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Aggregation is introduced as an abstraction which is important in conceptualizing the real world. Aggregation transforms a relationship between objects into a higher-level object. A new data type, called aggregate, is developed which, under certain criteria of "well-definedness," specifies aggregation abstractions. Relational databases defined as collections of aggregates are structured as a hierarchy of n-ary relations. To maintain well-definedness, update operations on such databases must preserve two invariants. Well-defined relations are distinct from relations in third normal form. It is shown that these notions are complementary and both are important in database design. A top-down methodology for database design is described which separates decisions concerning aggregate structure from decisions concerning key identification. It is suggested that aggregate types, and other types which support real-world abstractions without introducing implementation detail, should be incorporated into programming languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach for implementing a "smart" interface to support a relational view of data is proposed. The basic idea is to employ automatic programming techniques so that the interface analyzes and efficiently refines the high level query specification supplied by the user. A relational algebra interface, called SQUIRAL, which was designed using this approach, is described in detail. SQUIRAL seeks to minimize query response time and space utilization by: (1) performing global query optimization, (2) exploiting disjoint and pipelined concurrency, (3) coordinating sort orders in temporary relations, (4) employing directory analysis, and (5) maintaining locality in page references. Algorithms for implementing the operators of E. F. Codd's relational algebra are presented, and a methodology for composing them to optimize the performance of a particular user query is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]