Abstract not found

this paper, we extend XML DTDs with several classes of integrity constraints and investigate the complexity of reasoning about these constraints. The constraints range over keys, foreign keys, inverse constraints as well as ID constraints for capturing the semantics of object identities. They improve semantic specifications and provide a better reference mechanism for native XML applications. They are also useful in information exchange and data integration for preserving the semantics of data originating in relational and object-oriented databases. We establish complexity and axiomatization results for the (finite) implication problems associated with these constraints. In addition, we study implication of more general constraints, such as functional, inclusion and inverse constraints defined in terms of navigation paths

U.C. San Diego

Abstract not found

XML specifications often consist of a type definition (typically, a DTD) and a set of integrity constraints. It has been shown previously that such specifications can be inconsistent, and thus it is often desirable to check consistency at compile-time. It is known that for general keys and foreign keys, and DTDs, the consistency problem is undecidable; however, it becomes NP-complete when all keys are one-attribute (unary), and tractable, if no foreign keys are used.

We consider the class of path-conjunctive queries and constraints (dependencies) defined over complex values with dictionaries.

We consider a subset of XPath expressions, called simple XPath expressions, which correspond to a class of conjunctive queries. We show that, in the absence of a DTD, each simple XPath expression has a unique minimal equivalent expression which can be found in polynomial time. We then consider D-equivalence, the equivalence of expressions with respect to the set of documents valid for a given DTD D. We show that a simple XPath expression P does not necessarily have a unique minimal D-equivalent expression. However, if P is reduced (there are no wildcards in it), then there is a unique minimal equivalent expression, but we show that deciding whether two reduced expressions are D-equivalent is coNP-hard.

Integrity constraints play a fundamental role in database design. We review initial work on the expression of integrity constraints for semistructured data and XML.

Abstract not found

XPath expressions play a crucial role in several W3C proposals and recommendations, such as the XSL Transformation framework (XSLT) or the recently proposed XQuery language.