Acyclic Conjunctive Regular Path Queries are no Harder than Corresponding Conjunctive Queries

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Khamis, Mahmoud Abo, Hurjui, Alexandru-Mihai, Kara, Ahmet, Olteanu, Dan, Suciu, Dan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Khamis, Mahmoud Abo
Hurjui, Alexandru-Mihai
Kara, Ahmet
Olteanu, Dan
Suciu, Dan
author_facet Khamis, Mahmoud Abo
Hurjui, Alexandru-Mihai
Kara, Ahmet
Olteanu, Dan
Suciu, Dan
contents We present an output-sensitive algorithm for evaluating an acyclic Conjunctive Regular Path Query (CRPQ). Its complexity is written in terms of the input size, the output size, and a well-known parameter of the query that is called the "free-connex fractional hypertree width". Our algorithm improves upon the complexity of the recently introduced output-sensitive algorithm for acyclic CRPQs. More notably, the complexity of our algorithm for a given acyclic CRPQ Q matches the best known output-sensitive complexity for the "corresponding" conjunctive query (CQ), that is the CQ that has the same structure as the CRPQ Q except that each RPQ is replaced with a binary atom (or a join of two binary atoms). This implies that it is not possible to improve upon our complexity for acyclic CRPQs without improving the state-of-the-art on output-sensitive evaluation for acyclic CQs. Our result is surprising because RPQs, and by extension CRPQs, are equivalent to recursive Datalog programs, which are generally poorly understood from a complexity standpoint. Yet, our result implies that the recursion aspect of acyclic CRPQs does not add any extra complexity on top of the corresponding (non-recursive) CQs, at least as far as output-sensitive analysis is concerned.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_11129
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Acyclic Conjunctive Regular Path Queries are no Harder than Corresponding Conjunctive Queries
Khamis, Mahmoud Abo
Hurjui, Alexandru-Mihai
Kara, Ahmet
Olteanu, Dan
Suciu, Dan
Databases
We present an output-sensitive algorithm for evaluating an acyclic Conjunctive Regular Path Query (CRPQ). Its complexity is written in terms of the input size, the output size, and a well-known parameter of the query that is called the "free-connex fractional hypertree width". Our algorithm improves upon the complexity of the recently introduced output-sensitive algorithm for acyclic CRPQs. More notably, the complexity of our algorithm for a given acyclic CRPQ Q matches the best known output-sensitive complexity for the "corresponding" conjunctive query (CQ), that is the CQ that has the same structure as the CRPQ Q except that each RPQ is replaced with a binary atom (or a join of two binary atoms). This implies that it is not possible to improve upon our complexity for acyclic CRPQs without improving the state-of-the-art on output-sensitive evaluation for acyclic CQs. Our result is surprising because RPQs, and by extension CRPQs, are equivalent to recursive Datalog programs, which are generally poorly understood from a complexity standpoint. Yet, our result implies that the recursion aspect of acyclic CRPQs does not add any extra complexity on top of the corresponding (non-recursive) CQs, at least as far as output-sensitive analysis is concerned.
title Acyclic Conjunctive Regular Path Queries are no Harder than Corresponding Conjunctive Queries
topic Databases
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.11129