Specification and Implementation of Programs for Updating Incomplete Information Databases (Preliminary Report)
Summary: Frames updates of incomplete-information (logical) databases as a programming problem and introduces BLU (a five-primitive core) plus HLU (a user-level language), with formal denotational semantics. Develops possible-worlds and clausal semantics, proves clausal correct as an implementation of possible-worlds, establishes BLU as a semantically complete primitive layer for update-language implementation, and identifies masking as a necessary primitive, implying inherent complexity in updating logical databases. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)
Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time
Authors
Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 1 of 1 citing papers.
| Rank | Citing Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,954 | A Framework for Comparison of Update Semantics (Extended Abstract) | 1988 | PODS | 4.1945683e-05 |
Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)
Showing 2 of 2 cited papers.
Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.
| Rank | Cited Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,197 | Update Semantics for Incomplete Databases | 1985 | VLDB | 9.3085358e-05 |
| 5,601 | A Model-Theoretic Approach to Updating Logical Databases (Extended Abstract) | 1986 | PODS | 5.4153386e-05 |
Semantically Similar Papers
| Overall Rank | Paper | Year | Venue | Pagerank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,522 | Language Constructs for Programming Active Databases | 1991 | VLDB | 8.6059315e-05 |
| 1,916 | A Transaction Language Complete for Database Update and Specification | 1987 | PODS | 0.00010101977 |
| 12,936 | Declarative Expression of Deductive Database Updates | 1989 | PODS | 4.1945683e-05 |
| 12,858 | A Logical Semantics for Object-Oriented Databases | 1993 | SIGMOD | 4.1945683e-05 |
| 12,898 | Updates in a Rule-Based Language for Objects | 1992 | VLDB | 4.1945683e-05 |
| 6,932 | Database Updates in Logic Programming | 1988 | PODS | 4.8925595e-05 |
| 556 | On the Semantics of Updates in Databases | 1983 | PODS | 0.00020249905 |
| 12,954 | A Framework for Comparison of Update Semantics (Extended Abstract) | 1988 | PODS | 4.1945683e-05 |
| 5,601 | A Model-Theoretic Approach to Updating Logical Databases (Extended Abstract) | 1986 | PODS | 5.4153386e-05 |
| 2,197 | Update Semantics for Incomplete Databases | 1985 | VLDB | 9.3085358e-05 |