1. A method for determining the connectivity components defined by a set of relations over a set of data elements, wherein the relations and the data elements are stored in a database, the method comprising: selecting, for each first data element in the set of data elements, a respective second representative data element from among a group of data elements that includes the first data element and those data elements linked to the first data element by a path of relations; and creating a new set of relations by replacing each first data element of the set of data elements by its representative in the set of relations.