Relational Algebra Exanples
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hweooRelational Algebra Exanples
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hweooRelational Algebra Exercises
Pubs Database Schema
author(author id, f irst name, last name)
author pub(author id, pub id, author position)
book(book id, book title, month, year, editor)
pub(pub id, title, book id)
• author id in author pub is a foreign key referencing author
• pub id in author pub is a foreign key referencing pub
• book id in pub is a foreign key referencing book
• editor in book is a foreign key referencing author(author id)
• Primary keys are underlined
Pubs Database State
r(author) r(author pub)
author id first name last name author id pub id author position
1 John McCarthy 1 1 1
2 Dennis Ritchie 2 2 1
3 Ken Thompson 3 2 2
4 Claude Shannon 4 3 1
5 Alan Turing 5 4 1
6 Alonzo Church 5 5 1
7 Perry White 6 6 1
8 Moshe Vardi
9 Roy Batty
r(book) r(pub)
book id book title month year editor pub id title book id
1 CACM April 1960 8 1 LISP 1
2 CACM July 1974 8 2 Unix 2
3 BST July 1948 2 3 Info Theory 3
4 LMS November 1936 7 4 Turing Machines 4
5 Mind October 1950 NULL 5 Turing Test 5
6 AMS Month 1941 NULL 6 Lambda Calculus 6
7 AAAI July 2012 9
8 NIPS July 2012 9
Figure 1: Relational Database Schema
1. How many tuples will be returned by the following relational algebra query?
πbook title (book)
Solution: 2
2. What question does the following expression answer?
|πauthor id (author) − πeditor (book)|
Solution: How many authors are not book editors.
3. Write a relational algebra expression that returns the names of all authors who are book editors.
Solution: πf irst name,last name (author ./author id=editor book)
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4. Write a relational algebra expression that returns the names of all authors who are not book editors.
Solution: πf irst name,last name ((πauthor id (author) − πeditor (book)) ∗ author)
5. Write a relational algebra expression that returns the names of all authors who have at least one publi-
cation in the database.
Solution: πf irst name,last name (author ∗ author pub)
6. How many tuples are returned by the following relational algebra expression?
author ./author id=editor book
Solution: 11
7. What question does the following relational algebra expression answer?
author ∗ (author pub ∗ (σmonth=0 July0 (book) ∗ pub))
Solution: Which authors authored a pub that was published in July?
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