The use of fuzzy set theory in information retrieval and databases: A survey

Due to a rapid expansion of most domains in recent times, there is a constant growing need for information. Together with this phenomenon, there has been an explosive growth of the amount of data needed and the corresponding means of data storage. In order to handle these large amounts of data and to realize a fast processing of the information asked for, more and more institutions and organizations have set up automized information processing and have built up their database. Appearing in all kinds of applications such as economical, social, political, medical, and governmental fields, databases have already proven their ability to reduce time and space with respect to the retrieval as well as to the storage of data and information. In many situations we have to deal with data which are given in imprecise form or which are only partially known or even totally unknown. We may expect that the construction of databases which can represent and manipulate fuzzy data will increase the application areas of database systems and improve the interface between men and machines. In this paper we have made a brief survey of the numerous applications of fuzzy set theory on data representation and information retrieval. The importance of fuzzy set theory with respect to information systems is illustrated by means of an already extensive bibliography containing more than 80 papers describing data systems that are somehow “fuzzy.” © 1986 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.