Polystore Mathematics of Relational Algebra

TL;DR

This paper develops a rigorous mathematical framework using associative arrays to unify the relational algebra underlying SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases, facilitating the design of polystores that integrate diverse data models.

Contribution

It provides formal definitions, lemmas, and theorems that underpin the mathematical properties of relational algebra modeled with associative arrays, advancing the theoretical foundation for polystore systems.

Findings

Associative arrays model relations as non-zero array rows.

Relational algebra operations correspond to array operations.

Mathematical properties like projection composition are formally proven.

Abstract

Financial transactions, internet search, and data analysis are all placing increasing demands on databases. SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases have been developed to meet these demands and each offers unique benefits. SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases also rely on different underlying mathematical models. Polystores seek to provide a mechanism to allow applications to transparently achieve the benefits of diverse databases while insulating applications from the details of these databases. Integrating the underlying mathematics of these diverse databases can be an important enabler for polystores as it enables effective reasoning across different databases. Associative arrays provide a common approach for the mathematics of polystores by encompassing the mathematics found in different databases: sets (SQL), graphs (NoSQL), and matrices (NewSQL). Prior work presented the SQL relational model in terms of associative arrays and identified key mathematical properties that are preserved within SQL. This work provides the rigorous mathematical definitions, lemmas, and theorems underlying these properties. Specifically, SQL Relational Algebra deals primarily with relations - multisets of tuples - and operations on and between these relations. These relations can be modeled as associative arrays by treating tuples as non-zero rows in an array. Operations in relational algebra are built as compositions of standard operations on associative arrays which mirror their matrix counterparts. These constructions provide insight into how relational algebra can be handled via array operations. As an example application, the composition of two projection operations is shown to also be a projection, and the projection of a union is shown to be equal to the union of the projections.