Query processing for complex objects

Abstract

Over the last few years several new data models together with their languages have been developed to meet the increasing requirements of engineering or office applications. A major characteristic of these data models is their ability to process and manage complex objects which the relational model does not provide adequate support for. Whereas the problem of query translation for relational languages has provoked broad research activities during the last fifteen years, the analogous problem of translating non-procedural queries on complex objects into lower level programs for efficient execution has received only little attention. This paper tries to reveal the new aspects of query translation and execution on complex objects as compared to similar activities when processing flat relations. For this purpose, we investigate the essential concepts necessary to perform compilation, optimization, and execution of queries on complex objects.