Using Natural Language Descriptions to Improve the Usability of Databases

This paper describes the REGIS extended command language, a relational data language that allows users to name and describe database objects using natural language phrases. REGIS accepts multiple-word phrases as the names of tables and columns (unlike most systems, which restrict these names to a few characters). An extended command parser uses a network-structured dictionary to recognize multi-word names, even if some of the words are missing or out of order, and to prompt the user if an ambiguous name is entered. REGIS also provides facilities for attaching descriptive text to database objects, which can be displayed online or included in printed reports. Initial data from a few database indicate that users choose to take advantage of the naturalness of multi-word descriptions when this option is available. This article is from 'Proceedings of the Conference on Applied Natural Language Processing Held at Santa Monica, California on 1-3 February 1983,' AD-A129 824.