Abstract

Graph database models can be characterized as those where data structures for the schema and instances are modeled as graphs or generalizations of them, and data manipulation is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors. These models flourished in the eighties and early nineties in parallel to object oriented models and their influence gradually faded with the emergence of other database models, particularly the geographical, spatial, semistructured and XML. Recently, the need to manage information with inherent graph-like nature has brought back the relevance of the area. In fact, a whole new wave of applications for graph databases emerged with the development of huge networks (e.g. Web, geographical systems, transportation, telephones), and families of networks generated due to the automation of the process of data gathering (e.g. social and biological networks). The main objective of this survey is to present in a single place the work that has been done in the area of graph database modeling, concentrating in data structures, query languages and integrity constraints.

Citations