A fast method for ensuring the consistency of integrity constraints

Abstract

The last few years have seen an increasing trend to use database technology in more innovative and diverse application domains which places even greater demands on DBMS for accuracy of information. The provision of correct and reliable data is therefore of vital importance and systems for integrity enforcement crucial. At the same time, as systems become more sophisticated, the sheer number and complexity of integrity constraints, associated with applications, is steadily increasing together with the rate at which changes are made to the constraint base itself. In this paper we examine the problem of constraint maintenance and propose a fast method for validating additional and modified constraints. The method is based on the construction of Modal Records to determine if a newly defined constraint is consistent with an existing constraint set.