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Answer sets for consistent query answering ininconsistent databases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2003

MARCELO ARENAS
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Departamento de Ciencia de Computacion, Santiago, Chile (e-mail: marenas@ing.puc.cl) Current address: University of Toronto, Department of Computer Science, Toronto, Canada. E-mail: marenas@cs.toronto.edu.
LEOPOLDO BERTOSSI
Affiliation:
School of Computer Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada (e-mail: bertossi@scs.carleton.ca)
JAN CHOMICKI
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA (e-mail: chomicki@cse.buffalo.edu)

Abstract

A relational database is inconsistent if it does notsatisfy a given set of integrity constraints. Nevertheless, it islikely that most of the data in it is consistent with theconstraints. In this paper we apply logic programming based onanswer sets to the problem of retrieving consistent information froma possibly inconsistent database. Since consistent informationpersists from the original database to every of its minimal repairs,the approach is based on a specification of database repairs usingdisjunctive logic programs with exceptions,whose answer set semantics can be represented and computed bysystems that implement stable model semantics. These programs allowus to declare persistence by default of data from the originalinstance to the repairs; and changes to restore consistency, byexceptions. We concentrate mainly on logic programs for binaryintegrity constraints, among which we find most of the integrityconstraints found in practice.

Information

Type
Regular Papers
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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