IFO: a formal semantic database model

  • Authors:
  • Serge Abiteboul;Richard Hull

  • Affiliations:
  • Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Racquencourt, France;Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS)
  • Year:
  • 1987

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Abstract

A new, formally defined database model is introduced that combines fundamental principles of “semantic” database modeling in a coherent fashion. Using a graph-based formalism, the IFO model provides mechanisms for representing structured objects, and functional and ISA relationships between them. A number of fundamental results concerning semantic data modeling are obtained in the context of the IFO model. Notably, the types of object structure that can arise as a result of multiple uses of ISA relationships and object construction are described. Also, a natural, formal definition of update propagation is given, and it is shown that (under certain conditions) a correct update always exists.