The Functional Approach to Data Management: Modeling, Analyzing and Integrating Heterogeneous Data

516 Pages·2004·11.08 MB·English

by  Peter M. D. Gray

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
The Functional Approach
to Data Management
Peter M.D. Gray • Larry Kerschberg • Peter J.H. King •
Alexandra Poulovassilis (Eds.)
The Functional Approach
to Data Managelllent
Modeling, Analyzing and Integrating
Heterogeneous Data
Springer
Editors
Peter M.D. Gray Peter I.H. King
Alexandra Poulovassilis
Department of Computing Science
University of Aberdeen School of Computer Science and
Aberdeen Information Systems
UK Birkbeck College
University of London
Larry Kerschberg London
E-Center for E-Business and UK
Department of ISE
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA
USA
With 87 Figures and 8 Tables
Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
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Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
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ACM Subject Classification (1998): H.2.5, H.2.3, D.l.l
ISBN 978-3-642-05575-1 ISBN 978-3-662-05372-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-05372-0
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004
Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 2004.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 2004
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Preface
The Functional Data Model and Functional Languages
The junctional data model first appeared in the late 1970's with seminal work
by Larry Kerschberg and by David Shipman. At the same time Pete r Bune
man was showing how it could be neatly combined with the newly developing
interest in junctional languages for computing and for specification. In this
book we aim to show how those ideas have progressed and why the functional
approach both to data models and to computing is now coming of age in the
new era of the Semantic Web and distributed resources on the Internet.
Integrating Data from Heterogeneous Databases and In
Bioinformatics
Shipman's work on integrating data from heterogeneous databases has been
followed up by recent work on integrating widely distributed
bioinjormatics databases and heterogeneous Intemet-based resources, as de
scribed in chapters in Section H. The crucial insight was that the functional
abstraction creates a uniform way of viewing data, regardless of how it is
actually stored. This may seem strange to programmers, who are used to ma
nipulating data inside specific array or record structures in memory. However,
when integrating data from many different sourees, for compatibility with
various application programs, it is important to hide these storage details
and work at a higher conceptual level.
List Comprehensions, Monads and Monoids
From the computational point of view, the functional approach allows us to
compose functions, and then to rewrite and transform functional expressions
using the principle of referential transparency. A crucial construct is the list
comprehension which allows one to specify many different kinds of compu
tation with data and to apply mathematical principles in transforming it.
VI Preface
Section III of the book is devoted to the design, formal analysis, and opti
mization of functional database languages. It includes important refinements
of comprehensions, based on the mathematical structures of monads and
monoids. Applications of these principles appear throughout the book.
Associative Storage, Updates and Constraints
Functional abstractions fit very weH with an Object-AttributeValue view of
data. This is more flexible than ann-ary relational model and fits weH with
semi-structured data, as others have shown. In Section I we see how it can
be implemented efficiently in associative storage and ex amine experimental
systems and novel query languages based on it. A related issue is how to
handle updates while preserving the correctness of transformations in their
presence. Several chapters in Section I describe novel approaches to this
problem, including the use of constraints.
Approaches to RDF Schema and E-Commerce
Most recently, with the development of the RDF and RDF Schema languages
for specifying resources on the Web, it has become possible to apply the
functional approach to Web resources. Section IV, the last section of the
book, describes recent work on capturing RDF schema information in func
tional form, so that the semantics of Web data can be put on a sounder
footing, so that data from different sources can be meaningfuHy integrated
and queried. This opens up an exciting new vision of e-commerce and web
based applications, as described in the closing chapters of the book.
Thtorial Aspects
For those for whom the subject is very new, we have written a tutorial
introductory chapter assuming only basic knowledge of SQL and simple set
theoretic notation. This should suffice to give the necessary background for
reading other chapters. It also includes a survey of the influential work which
laid the foundation for much that is described later in the book. Almost aH
those active in this field have contributed chapters with detailed references,
so we hope that this book will become a useful source book for those working
in the field.
April 2003 Peter M.D. Gray, Larry Kerschberg
Peter J H King, Alexandra Poulovassilis
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to the Use of Functions in the Management
of Data
Peter M.D. Gray, Peter J.H. King and Alexandra Poulovassilis.... 1
Introduction to Section I:
Advances in Information Modelling using a Functional Approach
Section Editors 's Preface by Peter King
2. A Functional Database Language
for the Associative Model of Data
Peter J .H. King. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 55
3. Scoped Referential Transparency
in a Functional Database Language
Peter J.H. King and Paul F. Meredith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 77
4. Functional Approaches to Constraint Handling
and State Change
Suzanne M. Embury and Peter M.D. Gray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
5. Representing Matrices
Using Multi-Directional Foreign Functions
Kjell Orsborn, Tore Risch, and Staffan Flodin .................. 116
Introduction to Section II:
Advances in Informat'ion Integration and Interoperability
Section Editors 's Pr-eface by Peter Gray
6. The Kleisli Approach to Data Transformation
and Integration
Susan B. Davidson and Limsoon Wong ........................ 135
7. An Expressive Functional Data Model
and Query Language for Bioinformatics Data Integration
Peter M.D. Grayand Graham J.L. Kemp ...................... 166
VIII Table of Contents
8. Optimisation Strategies for Functional Queries
in a Distributed Environment
Graham J.1. Kemp, Pete r M.D. Gray, and Suzanne M. Embury .. 189
9. Functional Data Integration
in a Distributed Mediator System
Tore Risch, Vanja Josifovski, and Timour Katchaounov .......... 211
10. Applying Functional Languages
in Knowledge-Based Information Integration Systems
Martin Peim, Norman W. Paton, and Enrico Franeoni ........... 239
Intmduction to Section III:
Advances in Analysis and Optimisation using a Functional Appmach
Section Editors 's Preface by Alexandra Poulovassilis
11. Analysis of Functional Active Databases
James Bailey and Alexandra Poulovassilis ...................... 262
12. Monad Comprehensions:
A Versatile Representation for Queries
Torsten Grust .............................................. 288
13. Query Processing and Optimization in A-DB
Leonidas Fegaras ............................................ 312
14. A Structural Approach to Query Language Design
Peter Buneman and Val Tannen .............................. 335
Intmduction to Section IV:
Looking Forward to Functional Appmaches for Semi-Structured Data
Section Editors 's Preface by Larry K erschberg
15. Functional Approach in Internet-Based Applications:
Enabling the Semantic Web, E-Business, Web Services
and Agent-Based Knowledge Management
Larry Kersehberg ........................................... 369
16. A Functional Approach to XML-Based Dynamic
Negotiation in E-Business
JongPil Yoon and Larry Kersehberg ........................... 393
Table of Contents IX
17. An FDM-Based Constraint Language
for Semantic Web Applications
Alun Preece, Kit Hui,and Pete r Gray .......................... 417
18. RQL: A Functional Query Language for RDF
Gregory Karvounarakis, Aimilia Magkanaraki, Sophia Alexaki,
Vassilis Christophides, Dimitris Plexousakis, Michel Scholl, and
Karsten Tolle ............................................... 435
19. Functional Queries
to Wrapped Educational Semantic Web Meta-Data
Tore Risch ................................................. 466
Author Index ................................................. 478
Subject Index ................................................ 479