The format model: a theory of database organization

  • Authors:
  • Richard Hull;Chee K. Yap

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California;University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

  • Venue:
  • PODS '82 Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD symposium on Principles of database systems
  • Year:
  • 1982

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Abstract

A new theory of data representation involving "formats", which are based on three recurrent and prominent data-structuring concepts, is introduced. In a mathematically rigorous way, a notion of "equivalent" information capacity is defined and shown to be natural in a wide range of contexts. A normal form is introduced, and each equivalence class of formats is shown to have a unique representative in normal form. Finally, a natural way of comparing the information capacity of (non-equivalent) formats is formalized and studied.