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The Expressive Power of Higher-Order Datalog

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2019

ANGELOS CHARALAMBIDIS Open the ORCID record for ANGELOS CHARALAMBIDIS [Opens in a new window] ,
CHRISTOS NOMIKOS  and
PANOS RONDOGIANNIS
ANGELOS CHARALAMBIDIS
Affiliation:
Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR “Demokritos”, Greece (e-mail: acharal@iit.demokritos.gr)
CHRISTOS NOMIKOS
Affiliation:
Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, Greece (e-mail: cnomikos@cs.uoi.gr)
PANOS RONDOGIANNIS
Affiliation:
Dept of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (e-mail: prondo@di.uoa.gr)
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Abstract

A classical result in descriptive complexity theory states that Datalog expresses exactly the class of polynomially computable queries on ordered databases (Papadimitriou 1985; Grädel 1992; Vardi 1982; Immerman 1986; Leivant 1989). In this paper we extend this result to the case of higher-order Datalog. In particular, we demonstrate that on ordered databases, for all k ≥ 2, k-order Datalog captures (k − 1)-EXPTIME. This result suggests that higher-order extensions of Datalog possess superior expressive power and they are worthwhile of further investigation both in theory and in practice.

Keywords

DatalogHigher-Order Logic ProgrammingDescriptive Complexity Theory

Information

Type
Original Article
Information
Theory and Practice of Logic Programming , Volume 19 , Special Issue 5-6: 35th International Conference on Logic Programming , September 2019 , pp. 925 - 940
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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