A hypertabular visualizer of query results

A visual database front-end for handling query result presentation and exploration is presented. The system is based on a formal interaction structure called a hypertable, and can be seamlessly integrated with any visual semantic query language adopting a data model that supports the notion of relationship cardinality. We aim at overcoming two kinds of problems in the interaction with tabular displays: (1) application-independent problems, pertaining to the mapping from logical tables to graphical windows, and (2) application-dependent problems, related to the content of tables as query results, such as repetitions of values and contiguity of unrelated data. The first kind of problem is addressed by the interaction structure, while the latter is faced by the navigation paradigm designed for the analysis of the query results.