Integrity Checking in Deductive Databases

Abstract

We describe the theory and implementation of a general theorem-proving technique for checking integrity of deductive databases recently proposed by Sadri and Kowalski. The method uses an extension of the SLDNF proof procedure and achieves the effect of the simplification algorithms of Nicolas, Lloyd, Topor et al, and Decker by reasoning forwards from the update and thus focusing on the relevant parts of the database and the relevant constraints.