Representation of graphs for storing in relational databases

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of representing graphs in the form that is most suitable for their recording in relational databases and for subsequent efficient extracting and processing. The article analyzes various ways to describe graphs, such as adjacency and, incidence matrices, and adjacency lists. Each of them is reviewed from the point of view of their compliance with normal forms to assess the possibility of using a particular method when developing databases for storing graphs. It is shown that for such a task, each of these methods has a large number of disadvantages that lead to low efficiency of both data storing and processing. The article suggests the way to represent graphs in the form of a relational list of edges corresponding to the third normal form and allowing to eliminate the disadvantages of other methods.