Semantics of Database Transformations

Authors: 
Davidson, Susan; Buneman, Peter; Kosky, Anthony
Author: 
Davidson, S
Buneman, P
Kosky, A
Year: 
1998
Venue: 
LNCS 1358, 1998
URL: 
http://db.cis.upenn.edu/DL/trans_surv_98.pdf
Citations: 
47
Citations range: 
10 - 49
AttachmentSize
Davidson1998SemanticsofDatabase.pdf323.43 KB

Database transformations arise in many different settings including
database integration, evolution of database systems, and implementing user views
and data entry tools. This paper surveys approaches that have been taken to problems in these settings, assesses their strengths and weaknessesd
develops requirements on a formal model for specifying and implementing database transformations. We also consider the problem of insuring the correctness of database transforma
tions
In particular, we demonstrate that the usefulness of correctness conditions
such as information preservation is hindered by the interactions of transformations
and database constraints and the limited expressive power of established database
constraint languages. Finally we introduce WOL a declarative language for specifying and implementing
database transformations and constraints. We briefly describe the WOL language
and its semantics and argue that it addresses many of the requirements on a
formalism for dealing with general database transformations.