Tuple Inconsistency Measures: Toward Explaining Query Answers

Gu, Yurun; Raddaoui, Badran; Ma, Yue; Tzompanaki, Aikaterini; Bidoit, Nicole

doi:10.24963/ijcai.2026/430

Tuple Inconsistency Measures: Toward Explaining Query Answers

Yurun Gu, Badran Raddaoui, Yue Ma, Aikaterini Tzompanaki, Nicole Bidoit

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Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Main Track. Pages 3864-3871.

https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/430

Keywords

Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Other
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Applications
Multidisciplinary Topics and Applications: Databases

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce novel tuple inconsistency measures that quantify the extent to which individual tuples contribute to violations of denial constraints in inconsistent databases. Then, we formally show that one of the proposed measures fully satisfies a set of well-motivated axiomatic properties. As an application, we lift tuple inconsistency to the level of query answers, obtaining a principled framework for measuring and explaining the inconsistency inherent in query results. We further investigate the computational complexity of tuple and answer inconsistency measures under denial constraints, identifying tractable cases that make their application to real-world data feasible. Finally, our experimental study on varying dataset- and inconsistency-settings demonstrates that, in comparison to existing methods, the proposed measures yield more fine-grained and informative assessments of inconsistency in databases.

Yurun Gu, Badran Raddaoui, Yue Ma, Aikaterini Tzompanaki, and Nicole Bidoit. 2026. Tuple Inconsistency Measures: Toward Explaining Query Answers. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26. IJCAI, 3864–3871. https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/430

@inproceedings{ijcai2026p430,
  title     = {Tuple Inconsistency Measures: Toward Explaining Query Answers},
  author    = {Gu, Yurun and Raddaoui, Badran and Ma, Yue and Tzompanaki, Aikaterini and Bidoit, Nicole},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on
               Artificial Intelligence, {IJCAI-26}},
  publisher = {International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization},
  editor    = {Diego Calvanese},
  pages     = {3864--3871},
  year      = {2026},
  month     = {8},
  note      = {Main Track},
  doi       = {10.24963/ijcai.2026/430},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/430},
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Tuple Inconsistency Measures: Toward Explaining Query Answers
AU  - Gu, Yurun
AU  - Raddaoui, Badran
AU  - Ma, Yue
AU  - Tzompanaki, Aikaterini
AU  - Bidoit, Nicole
T2  - Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-26
PB  - International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization
PY  - 2026
SP  - 3864
EP  - 3871
DO  - 10.24963/ijcai.2026/430
UR  - https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2026/430
ER  -