research-article

Dichotomies for Evaluating Simple Regular Path Queries

Authors:

Tina TrautnerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), Volume 44, Issue 4

Article No.: 16, Pages 1 - 46

https://doi.org/10.1145/3331446

Published: 15 October 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Regular path queries (RPQs) are a central component of graph databases. We investigate decision and enumeration problems concerning the evaluation of RPQs under several semantics that have recently been considered: arbitrary paths, shortest paths, paths without node repetitions (simple paths), and paths without edge repetitions (trails).

Whereas arbitrary and shortest paths can be dealt with efficiently, simple paths and trails become computationally difficult already for very small RPQs. We study RPQ evaluation for simple paths and trails from a parameterized complexity perspective and define a class of simple transitive expressions that is prominent in practice and for which we can prove dichotomies for the evaluation problem. We observe that, even though simple path and trail semantics are intractable for RPQs in general, they are feasible for the vast majority of RPQs that are used in practice. At the heart of this study is a result of independent interest: the two disjoint paths problem in directed graphs is W[1]-hard if parameterized by the length of one of the two paths.

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Cited By

García RAngles R(2024)Path Querying in Graph Databases: A Systematic Mapping StudyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.337197612(33154-33172)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3371976
Farías BMartens WRojas CVrgoč D(2024)PathFinder: Returning Paths in Graph QueriesThe Semantic Web – ISWC 202410.1007/978-3-031-77850-6_8(135-154)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-77850-6_8
Martens WNiewerth MPopp TRojas CVansummeren SVrgoč D(2023)Representing Paths in Graph Database Pattern MatchingProceedings of the VLDB Endowment10.14778/3587136.358715116:7(1790-1803)Online publication date: 8-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.14778/3587136.3587151
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Dichotomies for Evaluating Simple Regular Path Queries
1. Information systems
  1. Data management systems
    1. Query languages
      1. Query languages for non-relational engines
2. Theory of computation
  1. Formal languages and automata theory
    1. Regular languages
  2. Theory and algorithms for application domains
    1. Database theory
      1. Database query languages (principles)

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cover image ACM Transactions on Database Systems

ACM Transactions on Database Systems Volume 44, Issue 4

Best of EDBT 2017, Best of EDBT 2018, Best of ICDT 2018 and Regular Papers

December 2019

249 pages

ISSN:0362-5915

EISSN:1557-4644

DOI:10.1145/3366712

Editor:
Christian S. Jensen
Aalborg University, Denmark

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Copyright © 2019 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 15 October 2019

Accepted: 01 May 2019

Revised: 01 March 2019

Received: 01 August 2018

Published in TODS Volume 44, Issue 4

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Cited By

García RAngles R(2024)Path Querying in Graph Databases: A Systematic Mapping StudyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.337197612(33154-33172)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3371976
Farías BMartens WRojas CVrgoč D(2024)PathFinder: Returning Paths in Graph QueriesThe Semantic Web – ISWC 202410.1007/978-3-031-77850-6_8(135-154)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-77850-6_8
Martens WNiewerth MPopp TRojas CVansummeren SVrgoč D(2023)Representing Paths in Graph Database Pattern MatchingProceedings of the VLDB Endowment10.14778/3587136.358715116:7(1790-1803)Online publication date: 8-May-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.14778/3587136.3587151
Figueira DRomero MGeerts FNgo HSintos S(2023)Conjunctive Regular Path Queries under Injective SemanticsProceedings of the 42nd ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGAI Symposium on Principles of Database Systems10.1145/3584372.3588664(231-240)Online publication date: 18-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3584372.3588664
Martens WLibkin LBarceló P(2022)Towards Theory for Real-World DataProceedings of the 41st ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGAI Symposium on Principles of Database Systems10.1145/3517804.3526066(261-276)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517804.3526066
Martens WPopp TLibkin LBarceló P(2022)The Complexity of Regular Trail and Simple Path Queries on Undirected GraphsProceedings of the 41st ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGAI Symposium on Principles of Database Systems10.1145/3517804.3524149(165-174)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3517804.3524149
Schmid M(2022)Conjunctive Regular Path Queries with Capture GroupsACM Transactions on Database Systems10.1145/351423047:2(1-52)Online publication date: 23-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3514230
Angles RBonifati ADumbrava SFletcher GHare KHidders JLee VLi BLibkin LMartens WMurlak FPerryman JSavković OSchmidt MSequeda JStaworko STomaszuk DLi GLi ZIdreos SSrivastava D(2021)PG-Keys: Keys for Property GraphsProceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Management of Data10.1145/3448016.3457561(2423-2436)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3448016.3457561
Arenas MGutierrez CSequeda JLi GLi ZIdreos SSrivastava D(2021)Querying in the Age of Graph Databases and Knowledge GraphsProceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Management of Data10.1145/3448016.3457545(2821-2828)Online publication date: 9-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3448016.3457545
Arenas MCroquevielle LJayaram RRiveros C(2020)Efficient Logspace Classes for Enumeration, Counting, and Uniform GenerationACM SIGMOD Record10.1145/3422648.342266149:1(52-59)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2020
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