Exact Query Reformulation over Databases with First-order and Description Logics Ontologies

Abstract

We study a general framework for query rewriting in the presence of an arbitrary first-order logic ontology over a database signature. The framework supports deciding the existence of a safe-range first-order equivalent reformulation of a query in terms of the database signature, and if so, it provides an effective approach to construct the reformulation based on interpolation using standard theorem proving techniques (e.g., tableau). Since the reformulation is a safe-range formula, it is effectively executable as an SQL query. At the end, we present a non-trivial application of the framework with ontologies in the very expressive ALCHOIQ description logic, by providing effective means to compute safe-range first-order exact reformulations of queries.

The Hunt for a Red Spider: Conjunctive Query Determinacy Is Undecidable

“…Or [DPT99], where the context is query evaluation plans optimization. Or -to see more recent examples - [FG12] where the view update problem is studied and [FKN13] where the context are description logics. It is fair to say that many variants of the problem are being considered, and the case we study, where both the views and the query are conjunctive queries, is not the only possible scenario.…”

DeFind: A Protege Plugin for Computing Concept Definitions in $$\mathcal {EL}$$ Ontologies

“…The question whether it suffices to compute a single concept definition strongly depends on application. For instance, the method from [3] is employed in [5] to compute query reformulations. In [6], checking for existence of a concept definition (or computing a single one) is used for ontology decomposition.…”

Generating Plans from Proofs

“…There is an extensive literature on this topic in the database literature [21,29,4]. The idea that one can use an effective version of Beth's theorem to synthesize transformations from theories first appears in the work of Toman and Weddell [44] and has been developed in a number of directions subsequently [15,6]. The development of the nested relational model, culminating in the convergence on the language NRC, has a long history, [1,3], developing out of work by a number of researchers (e.g.…”

“…There is an extensive literature on this topic in the database literature [21,29,4]. The idea that one can use an effective version of Beth's theorem to synthesize transformations from theories first appears in the work of Toman and Weddell [44] and has been developed in a number of directions subsequently [15,6].…”