GraphLog: a Visual Formalism for Real Life Recursion

Summary: Introduces GraphLog, a visual query language where queries are graph patterns and query edges denote edges or regular-expression-qualified paths, enabling natural expression of recursion over graph data. Shows GraphLog’s power equals stratified linear Datalog, FO+transitive closure and NLOGSPACE (with ordering), and describes extensions for aggregates and path summarization plus a prototype. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: 918
Venue: PODS
Year: 1990
Pagerank: 0.00030241337
Overall Rank: 256 | 98.23%
DOI: -

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Mariano P. Consens
2. Alberto O. Mendelzon

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 32 of 32 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
115	A Query Language and Optimization Techniques for Unstructured Data	1996	SIGMOD	0.00046301137
276	Regular Path Queries with Constraints	1997	PODS	0.00029365217
393	From Structured Documents to Novel Query Facilities	1994	SIGMOD	0.00024506032
460	Graphs-at-a-time: Query Language and Access Methods for Graph Databases	2008	SIGMOD	0.00022679846
787	Cypher: An Evolving Query Language for Property Graphs	2018	SIGMOD	0.00016624372
880	DTD Inference for Views of XML Data	2000	PODS	0.00015642282
1,040	Querying Graph Databases	2013	PODS	0.00014483577
1,327	GraphDB: Modeling and Querying Graphs in Databases	1994	VLDB	0.00012571112
1,658	Querying Network Directories	1999	SIGMOD	0.00010970782
1,812	Expressive Languages for Path Queries over Graph-Structured Data	2010	PODS	0.00010458164
2,345	Rewriting of Regular Expressions and Regular Path Queries	1999	PODS	8.9933611e-05
2,572	Optimizing Queries on Files	1994	SIGMOD	8.5141353e-05
3,659	The Complexity of Evaluating Path Expressions in SPARQL	2012	PODS	6.8684407e-05
3,718	Colorful XML: One Hierarchy Isn't Enough	2004	SIGMOD	6.8148882e-05
3,768	Hy+: A Hygraph-based Query and Visualization System	1993	SIGMOD	6.7746111e-05
4,858	The G+/GraphLog Visual Query System	1990	SIGMOD	5.868056e-05
4,949	Querying Graph Patterns	2011	PODS	5.8090034e-05
4,955	Horton+: A Distributed System for Processing Declarative Reachability Queries over Partitioned Graphs	2013	VLDB	5.8057282e-05
5,267	On the Optimization of Recursive Relational Queries: Application to Graph Queries	2020	SIGMOD	5.5930569e-05
5,527	Representing Paths in Graph Database Pattern Matching	2023	VLDB	5.4573655e-05
5,663	GPC: A Pattern Calculus for Property Graphs	2023	PODS	5.3853781e-05
6,487	Spanners: A Formal Framework for Information Extraction	2013	PODS	5.0383288e-05
6,818	Conjunctive Regular Path Queries with String Variables	2020	PODS	4.911014e-05
6,846	TriAL for RDF: Adapting Graph Query Languages for RDF Data	2013	PODS	4.9042778e-05
6,945	Semantic Acyclicity on Graph Databases	2013	PODS	4.8874695e-05
7,712	GQL and SQL/PGQ: Theoretical Models and Expressive Power	2025	VLDB	4.6667433e-05
7,759	G-SQL: Fast Query Processing via Graph Exploration	2016	VLDB	4.6549638e-05
8,447	DOODLE: A Visual Language for Object-Oriented Databases	1992	SIGMOD	4.5039113e-05
8,723	GBLENDER: Towards Blending Visual Query Formulation and Query Processing in Graph Databases	2010	SIGMOD	4.4546285e-05
10,487	Dangers of List Processing in Querying Property Graphs	2025	SIGMOD	4.1905499e-05
12,855	Database Graph Views : A Practical Model to Manage Persistent Graphs	1994	VLDB	4.1905499e-05
12,939	Factoring Augmented Regular Chain Programs	1990	VLDB	4.1905499e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 8 of 8 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
173	Decidability And Expressiveness Aspects Of Logic Queries	1987	PODS	0.00038731283
353	Object Identity As A Query Language Primitive	1989	SIGMOD	0.00026275228
520	LDL: A Logic-Based Data-Language	1986	VLDB	0.00021145923
541	Parallel Evaluation of Recursive Rule Queries	1986	PODS	0.00020586706
1,445	Finding Regular Simple Paths in Graph Databases	1989	VLDB	0.00011937596
1,611	One-Sided Recursions	1987	PODS	0.00011146101
1,905	A Study of Transitive Closure As a Recursion Mechanism	1987	SIGMOD	0.00010142772
2,961	Neptune: a Hypertext System for CAD Applications	1986	SIGMOD	7.8083539e-05

Semantically Similar Papers

Overall Rank	Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
485	A New Approach to Database Logic	1984	PODS	0.00022061287
5,003	Graph Queries in a Next-Generation Datalog System	2013	VLDB	5.7606385e-05
7,594	On the First-Order Expressibility of Recursive Queries	1989	PODS	4.6983854e-05
460	Graphs-at-a-time: Query Language and Access Methods for Graph Databases	2008	SIGMOD	0.00022679846
1,812	Expressive Languages for Path Queries over Graph-Structured Data	2010	PODS	0.00010458164
7,363	IDLOG: Extending the Expressive Power of Deductive Database Languages	1990	SIGMOD	4.7461604e-05
10,296	FlowLog: Efficient and Extensible Datalog via Incrementality	2026	VLDB	4.1905499e-05
4,858	The G+/GraphLog Visual Query System	1990	SIGMOD	5.868056e-05
9,285	A Theory of Regular Queries	2016	PODS	4.3594818e-05
364	A Graphical Query Language Supporting Recursion	1987	SIGMOD	0.00025657601