Relational databases versus relational models

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• Alex Gurney, WebFlow
• Friday 11 February 2022, 14:00-15:00
• FW26.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Jamie Vicary.

THIS TALK WILL BE IN SS03 , NOT FW26

The propaganda has it that relational algebra is the foundation of relational databases: we can understand SQL queries in terms of relational join, projection, and other operators. When cornered, some may admit that odd features of SQL are hard to model, like NUL Ls, SELECT DISTINCT , and aggregations. I argue that the position is even worse, and that relational models have no story for the core use cases of relational databases, where we care about transactional semantics, locking, and predictability of performance. I will give examples of problems encountered in large-scale production settings that were beyond the reach of current theory, relational or otherwise.

This talk is part of the Logic and Semantics Seminar (Computer Laboratory) series.

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