Unravelling Is-a Structures

Is-a relationships are widely recognized as conveying important information for database design. Although these relationships are implicitly hierarchical in nature, it is not uncommon to find collections of is-a relationships that form nonhierarchical structures. This paper formally defines is-a structures and classifies and interprets them. It illustrates how is-a structures can be used to identify possible database design errors or inefficiencies and to produce a database design that incorporates more of the semantics of an application.

• 저널Information Systems Research · 3(2) · 99–126
• 토픽Advanced Database Systems and Queries · Computer Networks and Communications
• DOI10.1287/isre.3.2.99
• 저자Robert C. Goldstein, Veda C. Storey