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Trial for RDF: adapting graph query languages for RDF data

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Published:22 June 2013Publication History

ABSTRACT

Querying RDF data is viewed as one of the main applications of graph query languages, and yet the standard model of graph databases -- essentially labeled graphs -- is different from the triples-based model of RDF. While encodings of RDF databases into graph data exist, we show that even the most natural ones are bound to lose some functionality when used in conjunction with graph query languages. The solution is to work directly with triples, but then many properties taken for granted in the graph database context (e.g., reachability) lose their natural meaning.

Our goal is to introduce languages that work directly over triples and are closed, i.e., they produce sets of triples, rather than graphs. Our basic language is called TriAL, or Triple Algebra: it guarantees closure properties by replacing the product with a family of join operations. We extend TriAL with recursion, and explain why such an extension is more intricate for triples than for graphs. We present a declarative language, namely a fragment of datalog, capturing the recursive algebra. For both languages, the combined complexity of query evaluation is given by low-degree polynomials. We compare our languages with relational languages, such as finite-variable logics, and previously studied graph query languages such as adaptations of XPath, regular path queries, and nested regular expressions; many of these languages are subsumed by the recursive triple algebra. We also provide examples of the usefulness of TriAL in querying graph and RDF data.

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          • Published in

            cover image ACM Conferences
            PODS '13: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM SIGMOD-SIGACT-SIGAI symposium on Principles of database systems
            June 2013
            334 pages
            ISBN:9781450320665
            DOI:10.1145/2463664
            • General Chair:
            • Richard Hull,
            • Program Chair:
            • Wenfei Fan

            Copyright © 2013 ACM

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            Association for Computing Machinery

            New York, NY, United States

            Publication History

            • Published: 22 June 2013

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            PODS '13 Paper Acceptance Rate24of97submissions,25%Overall Acceptance Rate476of1,835submissions,26%

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