Joins vs. Links or Relational Join Considered Harmful

Alexandr Savinov

2016

Abstract

Since the introduction of the relational model of data, the join operation is part of almost all query languages and data processing engines. Nowadays, it is not only a formal operation but rather a dominating pattern of thought for the concept of data connectivity. In this paper, we critically analyze properties of this operation, its role and uses by demonstrating some of its fundamental drawbacks in the context of data processing. We also analyze an alternative approach which is based on the concept of link by showing how it can solve these problems. Based on this analysis, we argue that link-based mechanisms should be preferred to joins as a main operation in data model and data processing systems.

References

  1. Codd, E., 1970. A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks. Communications of the ACM, 13(6), 377- 387.
  2. Kiczales, G., Lamping, J., Mendhekar, A., Maeda, C., Lopes, C., Loingtier, J.-M., Irwin, J., 1997. AspectOriented Programming. ECOOP'97, 220-242.
  3. Maier, D., Ullman, J.D., Vardi, M.Y., 1984. On the foundation of the universal relation model. TODS'84, 9(2), 283-308.
  4. Savinov, A., 2014. Concept-oriented model. In J. Wang (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Business Analytics and Optimization. IGI Global, 502-511.
  5. Savinov, A., 2016. DataCommandr: Column-Oriented Data Integration, Transformation and Analysis. Internet of Things and Big Data (IoTBD'2016).
  6. Sibley, E.H. & Kerschberg, L., 1977. Data architecture and data model considerations. In Proceedings of the AFIPS Joint Computer Conferences. 85-96.
  7. Ullman, J.D., Zaniolo, C., 1990. Deductive databases: achievements and future directions. ACM SIGMOD Record, 19(4), 75-82.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Savinov A. (2016). Joins vs. Links or Relational Join Considered Harmful . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Internet of Things and Big Data - Volume 1: IoTBD, ISBN 978-989-758-183-0, pages 362-368. DOI: 10.5220/0005932403620368


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iotbd16,
author={Alexandr Savinov},
title={Joins vs. Links or Relational Join Considered Harmful},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Internet of Things and Big Data - Volume 1: IoTBD,},
year={2016},
pages={362-368},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005932403620368},
isbn={978-989-758-183-0},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Internet of Things and Big Data - Volume 1: IoTBD,
TI - Joins vs. Links or Relational Join Considered Harmful
SN - 978-989-758-183-0
AU - Savinov A.
PY - 2016
SP - 362
EP - 368
DO - 10.5220/0005932403620368