Title
Programming primitives for database languages
Abstract
This paper examines a number of programming primitives in query languages for relational databases. The basic framework is a language based on relational algebra, whose variables take relations as values. The primitives considered are (i) looping, (ii) counters, (iii) generic (or unranked) variables, (iv) equality, (v) bounded looping (which corresponds to counting the number of tuples in a relation), and (vi) isomorphism class (which corresponds to knowing the isomorphism class of the data base). A comparison diagram is given relating all combinations of these six primitives, and several of the resulting classes of queries are characterized by their complexity or algebraic properties. It is shown, for example, that equality cannot be simulated using all the other primitives, that generic variables (with loops) cannot be simulated with only ranked variables and all the other primitives, and that with bounded loops one can determine the isomorphism class of the database when generic variables are allowed, but not otherwise.
Year
DOI
Venue
1981
10.1145/567532.567537
POPL
Keywords
Field
DocType
isomorphism class,data base,algebraic property,bounded loop,database language,comparison diagram,relational databases,relational algebra,programming primitive,generic variable,bounded looping,basic framework,relational database,relation algebra,query language
Comparison diagram,Query language,Programming language,Ranking,Relational database,Tuple,Computer science,Theoretical computer science,Relational algebra,Isomorphism class,Bounded function
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
0-89791-029-X
76
63.20
References 
Authors
37
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ashok K. Chandra131161215.02