On The Power Of Languages For The Manipulation Of Complex Objects (1993)
| Venue: | In Proceedings of International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Nested Relations and Complex Objects |
| Citations: | 118 - 7 self |
BibTeX
@TECHREPORT{Abiteboul93onthe,
author = {Serge Abiteboul and Catriel Beeri},
title = {On The Power Of Languages For The Manipulation Of Complex Objects},
institution = {In Proceedings of International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Nested Relations and Complex Objects},
year = {1993}
}
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Abstract
Various models and languages for describing and manipulating hierarchically structured data have been proposed. Algebraic, calculus-based and logic-programming oriented languages have all been considered. This paper presents a general model for complex objects, and languages for it based on the three paradigms. The algebraic language generalizes those presented in the literature; it is shown to be related to the functional style of programming advocated by Backus. The notion of domain independence familiar from relational databases is defined, and syntactic restrictions (referred to as safety conditions) on calculus queries are formulated, that guarantee domain independence. The main results are: The domain-independent calculus, the safe calculus, the algebra, and the logic-programming oriented language have equivalent expressive power. In particular, recursive queries, such as the transitive closure, can be expressed in each of the languages. For this result, the algebra needs the pow...
