Applying signatures for forward traversal query processing in object-oriented databases

Forward traversal methods are used to process queries having nested predicates in object-oriented databases. To expedite the forward traversal, a signature replication technique is proposed. Object signature is a signature formed by values of all atomic attributes defined in the object. When an object refers to other objects through its attribute, the object signature of the referred object is stored into the referring object. Using object signatures, nested predicates can be checked without inspecting referred objects