> > > is there any good article/textbook describing the relationship between
> > > (mathematical) domain theory and the domains used in (relational)
> > > databases?
> >
> > What is the difference between a set and a domain?
>
> The elements of a set have no order, with a domain you have the
> concept of an ordering of some kind on the set.
> http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?domain+theory
The definition of a mathematical domain at the above site seems
slightly different than the definition of domain in the relational
data model(rdm). In rdm, a domain seems to be a set of "scalar" values
that are in no particular order. In constrast, the mathematical domain
seems to be a set of ordered values. If the values represent pig,
banana, book, etc, how could they be logically ordered. It is true
they could be ordered by their name, but they would be ordered
differently in different languages thus the imposed order seems to be
arbitrary. In the general/natural case, aren't the values of a domain
unordered?
Received on Fri May 16 2003 - 11:38:44 CDT
