Relational Calculus

Module 3, Lecture 2

Database Management Systems, R. Ramakrishnan 1

 Relational Calculus
❖ Comes in two flavours: Tuple relational calculus (TRC)
and Domain relational calculus (DRC).
❖ Calculus has variables, constants, comparison ops, logical
connectives and quantifiers.
– TRC: Variables range over (i.e., get bound to) tuples.
– DRC: Variables range over domain elements (= field values).
– Both TRC and DRC are simple subsets of first-order logic.
❖ Expressions in the calculus are called formulas. An
answer tuple is essentially an assignment of constants
to variables that make the formula evaluate to true.
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 Domain Relational Calculus
❖ Query has the form:
  



x1, x2,..., xn | p x1, x2,..., xn



 
   

❖ Answer includes all tuples x1, x2,..., xn that

make the formula p x1, x2,..., xn  be true.
 

❖ Formula is recursively defined, starting with

simple atomic formulas (getting tuples from
relations or making comparisons of values),
and building bigger and better formulas using
the logical connectives.
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 DRC Formulas
❖ Atomic formula:
– x1, x2,..., xn ∈ Rname , or X op Y, or X op constant
– op is one of <, >, =, ≤, ≥, ≠
❖ Formula:
– an atomic formula, or
– ¬ p, p ∧ q, p ∨ q, where p and q are formulas, or
– ∃X ( p( X )) , where variable X is free in p(X), or
– ∀ X ( p( X)), where variable X is free in p(X)
❖ The use of quantifiers ∃ X and ∀ X is said to bind X.
– A variable that is not bound is free.
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 Free and Bound Variables
❖ The use of quantifiers ∃ X and ∀ X in a formula is
said to bind X.
– A variable that is not bound is free.
❖ Let us revisit the definition of a query:
  



x1, x2,..., xn | p x1, x2,..., xn



 
   

❖ There is an important restriction: the variables

x1, ..., xn that appear to the left of `|’ must be
the only free variables in the formula p(...).

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 Find all sailors with a rating above 7




I, N,T, A | I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ∧ T > 7 




❖ The condition I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ensures that

the domain variables I, N, T and A are bound to
fields of the same Sailors tuple.
❖ The term I, N,T, A to the left of `|’ (which should
be read as such that) says that every tuple I, N,T, A
that satisfies T>7 is in the answer.
❖ Modify this query to answer:
– Find sailors who are older than 18 or have a rating under
9, and are called ‘Joe’.
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 Find sailors rated > 7 who’ve reserved boat #103





I, N,T, A | I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ∧ T > 7 ∧
∃ Ir, Br, D Ir, Br, D ∈ Re serves ∧ Ir = I ∧ Br = 103
  
  
  
  


❖ We have used ∃ Ir, Br, D (. . .) as a shorthand

(
for ∃ Ir ∃ Br ( ∃ D (. . .)) )
❖ Note the use of ∃ to find a tuple in Reserves that
`joins with’ the Sailors tuple under consideration.

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 Find sailors rated > 7 who’ve reserved a red boat





I, N,T, A | I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ∧ T > 7 ∧
∃ Ir, Br, D Ir, Br, D ∈ Re serves ∧ Ir = I ∧





∃ B, BN,C B, BN,C ∈ Boats ∧ B = Br ∧ C = ' red'






  
   

❖ Observe how the parentheses control the scope of

each quantifier’s binding.
❖ This may look cumbersome, but with a good user
interface, it is very intuitive. (Wait for QBE!)

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 Find sailors who’ve reserved all boats




I, N,T, A | I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ∧
∀ B, BN,C ¬ B, BN,C ∈ Boats ∨
  
  
  
  





∃ Ir, Br, D Ir, Br, D ∈ Re serves ∧ I = Ir ∧ Br = B



 
 
   
     

❖ Find all sailors I such that for each 3-tuple B, BN,C

either it is not a tuple in Boats or there is a tuple in
Reserves showing that sailor I has reserved it.

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 Find sailors who’ve reserved all boats (again!)





I, N,T, A | I, N,T, A ∈ Sailors ∧
∀ B, BN, C ∈ Boats


 ∃ Ir, Br, D ∈ Re serves I = Ir ∧ Br = B




  
 

 
 

❖ Simpler notation, same query. (Much clearer!)

❖ To find sailors who’ve reserved all red boats:

.....


 C ≠ ' red ' ∨ ∃ Ir, Br, D ∈ Re serves I = Ir ∧ Br = B




  
 

 
 

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 Unsafe Queries, Expressive Power
❖ It is possible to write syntactically correct calculus
queries that have an infinite number of answers!
Such queries are called unsafe.
– e.g.,
S | ¬ S ∈ Sailors
   
   
   
   
 

❖ It is known that every query that can be expressed

in relational algebra can be expressed as a safe
query in DRC / TRC; the converse is also true.
❖ Relational Completeness: Query language (e.g.,
SQL) can express every query that is expressible
in relational algebra/calculus.
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 Summary
❖ The relational model has rigorously defined query
languages that are simple and powerful.
❖ Relational algebra is more operational; useful as
internal representation for query evaluation plans.
❖ Relational calculus is non-operational, and users
define queries in terms of what they want, not in
terms of how to compute it. (Declarativeness.)
❖ Several ways of expressing a given query; a query
optimizer should choose the most efficient version.
❖ Algebra and safe calculus have same expressive power,
leading to the notion of relational completeness.
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