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Semantics of database transformations

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Semantics in Databases (SiD 1995)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1358))

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Abstract

Database transformations arise in many different settings including database integration, evolution of database systems, and implementing user views and data-entry tools. This paper surveys approaches that have been taken to problems in these settings, assesses their strengths and weaknesses, and develops requirements on a formal model for specifying and implementing database transformations.

We also consider the problem of insuring the correctness of database transformations. In particular, we demonstrate that the usefulness of correctness conditions such as information preservation is hindered by the interactions of transformations and database constraints, and the limited expressive power of established database constraint languages. We conclude that more general notions of correctness are required, and that there is a need for a uniform formalism for expressing both database transformations and constraints, and reasoning about their interactions.

Finally we introduce WOL, a declarative language for specifying and implementing database transformations and constraints. We briefly describe the WOL language and its semantics, and argue that it addresses many of the requirements on a formalism for dealing with general database transformations.

This research was supported in part by DOE DE-FG02-94-ER-61923 Sub 1, NSF BIR94-02292 PRIME, ARO AASERT DAAH04-93-G0129, ARPA N0001494-1-1086 and DOE DE-AC03-76SF00098.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, 19104, Philadelphia, PA

    Susan Davidson & Peter Buneman

  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 94705, Berkeley, CA

    Anthony Kosky

Authors
  1. Susan Davidson
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  2. Peter Buneman
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  3. Anthony Kosky
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Bernhard Thalheim Leonid Libkin

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Davidson, S., Buneman, P., Kosky, A. (1998). Semantics of database transformations. In: Thalheim, B., Libkin, L. (eds) Semantics in Databases. SiD 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1358. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0035005

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0035005

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-64199-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69700-8

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