Semantic integrity in a relational data base system

  • Authors:
  • Michael M. Hammer;Dennis J. McLeod

  • Affiliations:
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts;Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

  • Venue:
  • VLDB '75 Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Very Large Data Bases
  • Year:
  • 1975

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Abstract

As a model of some aspect(s) of the real world, the data in a data base must be accurate. In the context of a relational data base system, a facility to allow the expression and enforcement of a set of semantic integrity constraints is discussed. Semantic integrity constraints may describe properties of and relationships between data objects (in a relational data base) that are to hold (state snapshot constraints). Constraints may also place limitations on permissible data base operations (state transition constraints). A second type of semantic integrity information that is important in the context of a relational data base system is the precise description of domains (viewed as sets of atomic data objects), and the specification of their use as underlying domains of columns of relations in a data base. High-level nonprocedural languages to facilitate the expression of these two types of semantic integrity information are introduced and examples are presented.