skip to main content
10.1145/1559795.1559832acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesmodConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

XML with incomplete information: models, properties, and query answering

Published:29 June 2009Publication History

ABSTRACT

We study models of incomplete information for XML, their computational properties, and query answering. While our approach is motivated by the study of relational incompleteness, incomplete information in XML documents may appear not only as null values but also as missing structural information. Our goal is to provide a classification of incomplete descriptions of XML documents, and separate features - or groups of features - that lead to hard computational problems from those that admit efficient algorithms. Our classification of incomplete information is based on the combination of null values with partial structural descriptions of documents. The key computational problems we consider are consistency of partial descriptions, representability of complete documents by incomplete ones, and query answering. We show how factors such as schema information, the presence of node ids, and missing structural information affect the complexity of these main computational problems, and find robust classes of incomplete XML descriptions that permit tractable query evaluation.

References

  1. S. Abiteboul, O. Duschka. Complexity of answering queries using materialized views. In PODS 1998, pages 254--263. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  2. S. Abiteboul, P. Kanellakis, G. Grahne. On the representation and querying of sets of possible worlds. TCS 78 (1991), 158--187. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  3. S. Abiteboul, L. Segoufin, V. Vianu. Representing and querying XML with incomplete information. ACM TODS, 31 (2006), 208--254. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  4. S. Abiteboul, R. Hull and V. Vianu. Foundations of Databases, Addison Wesley, 1995. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  5. M. Arenas, W. Fan, L. Libkin. On the complexity of verifying consistency of XML specifications. SIAM J. Comput. 38 (2008), 841--880. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  6. M. Arenas, L. Libkin. XML data exchange: consistency and query answering. J. ACM 55(2): (2008). Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  7. M. Benedikt, W. Fan, F. Geerts. XPath satisfiability in the presence of DTDs. J. ACM 55(2): (2008). Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  8. H. Bjorklund, W. Martens, T. Schwentick. Conjunctive query containment over trees. DBPL'07, pages 66--80. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  9. H. Bjorklund, W. Martens, T. Schwentick. Optimizing conjunctive queries over trees using schema information. MFCS'08, pages 132--143. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  10. A. Cali, D. Lembo, R. Rosati. On the decidability and complexity of query answering over inconsistent and incomplete databases. PODS'03, pages 260--271. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  11. D. Calvanese, G. De Giacomo, M. Lenzerini. Semi-structured data with constraints and incomplete information. Description Logics, 1998.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  12. D. Calvanese, G. De Giacomo, M. Lenzerini. Representing and reasoning on XML documents: a description logic approach. J. Log. Comput. 9 (1999), 295--318.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  13. S. Cohen, B. Kimelfeld, Y. Sagiv. Incorporating constraints in probabilistic XML. In PODS'08, pages 109--118. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  14. C. David. Complexity of data tree patterns over XML documents. In MFCS'08, pages 278--289. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  15. A. Deutsch, V. Tannen. Reformulation of XML queries and constraints. In ICDT'03, pages 225--241. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  16. Document Object Model (DOM). W3C Recommendation, April 2004. http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM--Level--3--Core.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  17. R. Fagin, Ph. Kolaitis, R. Miller, L. Popa. Data exchange: semantics and query answering. TCS 336(1): 89--124 (2005). Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  18. P. Gardner, G. Smith, M. Wheelhouse, U. Zarfaty. Local Hoare reasoning about DOM. In PODS'08, pages 261--270. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  19. G. Gottlob, C. Koch, K. Schulz. Conjunctive queries over trees. J. ACM 53 (2006), 238--272. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  20. T. Imielinski, W. Lipski. Incomplete information in relational databases. J. ACM 31 (1984), 761--791. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  21. Y. Kanza, W. Nutt, Y. Sagiv. Querying incomplete information in semistructured data. JCSS 64 (2002), 655--693.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  22. Ph. Kolaitis and M. Vardi. A logical approach to constraint satisfaction. In Finite Model Theory and its Applications, Springer 2007, pages 339--370.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  23. M. Lenzerini. Data integration: a theoretical perspective. In PODS'02, pages 233--246. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  24. D. Olteanu, C. Koch, L. Antova. World-set decompositions: expressiveness and efficient algorithms. TCS 403 (2008), 265--284. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  25. T. Schwentick. A little bit infinite? On adding data to finitely labelled structures. In STACS'08, pages 17--18.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  26. L. Segoufin. Automata and logics for words and trees over an infinite alphabet. In CSL'06, pages 41--57. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  27. P. Senellart, S. Abiteboul. On the complexity of managing probabilistic XML data. In PODS'07, pages 283--292. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  28. M. Vardi. Querying logical databases. JCSS 33 (1986), 142--160. Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library

Index Terms

  1. XML with incomplete information: models, properties, and query answering

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Login options

    Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

    Sign in
    • Published in

      cover image ACM Conferences
      PODS '09: Proceedings of the twenty-eighth ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems
      June 2009
      298 pages
      ISBN:9781605585536
      DOI:10.1145/1559795
      • General Chair:
      • Jan Paredaens,
      • Program Chair:
      • Jianwen Su

      Copyright © 2009 ACM

      Publisher

      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 29 June 2009

      Permissions

      Request permissions about this article.

      Request Permissions

      Check for updates

      Qualifiers

      • research-article

      Acceptance Rates

      Overall Acceptance Rate476of1,835submissions,26%

    PDF Format

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader
    About Cookies On This Site

    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

    Learn more

    Got it!