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Thémis: A Database Programming Language Handling Integrity Constraints.

Véronique Benzaken, Anne Doucet: Thémis: A Database Programming Language Handling Integrity Constraints. VLDB J. 4(3): 493-517(1995)
@article{DBLP:journals/vldb/BenzakenD95,
  author    = {V{\'e}ronique Benzaken and
               Anne Doucet},
  title     = {Th{\'e}mis: A Database Programming Language Handling Integrity
               Constraints},
  journal   = {VLDB J.},
  volume    = {4},
  number    = {3},
  year      = {1995},
  pages     = {493-517},
  ee        = {db/journals/vldb/BenzakenD95.html},
  bibsource = {DBLP, http://dblp.uni-trier.de}
}
BibTeX

Abstract

This article presents a database programming language, Thémis, which supports subtyping and class hierarchies, and allows for the definition of integrity contraints in a global and declarative way. We first describe the salient features of the language: types, names, classes, integrity constraints (including methods), and transactions. The inclusion of methods into integrity constraints allow an increase of the declarative power of these constraints. Indeed, the information needed to define a constraint is not always stored in the database through attributes, but is sometimes computed or derived data. Then, we address the problem of efficiently checking constraints. More specifically, we consider two different problems: (1) statically reducing the number of constraints to be checked, and (2) generating an efficient run-time checker. Using simple strategies, one can significantly improve the efficiency of the verification. We show how to reduce the number of constraints to be checked by characterizing the portions of the database that are involved in both the constraints and in a transaction. We also show how to generate efficient algorithms for checking a large class of constraints. We show how all the techniques presented exploit the underlying type system, which provides significant help in solving (1) and (2). Last, the current status of the Thémis prototype is presented.

Copyright © 1995 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.

Key Words

Database programming languages, integrity constraints, program analysis.

Online Paper

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Referenced by

  1. Suad Alagic: A Family of the ODMG Object Models. ADBIS 1999: 14-30
  2. Véronique Benzaken, Xavier Schaefer: Static Management of Integrity in Object-Oriented Databases: Design and Implementation. EDBT 1998: 311-325
  3. David Spelt, Herman Balsters: Automatic Verification of Transactions on an Object-Oriented Database. DBPL 1997: 396-412
BibTeX
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