An Accuracy Model for Relational Databases

Abstract

The relational database model has gained a great deal of attention over the past decades for its advantages. However, it suffers from a ubiquitous problem of data imperfection. Based on this situation, several models have been proposed to solve those problems. These models could improve the situation caused by the imperfect data, but they lack the ability to handle the accuracy issue that exists in the data. Therefore, an accuracy model is proposed here for relational databases. The theory of probability is utilized to help define accuracy in databases, and also relational algebra is extended for the use with accuracy model. Some implementation issues are also discussed.