Towards a Theory of Search Queries

Abstract

The need to manage diverse information sources has triggered the rise of very loosely structured data models, known as ``dataspace models.'' Such information management systems must allow querying in simple ways, mostly by a form of searching. Motivated by these developments, we propose a theory of search queries in a general model of dataspaces. In this model, a dataspace is a collection of data objects, where each data object is a collection of data items. Basic search queries are expressed using filters on data items, following the basic model of boolean search in information retrieval. We characterise semantically the class of queries that can be expressed by searching. We apply our theory to classical relational databases, where we connect search queries to the known class of fully generic queries, and to dataspaces where data items are formed by attribute--value pairs. We also extend our theory to a more powerful, associative form of searching where one can ask for objects that are similar to objects satisfying given search conditions. Such associative search queries are shown to correspond to a very limited kind of joins. Specifically, we show that the basic search language extended with associative search can define exactly the queries definable in a restricted fragment of the semijoin algebra working on an explicit relational representation of the dataspace.