity of the rewriting problem, the paper identifies a border between tractable and (presumably) intractable variants of the rewriting problem: for schemas of bounded arity, the acyclic rewriting problem is NP-hard, even if both Q and the views in ? are acyclic or hierarchical. However, it becomes tractable, if the views are free-connex acyclic (i.e., in a nutshell, their body is (i) acyclic and (ii) remains acyclic if their head is added as an additional atom)

Conjunctive Queries over Trees

We study the complexity and expressive power of conjunctive queries over unranked labeled trees represented using a variety of structure relations such as "child'', "descendant'', and "following'' as well as unary relations for node labels. We establish a framework for characterizing structures representing trees for which conjunctive queries can be evaluated efficiently. Then we completely chart the tractability frontier of the problem and establish a dichotomy theorem for our axis relations, i.e., we find all subset-maximal sets of axes for which query evaluation is in polynomial time and show that for all other cases, query evaluation is NP-complete. All polynomial-time results are obtained immediately using the proof techniques from our framework. Finally, we study the expressiveness of conjunctive queries over trees and show that for each conjunctive query, there is an equivalent acyclic positive query (i.e., a set of acyclic conjunctive queries), but that in general this query is not of polynomial size