Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming

This landmark volume explores the close relationship between deductive databases and logic programming and the foundational issues they share. A collection of original research, contributed by leading scientists, the book grew out of preliminary work presented at the Workshop on Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming held in Washington, DC, August 1986. All the papers have been extensively refereed and revised. Part 1 introduces and examines the import of stratified databases, and its relationship to circumscription, and provides a comprehensive survey of the problem of negation in logic programming. Part 2 addresses fundamental theoretical and practical issues in developing large-scale deductive databases and treats problems such as informative answers, semantic optimization, updates and computing answers in non-Horn theories. Part 3 provides results concerning logic programs and parallel complexity. An introductory survey offering background material and an overview of research topics, name and subject indexes, and extensive bibliographies complete the work. Invaluable to graduate students and researchers in deductive databases and logic programming, Foundations of Deductive Databases and Logic Programming will also be of interest to those working in automated theorem proving, artificial intelligence, and expert systems.