An introduction to Graph Data Management

TL;DR

This paper introduces the fundamental concepts, history, and current systems of graph data management, highlighting its structure, query methods, and development over time.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of graph databases, including their basic notions, historical evolution, and analysis of main existing systems.

Findings

Graph databases model data as labeled directed graphs.

Querying in graph databases uses graph-oriented operations.

Current systems vary in implementation and capabilities.

Abstract

A graph database is a database where the data structures for the schema and/or instances are modeled as a (labeled)(directed) graph or generalizations of it, and where querying is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors. In this article we present the basic notions of graph databases, give an historical overview of its main development, and study the main current systems that implement them.