Relational Query Synthesis ⋈ Decision Tree Learning

Abstract

We study the problem of synthesizing a core fragment of relational queries called select-project-join (SPJ) queries from input-output examples. Search-based synthesis techniques are suited to synthesizing projections and joins by navigating the network of relational tables but require additional supervision for synthesizing comparison predicates. On the other hand, decision tree learning techniques are suited to synthesizing comparison predicates when the input database can be summarized as a single labelled relational table. In this paper, we adapt and interleave methods from the domains of relational query synthesis and decision tree learning, and present an end-to-end framework for synthesizing relational queries with categorical and numerical comparison predicates. Our technique guarantees the completeness of the synthesis procedure and strongly encourages minimality of the synthesized program. We present Libra, an implementation of this technique and evaluate it on a benchmark suite of 1,475 instances of queries over 159 databases with multiple tables. Libra solves 1,361 of these instances in an average of 59 seconds per instance. It outperforms state-of-the-art program synthesis tools Scythe and PatSQL in terms of both the running time and the quality of the synthesized programs.