Simplification of integrity constraints with aggregates and arithmetic built-ins

Abstract. In the context of relational as well as deductive databases, correct and efficient integrity checking is a crucial issue, as, without any guarantee of data consistency, the answers to queries cannot be trusted. To be of any practical use, any method for integrity checking must sup-port aggregates and arithmetic constraints, which are among the most widespread constructs in current database technology. In this paper we propose a method of practical relevance that can be used to simplify integrity constraints possibly containing aggregates and arithmetic ex-pressions. Simplified versions of the integrity constraints are derived at database design time and can be tested before the execution of any up-date. In this way, virtually no time is spent for optimization or rollbacks at run time. Both set and bag semantics are considered.