Path Expressions in SQL: A User Study on Query Formulation

This article focuses on testing a path-oriented querying approach to hierarchical data in relational databases. The authors execute a user study to compare the path-oriented approach and traditional SQL from two perspectives: correctness of queries and time spent in querying. They also analyze what...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of database management 2016-07, Vol.27 (3), p.1-22
Main Authors: Junkkari, Marko, Vainio, Johanna, Iltanen, Kati, Arvola, Paavo, Kari, Heidi, Kekäläinen, Jaana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Error analysis
Errors
Formulations
Hierarchies
Object-oriented programming
Queries
Query languages
Query processing
Relational data bases
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Description
Summary:This article focuses on testing a path-oriented querying approach to hierarchical data in relational databases. The authors execute a user study to compare the path-oriented approach and traditional SQL from two perspectives: correctness of queries and time spent in querying. They also analyze what kinds of errors are typical in path-oriented SQL. Path-oriented query languages are popular in the context of object-orientation and XML. However, relational databases are the most common paradigm for storing data and SQL is most common for manipulating data. When querying hierarchical data in SQL, the user must specify join conditions explicitly between hierarchy levels. Path-oriented SQL is a new alternative for expressing hierarchical queries in relational databases. In the authors' study, the users spent significantly less time in writing path-oriented SQL queries and made fewer errors in query formulation.
ISSN:1063-8016
1533-8010
DOI:10.4018/JDM.2016070101