Deductive entity relationship modeling

Author

Battista, Giuseppe Di ; Lenzerini, Maurizio

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Inf. e Sistemistica, Roma Univ., Italy

Volume

5

Issue

3

fYear

1993

fDate

6/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

439

Lastpage

450

Abstract

An entity relationship oriented model, that includes the notion of class, together with different types of assertions on classes, is presented. The assertions are used to model IS-A and disjointness relations both between entities and between relationships, part-of relations between entities and relationships, mandatory participation of an entity in a relationship, and interdependencies between the projections of relationships. The semantics of the model are defined in terms of first-order logic, and a sound and complete inference algorithm for such a model is presented. The algorithm is shown to have polynomial time complexity in the case where interdependencies on the projections of relationships are not taken into account. It is suggested that the model and the associated inference capabilities provide a suitable formal basis for designing an effective environment supporting conceptual modeling

Keywords

computational complexity; deductive databases; entity-relationship modelling; inference mechanisms; IS-A; assertions; classes; conceptual modeling; deductive entity relationship modelling; disjointness relations; first-order logic; formal basis; inference algorithm; interdependencies; mandatory participation; polynomial time complexity; semantics; Data models; Deductive databases; Inference algorithms; Logic; Marine vehicles; Mechanical factors; Object oriented databases; Object oriented modeling; Polynomials; Remuneration;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-4347

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/69.224196

Filename

224196