Database Research Group (CIS)
Document Type
Conference Paper
Date of this Version
January 1997
Abstract
We develop a new schema for unstructured data. Traditional schemas resemble the type systems of programming languages. For unstructured data, however, the underlying type may be much less constrained and hence an alternative way of expressing constraints on the data is needed. Here, we propose that both data and schema be represented as edge-labeled graphs. We develop notions of conformance between a graph database and a graph schema and show that there is a natural and efficiently computable ordering on graph schemas. We then examine certain subclasses of schemas and show that schemas are closed under query applications. Finally, we discuss how they may be used in query decomposition and optimization.
Date Posted: 26 June 2007
This document has been peer reviewed.
Comments
Postprint version. Published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, International Conference on Database Theory, Volume 1186, 1997, pages 336-350.
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62222-5_55