Cross−Model Queries and Schemas: Complexity and Learning

Abstract

Specifying a database query using a formal query language is typically a challenging task for non-expert users. In the context of big data, this problem becomes even harder because it requires the users to deal with database instances of large size and hence difficult to visualize. Such instances usually lack a schema to help the users specify their queries, or have an incomplete schema as they come from disparate data sources. In this thesis, we address the problem of query specification for non-expert users. We identify two possible approaches for tackling this problem: learning queries from examples and translating the data in a format that the user finds easier to query. Our contributions are aligned with these two complementary directions and span over three of the most popular data models: XML, relational, and graph. This thesis consists of two parts, dedicated to (i) schema definition and translation, and to (ii) learning schemas and queries. In the first part, we define schema formalisms for unordered XML and we analyze their computational properties; we also study the complexity of the data exchange problem in the setting of a relational source and a graph target database. In the second part, we investigate the problem of learning from examples the schemas for unordered XML proposed in the first part, as well as relational join queries and path queries on graph databases. The interactive scenario that we propose for these two classes of queries is immediately applicable to assisting non-expert users in the process of query specification.