Consistency Checking in Complex Object Database Schemata with Integrity Constraints

Integrity constraints are rules which should guarantee the integrity of a database. Provided that an adequate mechanism to express them is available, the following question arises: is there any way to populate a database which satisfies the constraints supplied by a designer? i.e., does the database schema, including constraints, admit at least one model in which all classes are non-empty? This work gives an answer to the above question in an OODB environment, providing a Data Definition Language (DDL) able to express the semantics of a relevant set of state constraints and a specialized reasoner able to check the consistency of a schema with such constraints. The choice of the set of constraints expressed in the DDL is motivated by decidability issues.