Semi-automatic techniques for deriving interscheme properties from database schemes

摘要

Many organizations nowadays own several information systems storing precious data whose effective exploitation is a key issue in many contexts. A major problem to be faced is the semantic normalization of scheme objects used in heterogeneous, independent and pre-existing databases as to single out differences and similitudes among data whereby a consistent, integrated view of available information can be obtained. To solve large instances of this problem, the development of automatic support tools appears to be mandatory. This paper gives a contribution in this framework by presenting algorithms for extracting useful properties holding among objects belonging to sets of database schemes. The algorithms are capable of deriving both nominal and structural properties of scheme objects starting from database scheme descriptions. Some application examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.