A Denotational Definition of the Semantics of DRC, A Domain Relational Calculus.

@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/vldb/LouisP82,
  author    = {Georges Louis and
               Alain Pirotte},
  title     = {A Denotational Definition of the Semantics of DRC, A Domain Relational
               Calculus},
  booktitle = {Eigth International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, September
               8-10, 1982, Mexico City, Mexico, Proceedings},
  publisher = {Morgan Kaufmann},
  year      = {1982},
  isbn      = {0-934613-14-1},
  pages     = {348-356},
  ee        = {db/conf/vldb/LouisP82.html},
  crossref  = {DBLP:conf/vldb/82},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}

Abstract

This paper presents a semi-formal denotational definition of the semantics of a version of domain relational calculus called DRC. A single basic design principle governs the semantic definition: each predicate (or formula) of DRC denotes a relation.

The definition obtained is precise, short, and systematic. Generalizations of operations of the relational algebra are suggested, which correspond very directly with the semantics of DRC formulas.

This work also suggests a more active role of semantic considerations in the design process of a query language, in order to simplify the specification of the language and, eventually , the language itself.

Copyright © 1982 by the VLDB Endowment. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the VLDB copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by the permission of the Very Large Data Base Endowment. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or special permission from the Endowment.

Online Paper

• Download PDF file (www.vldb.org, Darmstadt, Germany)
• Download PDF file (www.acm.org, New York, USA)

ACM SIGMOD Anthology

• Windows: Click the letter of your CD drive
  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Mac: Click here
• UNIX/LINUX: mount the CD and click on the path of your mount point:
  /Anthology/vldb7588 or /cdrom

• Windows: Click the letter of your CD drive
  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Mac: Click here
• UNIX/LINUX: mount the DVD and click on the path of your mount point:
  /Anthology/aDVD1 or /dvd

Printed Edition

References

[ASHC82]

Edward A. Ashcroft, William W. Wadge: R/ for Semantics. ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 4(2): 283-294(1982) BibTeX

[CHAM76]

...

[CODD72]

E. F. Codd: Relational Completeness of Data Base Sublanguages. In: R. Rustin (ed.): Database Systems: 65-98, Prentice Hall and IBM Research Report RJ 987, San Jose, California : (1972) BibTeX

[DATE81]

...

[DEMO82]

...

[HALL75]

Patrick A. V. Hall, Peter Hitchcock, Stephen Todd: An Algebra of Relations for Machine Computation. POPL 1975: 225-232 BibTeX

[HARD81]

...

[LACR77]

Michel Lacroix, Alain Pirotte: Domain-Oriented Relational Languages. VLDB 1977: 370-378 BibTeX

[LOND78]

Ralph L. London, John V. Guttag, James J. Horning, Butler W. Lampson, James G. Mitchell, Gerald J. Popek: Proof Rules for the Programming Language Euclid. Acta Inf. 10: 1-26(1978) BibTeX

[MERR78]

T. H. Merrett: The Extended Relational Algebra, a Basis for Query Languages. JCDKB 1978: 99- BibTeX

[PIRO76]

...

[PIRO82]

Alain Pirotte: A Precise Definition of Basic Relational Notions and of the Relational Algebra. SIGMOD Record 13(1): 30-45(1982) BibTeX

[STOY77]

...

[ULLM80]

Jeffrey D. Ullman: Principles of Database Systems, 1st Edition. Computer Science Press 1980
BibTeX

[ZLOO75]

Moshé M. Zloof: Query-by-Example: the Invocation and Definition of Tables and Forms. VLDB 1975: 1-24 BibTeX

Referenced by

1. Dines Bjørner, Hans Henrik Løvengreen: Formalization of Database Systems - and a Formal Definition of IMS (Invited Paper). VLDB 1982: 334-347