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A Structural Approach to Query Language Design

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The Functional Approach to Data Management

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Summary

This chapter is motivated by the question “are there any clean mathematical principles behind the design of query languages?” One can hardly blame the reader of various recent standards for asking this question. The authors try to sketch what such a mathematical framework could be. One of the classifying principles they use extensively is that of languages being organised around type systems, with language primitives corresponding to constructors and deconstructors for each type. There is some value in casting the concepts in as general a form as possible; hence the use of the language of category theory for describing them. Once the semantic framework is discussed, the chapter presents a calculus, itself a language, that could be (and was) used as an internal representation for various user languages. The discussion is relevant to all kinds of data models: relational, object-relational, object-oriented, and semi-structured.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9YL, Ireland

    Peter Buneman

  2. Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6389, USA

    Val Tannen

Authors
  1. Peter Buneman
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  2. Val Tannen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Peter M. D. Gray

  2. E-Center for E-Business and Department of ISE, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Larry Kerschberg

  3. School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, UK

    Peter J. H. King  & Alexandra Poulovassilis  & 

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Buneman, P., Tannen, V. (2004). A Structural Approach to Query Language Design. In: Gray, P.M.D., Kerschberg, L., King, P.J.H., Poulovassilis, A. (eds) The Functional Approach to Data Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05372-0_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05372-0_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-05575-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-05372-0

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