Generalization/specialization abstraction structures

: Theoretical study and integration in a database design workbench

Abstract

The generalization/specialization abstraction structures offer a powerful specification tool. This work first attempts to identify the different facets of the concept, as far as conceptual database design is concerned: indeed, generalization/specialization structures are part of numerous (semantic) data models but there are many variations around the definitions and the ways in which they are used. From this theoretical analysis, we define a useful and consistent subset of these structures in order to include them in an existing database design workbench based on the entity-relationship approach. The proposed construct, called the category, is introduced in the workbench model; the existing processors are modified, while new functions are proposed (a special care is given to transformations).

Date of Award	1990
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Supervisor	Jean-Luc Hainaut (Supervisor)