SEQ: A Model for Sequence Databases

This paper presents the SEQ model which is the basis for a system to manage various kinds of sequence data. The model separates the data from the ordering information, and includes operators based on two distinct abstractions of a sequence. The main contributions of the SEQ model are: (a) it can deal with different types of sequence data, (b) it supports an expressive range of sequence queries, (c) it draws from many of the diverse existing approaches to modeling sequence data. 1 Introduction Data over ordered domains such as time or linear position often reflect the underlying order, and can be naturally viewed as a sequence. Applications involving sequence data have typically led to a specialized model and a stylized language. In this paper, we present the SEQ model which is the basis for a system we are building to manage and manipulate diverse kinds of sequence data. It is reasonable for a database user to ask, "What kinds of queries can I ask on sequence data, and how can I expr..