Flexible Relations - Operational Support of Variant Relational Structures.

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/vldb/KalusD95,
  author    = {Christian Kalus and
               Peter Dadam},
  editor    = {Umeshwar Dayal and
               Peter M. D. Gray and
               Shojiro Nishio},
  title     = {Flexible Relations - Operational Support of Variant Relational
               Structures},
  booktitle = {VLDB'95, Proceedings of 21th International Conference on Very
               Large Data Bases, September 11-15, 1995, Zurich, Switzerland},
  publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann},
  year      = {1995},
  isbn      = {1-55860-379-4},
  pages     = {539-550},
  ee        = {db/conf/vldb/KalusD95.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/vldb/95},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

The relational model is accepted for its simplicity and elegance. At the other side the simplicity causes the problem, that most semantic type constructs are not representable as a simple relation. Variant and heterogeneous structures belong to those constructs not adequatly supported by the simple relational model. In this paper we give an overview of the model of flexible relations that allows to model and process arbitrary heterogeneous structures, while preserving the relational philosophy of operating with a single constructor. As flexible relations support both the modeling and the operational aspectof variant structures seamlessly, our model truly helps to further bridge the gap between semantic and operational data models.

We discuss the structural part of the model and introduce an algebra for flexible relations. Further we examine a subclass of flexible relations, that can be processedas efficiently as the simple relational model, and show that this subclasspossesses desirable structural normal form properties. In addition, we point out that our approach exceeds the object- oriented paradigm in modeling power, typing precision, and query optimization potential.

Copyright © 1995 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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