Semantic and Fuzzy Integration: A New Approach to Efficient and Flexible Querying of Relational Databases

Data are “gold mines” that must be processed and interpreted quickly and efficiently to be useful. Thus, flexible queries continue to attract considerable attention. Several works have been proposed that allow users to perform flexible queries on relational databases. Most are related to fuzzy logic, which showed its performance in handling fuzziness in scalar values, but non-scalar values are still a more complex task. To solve this drawback of fuzzy logic, we propose using ontologies to establish the semantic relationships between the domain elements of a queried attribute. Moreover, we present the architecture of a new system that combines both techniques to allow users to write and execute queries in a flexible way where the criteria are not only exact but can also be fuzzy or semantic, and they may also include accomplishment degrees. Furthermore, the proposed system uses a new fast methodology for handling fuzzy queries, which has shown its great efficiency in accelerating the execution of fuzzy queries. Data mining techniques are used to assist users in defining their fuzzy understanding. The developed system has a user-friendly interface to assist users in managing their fuzzy preferences and semantic preferences. Finally, we have proven the performance of our system by conducting a set of experiments in different areas. We have also provided a qualitative and quantitative comparison with flexible query systems, which are documented in the literature.

@article{Mama2025,
  title     = {Semantic and Fuzzy Integration: A New Approach to Efficient and Flexible Querying of Relational Databases},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {16},
  number    = {5},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Rachid Mama and Mustapha Machkour},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2025.0160580},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2025.0160580}
}