Re: The Practical Benefits of the Relational Model

From: Paul Vernon <paul.vernon_at_ukk.ibmm.comm>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 16:52:40 +0100
Message-ID: <aklg60$2oeo$1_at_sp15at20.hursley.ibm.com>



Hi Jan.  

> Some would say it is the set of static and dynamic constraints
> that should hold for the data in the database.

By dynamic you mean what Date would call transition constraints, yes?
E.g. from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=7918&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE  "constraints [that] specify relationships between the database states before and after an update"

On this subject, don't dynamic constraints just become static constraints in the case where you keep all history in your database?  Besides, that is, the need to enforce the 'arrow of time' (i.e. can't update the history tuples). So enforcing the 'arrow of time' becomes the only required dynamic constraint

E.g.  with table T and attribute A of type INTEGER
and dynamic constraint X:  A > A'    (where A' is the old value of A)

becomes
     with table H and attribute A of type INTEGER and B of type TIMEPOINT
and static constraint X:  H1.A > H2.A FROM H as H1, H as H2 JOIN H1.B IS_SUBSEQUENT_TO H2.B

with the dynamic constraint B = CURRENT TIMEPOINT

Regards
Paul Vernon
Business Intelligence, IBM Global Services
  Received on Thu Aug 29 2002 - 17:52:40 CEST

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