Closed World Databases Opened Through Null Values.

Georg Gottlob, Roberto Zicari: Closed World Databases Opened Through Null Values. VLDB 1988: 50-61

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/vldb/GottlobZ88,
  author    = {Georg Gottlob and
               Roberto Zicari},
  editor    = {Fran\c{c}ois Bancilhon and
               David J. DeWitt},
  title     = {Closed World Databases Opened Through Null Values},
  booktitle = {Fourteenth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases,
               August 29 - September 1, 1988, Los Angeles, California, USA,
               Proceedings},
  publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann},
  year      = {1988},
  isbn      = {0-934613-75-3},
  pages     = {50-61},
  ee        = {db/conf/vldb/GottlobZ88.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/vldb/88},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

We propose a new approach to the treatment of nullvalued attributes in the relational model. The approach is based on the new concept of locally-controlled open world database. A locally-controlled open world database permits the definition of portions of a traditional closed world database as open-world. Attributes, part of a relation, or entire relations can be explicitly defined as "open" through the insertion of null-values. Under this assumption, we consider three different types of null values: the standard unknown, does not exisit, and the new one, called open. We give a complete formal specification of the semantics of these null values. We extend the arithmetic and logical operators to cover nulls and outline how relational operators can be extended accordingly. This paper describes ongoing work. We state some open problems to be solved in order to render our approach more operational.

Copyright © 1988 by the VLDB Endowment. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the VLDB copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by the permission of the Very Large Data Base Endowment. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or special permission from the Endowment.

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François Bancilhon, David J. DeWitt (Eds.): Fourteenth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, August 29 - September 1, 1988, Los Angeles, California, USA, Proceedings. Morgan Kaufmann 1988, ISBN 0-934613-75-3

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