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The Computer Journal 1983 26(3):228-234; doi:10.1093/comjnl/26.3.228
© 1983 by British Computer Society
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SCHEMAL: Yet Another Conceptual Schema Definition Language

R. A. Frost *

Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

Before a database system can be designed, the designer needs to know something of the application area. In particular, he/she needs to know what aspects of reality are to be represented by data in the database. A description of the application area which contains such information is called a conceptual schema. Conceptual schemas are often written in English, if at all. However, there are good reasons why a more simple and more formally defined language should be used. One of these reasons is that formally defined conceptual schemas can be used to perform some of the database management tasks automatically. Surprisingly such use of conceptual schemas is not common. Most existing schema definition languages have been designed to facilitate the specification of schemas rather than the subsequent use of these schemas as integral parts of database systems. In this paper we present a new language, called SCHEMAL, which differs in this respect from most existing languages. SCHEMAL is simple and somewhat limited in its expressive power. However, SCHEMAL schemas can be used: (i) to identify inconsistencies in the user's view of the slice of reality in which he/she is interested, (ii) to automatically maintain the semantic integrity of the database. There is also good reason to believe that SCHEMAL schemas can be used automatically to infer implied data from data held explicitly in the database.

Received September 1982.

* Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK


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