# From Causes for Database Queries to Repairs and Model-Based Diagnosis and Back

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.4311 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.4311/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Dec 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Explaining k-Nearest Neighbors: Abductive and Counterfactual Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06078/) (2025)
- [Answer-Set Programs for Reasoning about Counterfactual Interventions and Responsibility Scores for Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10159/) (2021)
- [From Database Repairs to Causality in Databases and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.09374/) (2023)
- [Score-Based Explanations in Data Management and Machine Learning: An Answer-Set Programming Approach to Counterfactual Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10562/) (2021)
- [Attribution-Scores and Causal Counterfactuals as Explanations in Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.02829/) (2023)
- [Attribution-Scores in Data Management and Explainable Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00184/) (2023)
- [Causal DAG Summarization (Full Version)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14937/) (2025)
- [The Causal-Effect Score in Data Management](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02495/) (2025)
- [Causality-Based Scores Alignment in Explainable Data Management](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14469/) (2025)
- [Sufficient Explanations in Databases and their Connections to Database Repairs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.15623/) (2025)
- [Reasoning about Counterfactuals and Explanations: Problems, Results and Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.11004/) (2021)
- [Answer-Set Programs for Repair Updates and Counterfactual Interventions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.12110/) (2022)
- [Reconciling Consistency-Based Diagnosis with Actual-Causality-Based Explanations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.08688/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this work we establish and investigate connections between causality for query answers in databases, database repairs wrt. denial constraints, and consistency-based diagnosis. The first two are relatively new problems in databases, and the third one is an established subject in knowledge representation. We show how to obtain database repairs from causes and the other way around. Causality problems are formulated as diagnosis problems, and the diagnoses provide causes and their responsibilities. The vast body of research on database repairs can be applied to the newer problem of determining actual causes for query answers and their responsibilities. These connections, which are interesting per se, allow us, after a transition -inspired by consistency-based diagnosis- to computational problems on hitting sets and vertex covers in hypergraphs, to obtain several new algorithmic and complexity results for causality in databases.