A genetic algorithm for structural query processing in hypertext systems

The internal structure of hypertext systems is networks of typed data nodes connected node by typed links. Navigation in the network of hypertext systems could be done by first querying each local node and then link to relevant nodes according to node attributes. Structural queries are queries that retrieve collections of information from a network based on a specification of structures. When the networks are large and complex, it may take a very long time to find a solution. We propose a genetic algorithm for structural query processing in hypertext systems. We present a method to represent arbitrary structural conditions and then encode as chromosomes. We also describe crossover and mutation operators for such chromosomes. Experimental results show that our genetic algorithm approach performs well both on the computational effort and on the quality of the solutions through a variety of test examples.