On a Fuzzy Algebra for Querying Graph Databases

This paper proposes a notion of fuzzy graph database and describes a fuzzy query algebra that makes it possible to handle such database, which may be fuzzy or not, in a flexible way. The algebra, based on fuzzy set theory and the concept of a fuzzy graph, is composed of a set of operators that can be used to express preference queries on fuzzy graph databases. The preferences concern i) the content of the vertices of the graph and ii) the structure of the graph. In a similar way as relational algebra constitutes the basis of SQL, the fuzzy algebra proposed here underlies a user- oriented query language and an associated tool implementing this language that are also presented in the paper.