ERL: Logic for entity-relationship databases

We develop a logic for entity-relationship databases, ERL, that is a generalization of database logic. ERL provides advantages to the ER model much as FOL (first-order logic) does to the relational model: a uniform language for expressing database schema, integrity constraints, and database manipulation; clearly defined semantics; the capability to express database transformations; and deductive capabilities. We propose three query languages for ER databases called ERRC, ERSQL, and ERQBE, which are generalizations of the relational calculus, SQL, and QBE, respectively. We use example queries and updates to demonstrate the capabilities of these languages. We apply database transformations to introduce the notion of views and to show that both ERRC and ERSQL are relationally complete.Research sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation under grant IRI-8921951 and by Towson State University.