Heterogeneity (computer science)

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In the information integration is heterogeneity a central problem: The aim of information integration is to enable access to heterogeneous data sources. Data can be heterogeneous for several reasons:

  • Technical heterogeneity: The access interface is different (e.g. XPath vs. MySQL).
  • Syntactic heterogeneity: The same issue is presented differently (e.g. "10.1.2012" vs. "2012/10/1").
  • Data model heterogeneity: The data model in which the schema of the data is stored differs (e.g. XML vs. SQL).
  • Structural heterogeneity: The structure in which the data model is stored differs (e.g. the person's place of birth with zip code is recorded in one scheme, and a separate table with a 1: 1 relationship to the person in another scheme).
  • Semantic heterogeneity: The "meaning, interpretation and type of use" of the data model differs.

literature

  • Ulf Leser, Felix Naumann: Information Integration: Architectures and Methods for Integrating Distributed and Heterogeneous Data Sources , Dpunkt-Verl., 2007, ISBN 3898644006