G-Log: a graph-based query language

• Published in: IEEE transactions on knowledge and data engineering Vol. 7; no. 3; pp. 436 - 453
• Main Authors: Paredaens, J., Peelman, P., Tanca, L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.06.1995; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer aided software engineering; Computer languages; Computer science; control theory; systems; Data models; Database languages; Deductive databases; Exact sciences and technology; Information systems. Data bases; Knowledge representation; Logic programming; Memory organisation. Data processing; Object oriented databases; Object oriented modeling; Relational databases; Software; Query language; Deductive database; Programming language; First order logic; Modeling; Completeness
• ISSN: 1041-4347
• DOI: 10.1109/69.390249

We introduce G-Log, a declarative query language based on graphs, which combines the expressive power of logic, the modeling power of complex objects with identity and the representation power of graphs. G-Log is a nondeterministic complete query language, and thus allows the expression of a large variety of queries. We compare G-Log to well-known deductive database languages, and find that it is the only nondeterministic and computationally complete language that does not suffer from the copy-elimination problem. G-Log may be used in a totally declarative way, as well as in a "more procedural" way. Thus, it provides an intuitive, flexible graph-based formalism for nonexpert database users.< >