Answer to CEP quiz: streams and relations

Sorry for the long delay on posting an answer to last week’s, or rather, last year’s quiz. It is funny how time seems to stretch out sometimes and a few days turn into weeks.

Well, let’s revisit the queries from the last post:

1. SELECT * FROM C1[NOW]
2. ISTREAM (SELECT * FROM C1[NOW])
3. DSTREAM (SELECT * FROM C1[NOW])

In the first query, the answer is that at the time t = 2 the CACHE is empty. Why empty and not 1?

To understand this, consider the following sequence of events:

• At time t = 0, the NOW (window) operator creates an empty relation.
• At time t = 1, the NOW operator converts the stream with the single event { p1 = 1 } to a relation containing a single entry { p1 = 1 }. The result of the NOW operator is a relation, and hence in the absence of other conversion operators, the query likewise outputs a relation. As CEP deals with continuous queries, the best way to represent the difference between the empty relation at time t = 0 and the relation at time t = 1 is to output the insertion of the entry { p1 = 1 }, or in other words, an insert event { p1 = 1 }. The CACHE receives this insert event, and puts the entry { p1 = 1} into it.
• At time t = 2 (or more precisely at the immediate next moment after t = 1), the NOW operator outputs an empty relation, as the event e1 has moved on from the input stream. The difference between the relation at t = 1 and the relation at t = 2 is the deletion of the entry { p1 = 1 }, therefore the query outputs the delete event { p1 = 1 }. The CACHE receives this delete event, and consistently removes the entry { p1 = 1 }, leaving the cache empty.

Next, let’s consider the second query. In this case, the answer is that at the end the CACHE contains a single entry with the value of 1.

Let’s explore this. In this query, we are using an ISTREAM operator after the NOW operator. The ISTREAM converts the relation into a stream by keeping the insert events. This means that at time t = 1, the insert event being output from the NOW operator is converted into a stream containing the single event { p1 = 1 }. The CACHE receives this event and puts it into it. Next, at time t = 2, the delete event output from the NOW operator is ignored (dropped) by the ISTREAM (convert) operator and never makes it into the CACHE.

The answer for the third query is likewise that at the end the CACHE contains the single entry of 1. The rationale is similar to that of the previous case, however off by one time tick.

At time t = 1, the insert event being output from the NOW operator is ignored by the DSTREAM operator, however the delete event output at time t = 2 is used and converted to a stream. The conversion is simple, the delete event from the relation becomes an insert event in the stream, as the streams only support inserts anyway. The CACHE then picks up this insert event and puts the event into it. Just keep in mind that for this third query this happens at time t = 2, rather than at time t = 1 as it is the case of the second query.

Here is a quick summary:

I would like to thank those people who pinged me, some of them several times, to gently remind me to post the answer.

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