First-Class Functions for First-Order Database Engines
Abstract
We describe Query Defunctionalization which enables off-the-shelf first-order database engines to process queries over first-class functions. Support for first-class functions is characterized by the ability to treat functions like regular data items that can be constructed at query runtime, passed to or returned from other (higher-order) functions, assigned to variables, and stored in persistent data structures. Query defunctionalization is a non-invasive approach that transforms such function-centric queries into the data-centric operations implemented by common query processors. Experiments with XQuery and PL/SQL database systems demonstrate that first-order database engines can faithfully and efficiently support the expressive "functions as data" paradigm.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1308.0158,
title = {First-Class Functions for First-Order Database Engines},
author = {Torsten Grust and Alexander Ulrich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1308.0158},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Database Programming Languages (DBPL 2013), August 30, 2013, Riva del Garda, Trento, Italy