RELOOP, an algebra based query language for an object-oriented database system

In most object-oriented databases, as opposed to value-oriented databases, data are accessed by a programming language instead of a declarative query language. End users do not have a simple tool to perform their queries. This paper is concerned with the definition of an SQL-like query language on top of the O₂ object-oriented database system. We study the influence of the object-oriented paradigm on a query language, describe our language through examples, define its semantics by means of an algebra and sketch the compilation of RELOOP in one of the languages supported by the O₂ system.     

A query language for retrieving information from a soil data bank

The paper presents specifications and implementation details of a query language designed for retrieving information from a soil data bank. The commands of the language are based on operations of relational algebra, and can be employed without previous programming experience. The language is part of the ARSIS (A Relational Soil Information System) system that is being developed in Greece.     

An optimizer for a relational database command language

This paper describes the optimizer included in the ICL personal data system (PDS), an interactive relational database system designed for users with little or no computer experience. The optimizer transforms the selection criteria in a command into an equivalent form which can be used to obey the command more quickly. The optimization method and the factorization procedure it uses are described in detail.     

Using a relational database for scalable XML search

XML is a flexible and powerful tool that enables information and security sharing in heterogeneous environments. Scalable technologies are needed to effectively manage the growing volumes of XML data. A wide variety of methods exist for storing and searching XML data; the two most common techniques are conventional tree-based and relational approaches. Tree-based approaches represent XML as a tree and use indexes and path join algorithms to process queries. In contrast, the relational approach utilizes the power of a mature relational database to store and search XML. This method relationally maps XML queries to SQL and reconstructs the XML from the database results. To date, the limited acceptance of the relational approach to XML processing is due to the need to redesign the relational schema each time a new XML hierarchy is defined. We, in contrast, describe a relational approach that is fixed schema eliminating the need for schema redesign at the expense of potentially longer runtimes. We show, however, that these potentially longer runtimes are still significantly shorter than those of the tree approach. We use a popular XML benchmark to compare the scalability of both approaches. We generated large collections of heterogeneous XML documents ranging in size from 500 MB to 8 GB using the XBench benchmark. The scalability of each method was measured by running XML queries that cover a wide range of XML search features on each collection. We measure the scalability of each method over different query features as the collection size increases. In addition, we examine the performance of each method as the result size and the number of predicates increase. Our results show that our relational approach provides a scalable approach to XML retrieval by leveraging existing relational database optimizations. Furthermore, we show that the relational approach typically outperforms the tree-based approach while scaling consistently over all collections studied.

Efficient recursive XML query processing using relational database systems

Recursive queries are quite important in the context of XML databases. In addition, several recent papers have investigated a relational approach to store XML data and there is growing evidence that schema-conscious approaches are a better option than schema-oblivious techniques as far as query performance is concerned. However, the issue of recursive XML queries for such approaches has not been dealt with satisfactorily. In this paper we argue that it is possible to design a schema-oblivious approach that outperforms schema-conscious approaches for certain types of recursive queries. To that end, we propose a novel schema-oblivious approach, called Sucxent++ (Schema Unconcious XML Enabled System), that outperforms existing schema-oblivious approaches such as XParent by up to 15 times and schema-conscious approaches (Shared-Inlining) by up to eight times for recursive query execution. Our approach has up to two times smaller storage requirements compared to existing schema-oblivious approaches and 10% less than schema-conscious techniques. In addition Sucxent++ performs marginally better than Shared-Inlining and is 5.7–47 times faster than XParent as far as insertion time is concerned.     

The CQL continuous query language: semantic foundations and query execution

CQL, a continuous query language, is supported by the STREAM prototype data stream management system (DSMS) at Stanford. CQL is an expressive SQL-based declarative language for registering continuous queries against streams and stored relations. We begin by presenting an abstract semantics that relies only on “black-box” mappings among streams and relations. From these mappings we define a precise and general interpretation for continuous queries. CQL is an instantiation of our abstract semantics using SQL to map from relations to relations, window specifications derived from SQL-99 to map from streams to relations, and three new operators to map from relations to streams. Most of the CQL language is operational in the STREAM system. We present the structure of CQL's query execution plans as well as details of the most important components: operators, interoperator queues, synopses, and sharing of components among multiple operators and queries. Examples throughout the paper are drawn from the Linear Road benchmark recently proposed for DSMSs. We also curate a public repository of data stream applications that includes a wide variety of queries expressed in CQL. The relative ease of capturing these applications in CQL is one indicator that the language contains an appropriate set of constructs for data stream processing. Edited by M. Franklin     

Generalized Query-By-Rule: a heterogeneous database query language

This paper describes the design and implementation of a high-level query language called Generalized Query-By-Rule (GQBR) which supports retrieval, insertion, deletion and update operations. This language, based on the formalism of database logic, enables the users to access each database in a distributed heterogeneous environment, without having to learn all the different data manipulation languages. The compiler has been implemented on a DEC 1090 system in Pascal.     

OWL-QL—a language for deductive query answering on the Semantic Web

This paper discusses the issues involved in designing a query language for the Semantic Web and presents the OWL query language (OWL-QL) as a candidate standard language and protocol for query–answering dialogues among Semantic Web computational agents using knowledge represented in the W3Cs ontology web language (OWL). OWL-QL is a formal language and precisely specifies the semantic relationships among a query, a query answer, and the knowledge base(s) used to produce the answer. Unlike standard database and Web query languages, OWL-QL supports query–answering dialogues in which the answering agent may use automated reasoning methods to derive answers to queries, as well as dialogues in which the knowledge to be used in answering a query may be in multiple knowledge bases on the Semantic Web, and/or where those knowledge bases are not specified by the querying agent. In this setting, the set of answers to a query may be of unpredictable size and may require an unpredictable amount of time to compute.     

A language for simple interactive retrieval from a database system

Query interaction with a database system requires, in general, some understanding of the content and structure of the database, and knowledge of a suitable query language to encode the request for data. These factors impose barriers against access to a database on a casual or irregular basis. To overcome such restrictions we have investigated the use of a pseudo-intelligent front-end retrieval system. This system was designed to be independent of any specific database management system, although a relational database structure was considered to be the most appropriate. A prototype version of the system has been set up to run on top of Logica's relational database management system RAPPORT and the IBM relational database system SQL. As a result of this experience we have developed an adaptable language to facilitate intelligent interaction between an end user and a database management system.     

A portable implementation of a modular multiprocessing database programming language

This paper introduces the database programming language RAPP, which is an integration of the data type relation and relational algebraic operations with the modular multiprocessing language Pascal Plus. A portable version of the RAPP compiler has been implemented and is described.     

Natural language query processing in a temporal database

This paper addresses some of the issues that arise in representing temporal information in the database context. It deals not only with the explicit representation of temporal information but with mechanisms for reasoning with it as well. It addresses the issue of processing natural language queries with explicit temporal references. The three issues of knowledge representation, natural language processing and query processing are addressed using the axiomatic framework based on equational logic.     

基于数据库查询的自然语言接口研究

语音识别技术是近年来信息领域重要的科技发展技术之一.作为一门交叉学科,语音识别正逐步成为信息技术中人机接口的关键技术.探讨了为数据库查询提供自然语言接口的可能性,介绍了图书资料查询系统中语音识别的基本框架,并详细描述了采用微软Speech SDK技术实现图书资料查询的详细过程.给出了查询流程,基于状态转换图的词法分析和语法分析方法,将疑问句转换成SQL查询语句的方法,以及由查询结果生成答句的方法.     

Evaluating the usability of natural language query languages and interfaces to Semantic Web knowledge bases

The need to make the contents of the Semantic Web accessible to end-users becomes increasingly pressing as the amount of information stored in ontology-based knowledge bases steadily increases. Natural language interfaces (NLIs) provide a familiar and convenient means of query access to Semantic Web data for casual end-users. While several studies have shown that NLIs can achieve high retrieval performance as well as domain independence, this paper focuses on usability and investigates if NLIs and natural language query languages are useful from an end-user's point of view. To that end, we introduce four interfaces each allowing a different query language and present a usability study benchmarking these interfaces. The results of the study reveal a clear preference for full natural language query sentences with a limited set of sentence beginnings over keywords or formal query languages. NLIs to ontology-based knowledge bases can, therefore, be considered to be useful for casual or occasional end-users. As such, the overarching contribution is one step towards the theoretical vision of the Semantic Web becoming reality.     

A coherent query language for XML

Text search engines are inadequate for indexing and searching XML documents because they ignore metadata and aggregation structure implicit in the XML documents. On the other hand, the query languages supported by specialized XML search engines are very complex. In this paper, we present a simple yet flexible query language, and develop its semantics to enable intuitively appealing extraction of relevant fragments of information while simultaneously falling back on retrieval through plain text search if necessary. Our approach combines and generalizes several available techniques to obtain precise and coherent results.

直观的函数分割型程序设计系统VFDP

本文提出一种直观的函数分割型程序设计系统ＶＦＤＰ。     

A relational framework for assertion management

An important purpose of research on decision support systems is to develop a theory of information management that is as independent as possible of the way in which the information is stored and processed. On framework that has proven useful in this regard is a relational framework, which has been successfully applied to the organization and processing of data files and decision models. In this paper we examine the application of relational theory to the management of assertions — that is, to the organization and processing of statements that may be true or false.