Data exchange and schema mappings in open and closed worlds
Leonid O. Libkin, Cristina Sirangelo · 2008
In the study of data exchange one usually assumes an open-world semantics, making it possible to extend instances of target schemas. An alternative closed-world semantics only moves 'as much data as needed' from the source to the target to satisfy constraints of a schema mapping. It avoids some of the problems exhibited by the open-world semantics, but limits the expressivity of schema mappings. Here we propose a mixed approach: one can designate different attributes of target schemas as open or closed, to combine the additional expressivity of the open-world semantics with the better behavior of query answering in closed worlds.