Declarative data analysis

Abstract

The relational database model constituted a major breakthrough in database technology. It provided a conceptual model for data storage and retrieval that made querying databases much easier. A crucial aspect of this was the introduction of declarative query languages, such as SQL. Today, databases are not only used for retrieving data, but also for analyzing them. While the science and technology of data analysis have made tremendous progress in the last decades, they have not made the leap that database technology has made. This observation was made already in the nineties. Two decades later, the situation has hardly improved. Yet, progress has been made in several relevant areas. This article discusses the concept of declarative data analysis, the scientific fields that are relevant for this, the state of the art, and some future directions.