On the Description of Database Transition Constraints Using Temporal Languages

A family of formal languages that extends classic temporal logic with mechanisms to define new modalities is described. The languages are sufficiently flexible to express a wide range of database transition constraints, that is, restrictions on what sequences of database states are meaningful. They are useful in the context of a database design methodology where the first level of specification consists of a purely declarative definition of both static and transition constraints. A sequence of results about the solvability of the decision problem of these languages is also presented that helps assess the expressive power of the languages.

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