摘要
In this paper, we elaborate on how to interpret the query answer on exclusive disjunctive databases and how to reduce the query answer into a more concise form. Exclusive disjunctive data are represented as a pair of value set and variable set in Pv-table which is an extension of the relational model. A value set corresponds to a finite set of possible values in which exactly one value is the true value. By variable sets, tuples may be related with certain relationships, namely disjunctive relationship and join relationship. Three kinds of tuple sets are classified according to these relationships, each possesses an important property, namely co-exist, co-nonempty, or co-instance. Based on these properties, the interpretation of Pv-tables can be formalized in a semantically meaningful way. Also, the redundant and mergeable tuples can be identified. After removing and merging tuples accordingly, a more concise Pv-table can thus provide a better understanding of the query result. © 1995 IEEE