The Evolving Role of Constraints in the Functional Data Model

  • Authors:

  • Peter M. D. Gray;Suzanne M. Embury;Kit Y. Hui;Graham J. L. Kemp

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, King‘s College, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. AB24 3UE. pgray@csd.abdn.ac.uk URL: http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/∼pfdm;Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, King‘s College, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. AB24 3UE. s.m.embury@cs.cf.ac.uk URL: http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/∼pfdm;Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, King‘s College, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. AB24 3UE URL: http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/∼pfdm;Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, King‘s College, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. AB24 3UE URL: http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/∼pfdm

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Intelligent Information Systems - Special issue on functional approach to intelligent information systems
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

We describe how to express constraints in a functional(semantic) data model, which has a working implementation in anobject database. We trace the development of such constraints frombeing integrity checks embedded in procedural code to being somethingdeclarative and self-contained, combining data access andcomputation, that can be moved around into other contexts inintelligent distributed systems. We see this as parallelingand extending the original vision of functions as values infunctional programming systems. It is greatly helped by usinga referentially transparent functional formalisation. We illustratethese ideas by showing how constraints can move around withindatabase systems (Colan & Angelic Daplex), being transformed forvarious uses, or even moved out into other systems and fused into aspecification for a configuration problem. We look forward to futuredirections involving Agents.