Nested Relations and Complex Objects in Databases

✍ Scribed by Peter Pistor, Peter Dadam (auth.), S. Abiteboul, P. C. Fischer, H. -J. Schek (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 327
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science 361
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume was primarily intended to present selected papers from the workshop on Theory and Applications of Nested Relations and Complex Objects, held in Darmstadt, FRG, from April 6-8, 1987. Other papers were solicited in order to provide a picture of the field as general as possible. Research on nested relations and complex objects originates in the late seventies. The motivation was to obtain data models and systems which would provide support for so-called complex objects or molecular structures, i.e., for hierarchically organized data, thereby overcoming severe shortcomings of the relational model. This theme of research is now maturing. Systems based on those ideas are beginning to be available. Languages of various natures (algebras, calculi, graphical, logic-oriented) have been designed and a theory is slowly emerging. Finally, new developments in database technology and research are incorporating features of models involving complex objects. A variety of approaches is represented in this volume. The first three papers give overviews of major pioneering implementation efforts. The fourth paper is devoted to the important issue of implementation of storage structures. The next three papers propose excursions in the foundations of nested relations and complex objects. The following six contributions are all devoted to modeling of complex objects. The area of database design is represented by the last four papers.

✦ Table of Contents

The advanced information management prototype....Pages 1-26
Verso: A database machine based on nested relations....Pages 27-49
The two roles of nested relations in the DASDBS project....Pages 50-68
A storage structure for Nested Relational Databases....Pages 69-83
Four views of complex objects: A sophisticate's introduction....Pages 85-116
An introduction to the completeness of languages for complex objects and nested relations....Pages 117-138
On the uniqueness of nested relations....Pages 139-150
An introduction to the Nested Sequences of Tuples data model and algebra....Pages 151-175
Recursively defined complex objects....Pages 176-189
Query languages for Nested Relational Databases....Pages 190-204
Nested relations and recursive queries....Pages 205-216
Realization of nested relation interfaces for relational and network databases....Pages 217-228
An approach to manage large inheritance networks within a DBS supporting nested relations....Pages 229-239
On the normalization in Nested Relational Databases....Pages 241-271
Complex objects modeling: An entity-relationship approach....Pages 272-296
A data model for complex objects based on a semantic database model and nested relations....Pages 297-312
γ-Acyclic database schemes and nested relations....Pages 313-323

✦ Subjects

Database Management; Information Storage and Retrieval