A category theory approach to conceptual data modeling
Ernst Lippe, Arthur H. M. ter Hofstede · RAIRO - Theoretical Informatics and Applications · 1996
This paper describes a category theory semantics for conceptual data modeling. The conceptual data modeling technique used can be seen as a generalization of most existing conceptual data modeling techniques. It contains features such as specialization, generalization, and power types. The semantics uses only simple category theory constructs such as (co)limits and epi- and monomorphisms. Therefore, the semantics can be applied to a wide range of instance categories, it is not restricted to topoi or cartesian closed categories. By choosing appropriate instance categories, features such as missing values, multi-valued relations, and uncertainty can be added to conceptual data models. Keywords: Conceptual Data Modelling, Category Theory, Meta Modelling Classification: 68P99 (AMS-1991), H.1.0. (CR-1991) 1 Introduction When developing information systems the first crucial step is to develop a model that describes the problem domain. This, however, is easier said than done, as communicati...