Answering Pattern Queries Using Views

Answering queries using views has proven effective for querying relational and semistructured data. This paper investigates this issue for graph pattern queries based on graph simulation. We propose a notion of
pattern containment
to characterize graph pattern matching using graph pattern views. We show that a pattern query can be answered using a set of views
if and only if
it is contained in the views. Based on this characterization, we develop efficient algorithms to answer graph pattern queries. We also study problems for determining (minimal, minimum) containment of pattern queries. We establish their complexity (from cubic-time to NP-complete) and provide efficient checking algorithms (approximation when the problem is intractable). In addition, when a pattern query is not contained in the views, we study maximally contained rewriting to find approximate answers; we show that it is in cubic-time to compute such rewriting, and present a rewriting algorithm. We experimentally verify that these methods are able to efficiently answer pattern queries on large real-world graphs.