Application development with the CHIP system -- On the expressiveness of first-order constraint languages -- Generalized relational algebra: Modeling spatial queries in constraint databases -- DISCO: A constraint database system with sets -- Constraint-based query optimization and processing -- The application of multi-dimensional indexing methods to constraints -- Towards the definition of a spatial object-oriented data model with constraints -- Ambiguity for referential integrity is undecidable -- Magic checking: Constraint checking for database query optimisation -- FISSURE: Finder of solutions with subdefinite resources.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the ESPRIT Working Group CONTESSA Workshop on Constraint Databases and Applications, held in Friedrichshafen, Germany in September 1995. The 10 full revised papers selected for inclusion in this volume are written by and for practitioners, researchers, and application users of core constraint database technology; they can be classified in three sections on expressiveness of the various constraint database models; implementation and optimization issues in areas like spatial databases, geographic information systems, scheduling and routing. This book is the first to focus on the extension of the important new programming paradigm of constraint processing to database design and management.