Relational Database Reverse Engineering: A Model-Centric, Transformational, Interactive Approach Formalized in Model Theory

Approaches t o relational database reverse engineering o f t en expect t ha t t h e i n p u t has desirable characterzstics and t h a t it i s complete; t hey also o f t en fa i l t o provide f o r m a l guarantees tha t t he i r results are fa i th ful t o t h e init ial i npu t . B o t h o f these problems c a n be addressed by using a n incremen ta l approach based o n a fo rmal l y defined target model. T h e incremen ta l approach we propose here quickly produces a n init ial model instance t h a t i s provably equivalent t o the original relational database, which i s assumed t o be correct but m a y lack desirable characterist ics and m a y be incomplete. T h e approach t h e n proceeds incremen ta l l y using provably correct t rans format ions . T h e s e increm e n t a l t rans format ions allow f o r u s e r interact ion t o provide needed in format ion tha t m a y be mi s s ing or hard t o obtain because t h e i n p u t lacks s o m e desirable characterist ics.