Any Algorithm in the Complex Object Algebra with Powerset Needs Exponential Space to Compute Transitive Closure
Summary: Proves that in the Abiteboul–Beeri complex-object algebra with the powerset operator, any algorithm evaluating transitive closure must use exponential space. Concludes powerset is inherently intractable for implementing fixpoint/TC queries, giving a strong lower bound. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)
Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time
Authors
- 1. Dan Suciu (University of Pennsylvania)
- 2. Jan Paredaens (University of Antwerp)
BibTeX Citation
@inproceedings{suciu_pods94,
address = {New York, NY, USA},
series = {{PODS} '94},
title = {{Any Algorithm in the Complex Object Algebra with Powerset Needs Exponential Space to Compute Transitive Closure}},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/182591.182613},
doi = {10.1145/182591.182613},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} Symposium on {Principles} of {Database} {Systems}},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
author = {Suciu, Dan and Paredaens, Jan},
year = {1994}
}
Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 2 of 2 citing papers.
| Rank | Citing Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,993 | Normalizing Incomplete Databases | 1995 | PODS | 5.093636e-05 |
| 13,022 | Tutorial: Languages for Collection Types | 1994 | PODS | 5.093636e-05 |
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 3 of 3 cited papers.
Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.
| Rank | Cited Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,130 | Normal Forms and Conservative Properties for Query Languages over Collection Types | 1993 | PODS | 9.1244275e-05 |
| 2,701 | Possibilities and Limitations of Using Flat Operators in Nested Algebra Expressions | 1988 | PODS | 8.240179e-05 |
| 7,086 | A Query Language for NC | 1994 | PODS | 5.7073076e-05 |
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