Constraint-Based Approach to Semistructured Data

Issue title: Intelligent Systems

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hacid, Mohand-Saïd | Toumani, Farouk | Elmagarmid, Ahmed K.

Affiliations: Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA (e-mail: mshacid@cs.purdue.edu) | Laboratoire LIMOS, ISIMA - Campus des Cezeaux - B.P. 125 63173 Aubière Cedex - France (e-mail: ftouman@isima.fr) | Department of Computer Sciences, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA (e-mail: ake@cs.purdue.edu)

Abstract: In this paper we consider how constraint-based technology can be used to query semistruc-tured data. As many concerns in semistructured data (e.g., representing and retrieving) are also found in computational linguistics, this last area could provide an interesting angle to attack some of the problems regarding semistructured data. We present a formalism based on feature logics for query-ing semistructured data. The formalism is a hybrid one in the sense that it combines clauses with path constraints. The resulting language has a clear declarative and operational semantics based on the notion of extended active domain.

Keywords: Semistructured Data, Feature Logics, Path Expressions, Rule-Based Languages, Constraints

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 47, no. 1-2, pp. 53-73, 2001