Constraint Databases

This book is the first comprehensive survey of the field of constraint databases. Constraint databases are a fairly new and active area of database research. The key idea is that constraints, such as linear or polynomial equations, are used to represent large, or even infinite, sets in a compact way. The ability to deal with infinite sets makes constraint databases particularly promising as a technology for integrating spatial and temporal data with standard re­ lational databases. Constraint databases bring techniques from a variety of fields, such as logic and model theory, algebraic and computational geometry, as well as symbolic computation, to the design and analysis of data models and query languages. The book is a collaborative effort involving many authors who have con­ tributed chapters on their fields of expertise. Despite this, the book is designed to be read as a whole, as opposed to a collection of individual surveys. In par­ ticular, the terminology and the style of presentation have been standardized, and there are multiple cross-references between the chapters. The idea of constraint databases goes back to the late Paris Kanellakis. Front Matter....Pages I-XVII Introduction....Pages 1-16 Front Matter....Pages 17-20 Constraint Databases, Queries, and Query Languages....Pages 21-54 Expressive Power: The Finite Case....Pages 55-87 Expressive Power: The Infinite Case....Pages 89-107 Query Safety with Constraints....Pages 109-129 Aggregate Languages for Constraint Databases....Pages 131-154 Datalog and Constraints....Pages 155-170 Front Matter....Pages 171-174 Geographic Information Systems....Pages 175-198 Linear-Constraint Databases....Pages 199-229 Topological Queries....Pages 231-273 Euclidean Query Languages....Pages 275-291 Genericity in Spatial Databases....Pages 293-303 Linear Repeating Points....Pages 305-314 Front Matter....Pages 315-317 Optimization Techniques....Pages 319-334 Constraint Algebras....Pages 335-342 I/O-Efficient Algorithms for CDBs....Pages 343-360 Front Matter....Pages 361-363 The DEDALE Prototype....Pages 365-382 The DISCO System....Pages 383-389 SQL/TP: A Temporal Extension of SQL....Pages 391-399 Back Matter....Pages 401-428 This book is the first comprehensive survey of the field of constraint databases, written by leading researchers. Constraint databases are a fairly new and active area of database research. The key idea is that constraints, such as linear or polynomial equations, are used to represent large, or even infinite, sets in a compact way. The ability to deal with infinite sets makes constraint databases particularly promising as a technology for integrating spatial and temporal data with standard relational databases. Constraint databases bring techniques from a variety of fields, such as logic and model theory, algebraic and computational geometry, as well as symbolic computation, to the design and analysis of data models and query languages.

This is the first comprehensive survey of the field of constraint databases, written by leading researchers. Constraint databases are a fairly new and active area of database research. Their ability to deal with infinite sets makes them particularly promising as a technology for integrating spatial and temporal data with standard relational databases. Constraint databases bring techniques from a variety of fields, such as logic and model theory, algebraic and computational geometry, as well as symbolic computation, to the design and analysis of data models and query languages.