Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System

Summary: Access path selection for a single relation and for joins from a boolean predicate specification. System R, an IBM experimental DBMS, demonstrates automatic physical path choice to support SQL-like queries and research on the relational model. (summarized by gpt-5-nano on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: h49868142d9c2ae1f
Venue: SIGMOD
Year: 1979
Pagerank: 0.0023947656
Overall Rank: 1 | 100.00%
DOI: 10.1145/582095.582099

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. P. Griffiths Selinger (IBM)
2. M. M. Astrahan (IBM)
3. D. D. Chamberlin (IBM)
4. R. A. Lorie (IBM)
5. T. G. Price (IBM)

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{selinger_sigmod79,
        title = {{Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System}},
        author = {Selinger, P. Griffiths and Astrahan, M. M. and Chamberlin, D. D. and Lorie, R. A. and Price, T. G.},
        series = {{SIGMOD} '79},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} International Conference on Management of Data},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        doi = {10.1145/582095.582099},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/582095.582099},
        year = {1979}
}

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10,741	OBELISK: Efficient Offline Query Planning with Bayesian Optimization-Informed Language Model Reasoning	2026	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
10,798	NeurIDA: Dynamic Modeling for Effective In-Database Analytics	2026	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
10,802	BaCon: Efficient Batch Processing of Counting Queries	2026	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
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10,885	Storing and Indexing Multiple Tables by Interesting Orderings: For Efficient Joins, Groupings, and Updates in Relational Databases	2026	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
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11,149	Demonstrating CEDAR: A System for Cost-Efficient Data-Driven Claim Verification	2025	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,175	AJOSC: Adaptive Join Order Selection for Continuous Queries	2025	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,192	PLM4NDV: Minimizing Data Access for Number of Distinct Values Estimation with Pre-trained Language Models	2025	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,257	ACE: A Cardinality Estimator for Set-Valued Queries	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,276	Unraveling the Impact of Window Semantics: Optimizing Join Order for Efficient Stream Processing	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
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11,364	CEDAR: A System for Cost-Efficient Data-Driven Claim Verification	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,375	GRewriter: Practical Query Rewriting with Automatic Rule Set Expansion in GaussDB	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,421	A Demonstration of Q^2O: Quantum-augmented Query Optimizer	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,425	Learned Cost Models for Query Optimization: From Batch to Streaming Systems	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,433	CloudGlide: Deconstructing the Landscape of Cloud-Based Analytics	2025	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,507	Sub-optimal Join Order Identification with L1-error	2024	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,538	A Universal Sketch for Estimating Heavy Hitters and Per-Element Frequency Moments in Data Streams with Bounded Deletions	2024	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,547	Understanding and Reusing Test Suites Across Database Systems	2024	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,735	Lightweight Materialization for Fast Dashboards Over Joins	2023	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
11,765	Asymptotically Better Query Optimization Using Indexed Algebra	2023	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,808	Towards Auto-Generated Data Systems	2023	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
11,840	The White-Box Adversarial Data Stream Model	2022	PODS	4.9793485e-05
12,209	Improving Join Reorderability with Compensation Operators	2018	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
12,329	Streaming Algorithms for Robust Distinct Elements	2016	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
12,351	Index-Assisted Hierarchical Computations in Main-Memory RDBMS	2016	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
12,764	Slicing Long-Running Queries	2010	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
12,793	Ordering, Distinctness, Aggregation, Partitioning and DQP Optimization in Sybase ASE 15	2009	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
12,866	Dependable Cardinality Forecasts for XQuery	2008	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,009	Action-Oriented Query Processing for Pervasive Computing	2005	CIDR	4.9793485e-05
13,131	Searching on the Secondary Structure of Protein Sequences	2002	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,226	Querying Continuous Time Sequences	1998	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,238	Plan-Per-Tuple Optimization Solution - Parallel Execution of Expensive User-Defined Functions	1998	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,300	Processing Object-Oriented Queries with Invertible Late Bound Functions	1995	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,366	Learning Efficient Query Processing Strategies	1992	PODS	4.9793485e-05
13,374	Avoiding Cartesian Products in Programs for Multiple Joins (Extended Abstract)	1992	PODS	4.9793485e-05
13,413	Indexing in a Hypertext Database	1990	VLDB	4.9793485e-05
13,426	Evaluating the Size of Queries on Relational Databases with non Uniform Distribution and Stochastic Dependence	1989	SIGMOD	4.9793485e-05
13,436	Concepts for a Database System Compiler	1988	PODS	4.9793485e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 0 of 0 cited papers.

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

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank

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