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DataGuide creation

DataGuide creation is the process of generating a concise and accurate structural summary, or dynamic schema, directly from a semistructured or schema-free database graph. Because semistructured data lacks a fixed, predefined schema, this construction process evaluates the paths within the underlying data graph and builds a deterministic summary in which every unique sequence of labels in the original dataset is represented by exactly one path. Computationally analogous to converting a nondeterministic finite automaton into a deterministic one, DataGuide creation produces a structural representation that enables users to explore the layout of irregular data, formulate valid queries, record structural statistics, and assist database engines in optimizing query execution.

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DataGuides: Enabling Query Formulation and Optimization in Semistructured Databases

DataGuides: Enabling Query Formulation and Optimization in Semistructured Databases

Roy Goldman, Jennifer Widom

OrganizationsStanford University

Why you should read this

Introduces DataGuides as dynamically generated structural summaries that serve as concise schemas for semistructured databases, providing algorithms for their creation and maintenance to assist users in query formulation and enable database path indexing for query optimization.

In semistructured databases there is no schema fixed in advance. To provide the benefits of a schema in such environments, we introduce DataGuides: concise and accurate structural summaries of semistructured databases. DataGuides serve as dynamic schemas, generated from the database; they are useful for browsing database structure, formulating queries, storing information such as statistics and sample values, and enabling query optimization. This paper presents the theoretical foundations of DataGuides along with an algorithm for their creation and an overview of incremental maintenance. We provide performance results based on our implementation of DataGuides in the Lore DBMS for semistructured data. We also describe the use of DataGuides in Lore, both in the user interface to enable structure browsing and query formulation, and as a means of guiding the query processor and optimizing query execution.

Added

2026-09-25