Existentially quantified types as a database viewing mechanism

Citation

Connor R, Dearie A, Morrison R & Brown F (1990) Existentially quantified types as a database viewing mechanism. In: Bancilhon F, Thanos C & Tsichritzis D (eds.) Advances in Database Technology: EDBT '90 International Conference on Extending Database Technology Venice, Italy, March 26–30, 1990 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 416. Advances in Database Technology: EDBT '90 International Conference on Extending Database Technology, Venice, 26.03.1990-30.03.1990. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, pp. 301-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0022178

Abstract
In database management systems, viewing mechanisms have been used to provide conceptual support for the user and security for the overall system. By controlling the style of database use, views aid the user by concentrating on the area of interest, and the system by ensuring the integrity of the data. In recent years, there have been a number of proposals for database or persistent programming languages. Such languages must be able to provide the facilities traditionally found in both database management systems and programming languages. In this paper we demonstrate how a persistent programming language, Napier88, can provide a viewing mechanism over persistent data by using existentially quantified types. The views, which may be generated dynamically, are statically type checked. The technique shown is applicable to any language which supports existentially quantified data types and a persistent store.

Keywords
Representation type; database management system; view relation; account number; abstract type;

Journal
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)