Open Access

ARTICLE

Evaluation of Natural Language Software Interfaces to Databases

Fiaz Majeed¹, Muhammad Shoaib², Monagi H. Alkinani³, Wazir Zada Khan⁴, Shahzada Khurram⁵, Akber Abid Gardezi⁶, Muhammad Shafiq^7,*

1 Department of Software Engineering, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan
2 Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan
3 College of Computer and Engineering, Department of CS & AI, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
4 Department of Computer Science, Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
5 Faculty of Computing, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
6 Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
7 Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, Korea

* Corresponding Author: Muhammad Shafiq. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Soft Computing Methods for Innovative Software Practices)

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing 2022, 32(1), 285-299. https://doi.org/10.32604/iasc.2022.015488

Received 24 November 2020; Accepted 28 July 2021; Issue published 26 October 2021

Abstract

Relational databases are still important in modern times due to their many advantages, such as ease of interaction, simplicity and data integrity. In this regard, structured query language (SQL) and technical knowledge about database schemas are the basic building blocks for retrieving information from relational databases. Generally, non-expert users cannot skillfully write technical queries on the target database. To this end, many database natural language interfaces (NLIDB) have been developed to greatly facilitate users. However, each system provides a different interface for new users, so beginners can use different interactive modes to enter keyword-based queries. For users, migrating from one NLIDB to another is a difficult problem. To solve this problem, NLIDB needs to be standardized so that novice users can easily enter queries in their native language. This paper proposes a standardized interface for NLIDB, which considers the three quality parameters of interface, query comparison and performance. Based on these parameters, we developed a standardized interface called the keyword-based frequent search engine (FKBSE). The DBLP data set has been evaluated experimentally. The results show the effectiveness of FKBSE compared with parallel systems in terms of quality parameters.

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Keywords

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