An informal and efficient approach for obtaining semantic constraints using sample data and natural language processing -- Achievements of relational database schema design theory revisited -- Semantics of database transformations -- The evolving algebra semantics of class and role hierarchies -- Semantics in spatial databases -- The additivity problem for data dependencies in incomplete relational databases -- A semantics-based approach to design of query languages for partial information -- Constraint databases: A survey -- Redundancy elimination and a new normal form for relational database design.

This book presents a coherent suvey on exciting developments in database semantics. The origins of the volume date back to a workshop held in Prague, Czech Republic, in 1995. The nine revised full papers and surveys presented were carefully reviewed for inclusion in the book. They address more traditional aspects like dealing with integrity constraints and conceptual modeling as well as new areas of databases; object-orientation, incomplete information, database transformations and other issues are investigated by applying formal semantics, e.g. the evolving algebra semantics.