Visual object query language for object-oriented database management systems

Abstract

This paper presents visual object query language (VOQL), a graph-based query language that supports diagram-based declarative query specification methods for object-oriented database management systems. The primary objectives of VOQL are to support mixed paradigm, which exploits both the expressive power of text-based structured query languages and the intuitive power of graph-based query languages. A query can be expressed partly in graphical syntax and partly in textual syntax. Hence a user can compose a query in the most convenient way in accordance with his or her skills and the characteristics of a problem. VOQL allows more expressive power than the pure graphical representation method by incorporating a textual component into its syntax, which has no proper graphical representation.