On enforcing dyadic-type self-map constraints in MatBase

Abstract

Self-maps are widely encountered in the sub-universes modeled by databases, from genealogical trees to sports, from education to healthcare, etc. Their properties must be discovered and enforced by the software applications managing such data to guarantee their plausibility. The (Elementary) Mathematical Data Model provides 13 dyadic-type self-map constraint types. MatBase, an intelligent data and knowledge base management system prototype, allows database designers to simply declare them by only clicking corresponding checkboxes and automatically generates code for enforcing them. This paper describes the algorithms that MatBase uses for enforcing all these 13 self-map constraint types, which may also be used by developers not having access to MatBase.