The partition model: a deductive database model

We present a new database model in which each attribute is modeled by a family of disjoint subsets of an underlying population of objects. Such a family is called a partitioning, and the set of all partitionings is turned into a lattice by appropriately defining product and sum. A database is seen as a function from a sublattice into the lattice of partitionings. The model combines the following features:(1) syntactic simplicity (essentially that of the relational model), (2) powerful means for the specification of semantic information (in the form of lattice equations), and (3) deductive capability (essentially that of set theory). The relational model of data and the basic constructs of semantic modeling can be embedded into our model in a simple and straightforward manner.