Using Constraint Satisfaction for View Update

View update is the problem of translating update requests against a view into update requests against the base data. In this article, we present a novel approach to generating alternative translations of view updates in relational databases. Using conditional tables to represent relational views, we transform a view update problem into constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). Solutions to the CSPs correspond to possible translations of the view update. Semantic information to resolve ambiguity can be incrementally added as constraints in the CSPs. The connection between view update and constraint satisfaction makes it possible to apply the rich results of the CSP research to analyze and solve the important problem of view management.