The Skyline operator

TLDR

The Skyline operation filters non‑dominated points from large datasets, selecting those that are not dominated by any other point, such as a hotel that is cheaper and closer to the beach than all others. The authors aim to extend database systems with a Skyline operation, demonstrating how SSL can support Skyline queries, evaluating alternative algorithms, and integrating the operation with joins. They extend SSL to support Skyline queries by proposing and evaluating multiple algorithms and showing how the operation can be combined with other database operations such as joins. The study demonstrates that SSL can be extended to handle Skyline queries, evaluates alternative algorithms, and illustrates integration with other database operations.

Abstract

We propose to extend database systems by a Skyline operation. This operation filters out a set of interesting points from a potentially large set of data points. A point is interesting if it is not dominated by any other point. For example, a hotel might be interesting for somebody traveling to Nassau if no other hotel is both cheaper and closer to the beach. We show how SSL can be extended to pose Skyline queries, present and evaluate alternative algorithms to implement the Skyline operation, and show how this operation can be combined with other database operations, e.g., join.