Information Systems Research 1992

Unravelling Is-a Structures

Robert C. Goldstein¹; Veda C. Storey²

¹ University of British Columbia · ² University of Rochester

Abstract

Is-a relationships are widely recognized as conveying important information for database design. Although these relationships are implicitly hierarchical in nature, it is not uncommon to find collections of is-a relationships that form nonhierarchical structures. This paper formally defines is-a structures and classifies and interprets them. It illustrates how is-a structures can be used to identify possible database design errors or inefficiencies and to produce a database design that incorporates more of the semantics of an application.

DOI

10.1287/isre.3.2.99

Sources

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