Vectorization of Structure to Index Graph Databases

This paper addresses the problem of retrieval from graph databases. Graph databases store graph structures instead of tables. Typically, graph databases are applicable in domains that require storage and retrieval of structural information. One of the main issues in graph databases is retrieval of member graphs based on structure matching. Structure matching of graphs is a known NP-complete problem. In graph databases, this is compounded by the fact that structure matching has to be performed against a large number of graphs in the database. This paper addresses graph databases as a domain independent concept. They are shown to be defined by a property of dominance of either structure over attributes or vice versa. Retrieval from structure dominated graph databases are much more difficult than retrieval from attribute dominated graph databases. The paper also proposes a concept called "structure vectorization" for retrieval for indexing and retrieval from structure dominated graph databases