USING SQL WITH OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASES

We investigate how the standard database query language SQL can be ext ended to deal with the newly emerging trends of complex objects and ob ject orientation. Our main concern is to extend SQL as naturally as po ssible, rather than to redesign SQL into ''yet another'' object-orient ed query language. We achieve this goal through a faithful mapping fro m a complete object-oriented database model, compatible with recent pr oposals in the held, to the nested relational database model, which is widely accepted as a natural extension of the relational database mod el on which standard SQL is based. We provide formal definitions of sy ntax and semantics. We also review related research and situate our wo rk into it.