An object-oriented approach to database system implementation

ABSTRACT

This paper examines object-oriented programming as an implementation technique for database systems. The object-oriented approach encapsulates the representations of database entities and relationships with the procedures that manipulate them. To achieve this, we first define abstractions of the modeling constructs of the data model that describe their common properties and behavior. Then we represent the entity types and relationship types in the conceptual schema and the internal schema by objects that are instances of these abstractions. The generic procedures (data manipulation routines) that comprise the user interface can now be implemented as calls to the procedures associated with these objects. A generic procedure model of database implementation techniques is presented and discussed. Several current database system implementation techniques are illustrated as examples of this model, followed by a critical analysis of our implementation technique based on the use of objects. We demonstrate that the object-oriented approach has advantages of data independence, run-time efficiency due to eliminating access to system descriptors, and support for low-level views.

REFERENCES

• 1: ANSI/X3/SPARC. Interim Rep. 75-02-08. FDT Bulletin ACM-SIGMOD 7, 2 (Feb. 1975}.
• 2: M. M. Astrahan , M. W. Blasgen , D. D. Chamberlin , K. P. Eswaran , J. N. Gray , P. P. Griffiths , W. F. King , R. A. Lorie , P. R. McJones , J. W. Mehl , G. R. Putzolu , I. L. Traiger , B. W. Wade , V. Watson, System R: relational approach to database management, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.1 n.2, p.97-137, June 1976 [doi>10.1145/320455.320457]
• 3: Anthony James Baroody, Jr., The evaluation of abstract data types as an implementation tool for database management systems., 1978
• 4: BAROODY, A.J., AND DEWXTT, D.J. The design and implementation of a database management system using abstract data types. Tech. Summary Rep. 1970, Mathematics Research Center, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison, June 1979.
• 5: BAROODY, A.J., AND DEWITT, D.J. The impact of run-time schema interpretation in a network data model DBMS. Submitted for publication, Jan. 1980.
• 6: BRODIE, M., AND SCHMIDT, H. What is the use of abstract data types in data bases? In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Very Large Data Bases, 1978, pp. 140-141.
• 7: CHAMBERUN, D.D., ET AL. Support for repetitive transactions and ad-hoc query in System R. IBM Research Rep. RJ2551, May 1979.
• 8: CODASYL. Data base task group report. ACM, New York, 1971.
• 9: CODASYL. Data description language, j. Dev. Document CI3.6/2:13, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1973.
• 10: E. F. Codd, A relational model of data for large shared data banks, Communications of the ACM, v.13 n.6, p.377-387, June 1970 [doi>10.1145/362384.362685]
• 11: Ole-Johan Dahl, SIMULA 67 common base language, (Norwegian Computing Center. Publication), 1968
• 12: C. J. Date, An introduction to database systems: vol. I (4th ed.), Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1986
• 13: FURTADO, A.L. A view construct for the specification of external schemas. In Series: Monografias em Ciencia da Computacao, M. Challis, Ed., 1978.
• 14: David Gries , Narain Gehani, Some ideas on data types in high-level languages, Communications of the ACM, v.20 n.6, p.414-420, June 1977 [doi>10.1145/359605.359624]
• 15: Michael Hammer, Data abstractions for data bases, Proceedings of the 1976 conference on Data : Abstraction, definition and structure, p.58-59, March 22-24, 1976, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
• 16: MCGEE, W.C. The information management system IMS/VS. IBM Syst. J. 16, 2 (1977), 84-168.
• 17: N. Minsky, Files with semantics, Proceedings of the 1976 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, June 02-04, 1976, Washington, D.C.
• 18: MYHRE, O. Protecting attributes of a local class. SIMULA Newsletter 5, 4 (Nov. 1977), 14-15. Norwegian Computing Center, Oslo, Norway.
• 19: Jacob Palme, New feature for module protection in SIMULA, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.11 n.5, p.59-62, May 1976 [doi>10.1145/956003.956009]
• 20: Daniel J. Rosenkrantz , Richard E. Stearns , Philip M. Lewis, II, System level concurrency control for distributed database systems, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.3 n.2, p.178-198, June 1978 [doi>10.1145/320251.320260]
• 21: Lawrence A. Rowe , Kurt A. Shoens, Data abstraction, views and updates in RIGEL, Proceedings of the 1979 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, May 30-June 01, 1979, Boston, Massachusetts [doi>10.1145/582095.582107]
• 22: Robert W. Scheifler, An analysis of inline substitution for a structured programming language, Communications of the ACM, v.20 n.9, p.647-654, Sept. 1977 [doi>10.1145/359810.359830]
• 23: SCHMIDT, J. Type concepts for database definition. In Proc. int. Conf. Data Bases, Haifa, Israel, Aug. 1978.
• 24: SPERRY UNIVAC. 1100 Series Data Management System (DMS 1100) Schema Definition Data Administrator Reference Manual, UP-7907, Rev. 2, Sperry Univac, 1975.
• 25: SPERRY USlVAC. 1100 Series Data Management System (DMS 1100) System Support Functions Data Administrator Reference Manual, UP-7909, Rev. 3, Sperry Univac, 1975.
• 26: David W. Stemple, A database management facility for automatic generation of database managers, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.1 n.1, p.79-94, March 1976 [doi>10.1145/320434.320452]
• 27: Michael Stonebraker , Gerald Held , Eugene Wong , Peter Kreps, The design and implementation of INGRES, ACM Transactions on Database Systems (TODS), v.1 n.3, p.189-222, Sept. 1976 [doi>10.1145/320473.320476]
• 28: TSICHRITZIS, D.C., AND LOCHOVSKY, F.H. Database Management Systems. Academic Press, New York, 1977.
• 29: Anthony I. Wasserman, The data management facilities of PLAIN, Proceedings of the 1979 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, May 30-June 01, 1979, Boston, Massachusetts [doi>10.1145/582095.582106]
• 30: WEBER, H. A software engineering view of data base systems. In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. Very Large Data Bases, 1978, pp. 36-51.
• 31: Ben Wegbreit, The treatment of data types in EL1, Communications of the ACM, v.17 n.5, p.251-264, May 1974 [doi>10.1145/360980.360992]
• 32: YEH, R.T., AND BAKER, J.W. Toward a design methodology for DBMS: A software engineering approach. In Proc. int. Conf. Very Large Data Bases, Tokyo, Japan, October 6-8, 1977, pp. !6-27.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT
      H.2.4 Systems
          Subjects: Object-oriented databases

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization

  H. Information Systems
  H.2 DATABASE MANAGEMENT

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design

Keywords:
data independence, data manipulation routines, database systems, high-level languages, object-oriented programming, procedural binding