Relational Model

Dr. M. Brindha
Assistant Professor
Department of CSE
NIT, Trichy-15
Example of a Relation
 Basic Structure
• Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a subset of
D 1 x D2 x … x D n
Thus a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
each ai  Di
• Example: if
customer-name = {Jones, Smith, Curry, Lindsay}
customer-street = {Main, North, Park}
customer-city = {Harrison, Rye, Pittsfield}
Then r = { (Jones, Main, Harrison),
(Smith, North, Rye),
(Curry, North, Rye),
(Lindsay, Park, Pittsfield)}
is a relation over customer-name x customer-street x
customer-city
 Attribute Types
• Each attribute of a relation has a name
• The set of allowed values for each attribute is called
the domain of the attribute
• Attribute values are (normally) required to be atomic,
that is, indivisible
• E.g. multivalued attribute values are not atomic
• E.g. composite attribute values are not atomic

• The special value null is a member of every domain

• The null value causes complications in the definition
of many operations
• we shall ignore the effect of null values in our main
presentation and consider their effect later
 Relation Schema
• A1, A2, …, An are attributes
• R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema
E.g. Customer-schema =
(customer-name, customer-street, customer-city)
• r(R) is a relation on the relation schema R
E.g. customer (Customer-schema)
 Relation Instance
• The current values (relation instance) of a relation are
specified by a table
• An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row in a
table

attributes
(or columns)
customer-name customer-street customer-city

Jones Main Harrison

Smith North Rye tuples
Curry North Rye (or rows)
Lindsay Park Pittsfield

customer
 Relations are Unordered
Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an
arbitrary order)
E.g. account relation with unordered tuples
 Database
• A database consists of multiple relations
• Information about an enterprise is broken up into parts,
with each relation storing one part of the information

E.g.: account : stores information about accounts

depositor : stores information about which
customer owns which account
customer : stores information about customers
• Storing all information as a single relation such as
bank(account-number, balance, customer-name, ..)
results in
• repetition of information (e.g. two customers own an account)
• the need for null values (e.g. represent a customer without an
account)
• Normalization theory deals with how to design relational
schemas
The customer Relation
The depositor Relation
E-R Diagram for the Banking Enterprise
 Keys
• Let K  R
•K is a superkey of R if values for K are sufficient to
identify a unique tuple of each possible relation r(R)
• by “possible r” we mean a relation r that could exist in the
enterprise we are modeling.
• Example: {customer-id, customer-street} and
{customer-id}
are both superkeys of Customer, if no two customers can
possibly have the same name.
•K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {customer-id} is a candidate key for
Customer, since it is a superkey (assuming no two
customers can possibly have the same name), and no
subset of it is a superkey.
 Determining Keys from E-R Sets
• Strong entity set. The primary key of the entity set
becomes the primary key of the relation.
• Weak entity set. The primary key of the relation consists
of the union of the primary key of the strong entity set
and the discriminator of the weak entity set.
• Relationship set. The union of the primary keys of the
related entity sets becomes a super key of the relation.
• For binary many-to-one relationship sets, the primary key of the
“many” entity set becomes the relation’s primary key.
• For one-to-one relationship sets, the relation’s primary key can be
that of either entity set.
• For many-to-many relationship sets, the union of the primary keys
becomes the relation’s primary key
Schema Diagram for the Banking Enterprise
Query Languages
• Language in which user requests information from
the database.
• Categories of languages
• procedural
• non-procedural

• “Pure” languages:
• Relational Algebra
• Tuple Relational Calculus
• Domain Relational Calculus

• Pure languages form underlying basis of query

languages that people use.
Relational Algebra
• Procedural language
• Six basic operators
• select
• project
• union
• set difference
• Cartesian product
• rename

• The operators take one or more relations as inputs

and give a new relation as a result.
Select Operation – Example
• Relation r
 Select Operation
• Notation:  p(r)
• p is called the selection predicate
• Defined as:
p(r) = {t | t  r and p(t)}
Where p is a formula in propositional calculus
consisting of terms connected by :  (and),  (or), 
(not)
Each term is one of:
<attribute>op <attribute> or <constant>
where op is one of: =, , >, . <. 
• Example of selection:
 branch-name=“Perryridge”(loan)
The loan Relation
Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge” (loan)
Project Operation – Example
 Project Operation
• Notation:

A1, A2, …, Ak (r)

where A1, A2 are attribute names and r is a relation
name.
• The result is defined as the relation of k columns
obtained by erasing the columns that are not listed
• Duplicate rows removed from result, since relations
are sets
• E.g. To eliminate the branch-name attribute of
account
loan-number, amount (loan)
Loan Number and the Amount of the Loan
Union Operation – Example
 Union Operation
• Notation: rs
• Defined as:
r  s = {t | t  r or t  s}
• For r  s to be valid.
1. r, s must have the same arity (same number of attributes)
2. The attribute domains must be compatible (e.g., 2nd
column of r deals with the same type of values as does the 2nd
column of s)
• E.g. to find all customers with either an account or a loan
customer-name (depositor)  customer-name (borrower)
The depositor Relation
The borrower Relation
Names of All Customers Who Have
Either a Loan or an Account
Set Difference Operation – Example
Set Difference Operation
• Notation r – s
• Defined as:
r – s = {t | t  r and t  s}
• Set differences must be taken between compatible
relations.
• r and s must have the same arity
• attribute domains of r and s must be compatible
Customers With An account But No Loan
Cartesian-Product Operation-Example
Cartesian-Product Operation
• Notation r x s
• Defined as:
r x s = {t q | t  r and q  s}
• Assume that attributes of r(R) and s(S) are disjoint.
(That is, R  S = ).
• If attributes of r(R) and s(S) are not disjoint, then
renaming must be used.
Result of borrower  loan
 Composition of operations
• Can build expressions using multiple operations
• Example: A=C(r x s)
Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower  loan)
 Rename Operation
• Allows us to name, and therefore to refer to, the
results of relational-algebra expressions.
• Allows us to refer to a relation by more than one
name.
Example:
 x (E)
returns the expression E under the name X
If a relational-algebra expression E has arity n, then
x (A1, A2, …, An) (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name X,
and with the attributes renamed to A1, A2, …., An.
 Example Queries
Find the largest account balance
• Rename account relation as d
• The query is:
Example of a Relation
Result of the Subexpression
Largest Account Balance in the
Bank
Banking Example
branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)

customer (customer-name, customer-street,

customer-only)

account (account-number, branch-name, balance)

loan (loan-number, branch-name, amount)

depositor (customer-name, account-number)

borrower (customer-name, loan-number)

 Example Queries
• Find all loans of over $1200

• Find the loan number for each loan of an amount greater than
$1200
 Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan, an
account, or both, from the bank

• Find the names of all customers who have a loan and

an account at bank.
 Example Queriess
• Findthe names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch.

Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the

Perryridge branch but do not have an account at any branch
of the bank.
 Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch.
 Formal Definition
• A basic expression in the relational algebra consists of
either one of the following:
• A relation in the database
• A constant relation

• Let E1 and E2 be relational-algebra expressions; the

following are all relational-algebra expressions:
• E1  E2
• E1 - E2
• E1 x E2
• p (E1), P is a predicate on attributes in E1
• s(E1), S is a list consisting of some of the attributes in E1
•  x (E1), x is the new name for the result of E1
 Additional Operations
We define additional operations that do not add any
power to the relational algebra, but that simplify
common queries.

• Set intersection

• Natural join
• Division
• Assignment
Set-Intersection Operation
• Notation: r  s
• Defined as:
• r  s ={ t | t  r and t  s }
• Assume:
• r, s have the same arity
• attributes of r and s are compatible

• Note: r  s = r - (r - s)
Set-Intersection Operation - Example
• Relation r, s:

•r  s
 Natural-Join Operation
Notation: r s
• Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively.
Then, r s is a relation on schema R  S obtained as
follows:
• Consider each pair of tuples tr from r and ts from s.
• If tr and ts have the same value on each of the attributes in R  S, add
a tuple t to the result, where
• t has the same value as tr on r
• t has the same value as ts on s

• Example:
R = (A, B, C, D)
S = (E, B, D)
• Result schema = (A, B, C, D, E)
• r s is defined as:
r.A, r.B, r.C, r.D, s.E (r.B = s.B  r.D = s.D (r x s))
 Natural Join Operation – Example
• Relations r, s:
Division Operation
• Suited to queries that include the phrase “for all”.
• Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S
respectively where
• R = (A1, …, Am, B1, …, Bn)
• S = (B1, …, Bn)
The result of r  s is a relation on schema
R – S = (A1, …, Am)

r  s = { t | t   R-S(r)   u  s ( tu  r ) }
Division Operation – Example
Another Division Example
 Assignment Operation
• The assignment operation () provides a convenient way to
express complex queries.
• Write query as a sequential program consisting of
• a series of assignments
• followed by an expression whose value is displayed as a result of
the query.
• Assignment must always be made to a temporary relation
variable.
• Example: Write r  s as
temp1  R-S (r)
temp2  R-S ((temp1 x s) – R-S,S (r))
result = temp1 – temp2
• The result to the right of the  is assigned to the relation
variable on the left of the .
• May use variable in subsequent expressions.
 Example Queries
• Find all customers who have an account from at least the
“Downtown” and the Uptown” branches.
 Example Queries
• Find all customers who have an account at all branches
located in Brooklyn city.
Extended Relational-Algebra-Operations

• Generalized Projection
• Outer Join
• Aggregate Functionss
 Generalized Projection
• Extends the projection operation by allowing
arithmetic functions to be used in the projection list.

 F1, F2, …, Fn(E)

• E is any relational-algebra expression
• Each of F1, F2, …, Fn are arithmetic expressions
involving constants and attributes in the schema of E.
• Given relation credit-info(customer-name, limit,
credit-balance), find how much more each person can
spend:
customer-name, limit – credit-balance (credit-info)
The credit-info Relation
Result of customer-name, (limit – credit-
balance) as credit-available(credit-info).
Aggregate Functions and Operations
• Aggregation function takes a collection of values and
returns a single value as a result.
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values
• Aggregate operation in relational algebra

G1, G2, …, Gn g F1( A1), F2( A2),…, Fn( An) (E)

• E is any relational-algebra expression
• G1, G2 …, Gn is a list of attributes on which to group (can be
empty)
• Each Fi is an aggregate function
• Each Ai is an attribute name
 Aggregate Operation – Example
• Relation r:
Aggregate Operation – Example
• Relation account grouped by branch-name:

branch-name account-number balance

Perryridge A-102 400
Perryridge A-201 900
Brighton A-217 750
Brighton A-215 750
Redwood A-222 700

branch-name g sum(balance) (account)

branch-name balance
Perryridge 1300
Brighton 1500
Redwood 700
Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
• Result of aggregation does not have a name
• Can use rename operation to give it a name
• For convenience, we permit renaming as part of aggregate
operation

branch-name g sum(balance) as sum-balance (account)

The pt-works Relation
The pt-works Relation After Grouping
Result of branch-name  sum(salary) (pt-works)
 Result of
branch-name  sum salary, max(salary) as max-salary
(pt-works)
Outer Join
• An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of
information.
• Computes the join and then adds tuples form one
relation that do not match tuples in the other relation
to the result of the join.
• Uses null values:
• null signifies that the value is unknown or does not exist
• All comparisons involving null are (roughly speaking) false by
definition.
• Will study precise meaning of comparisons with nulls later
 Outer Join – Example
• Relation loan

loan-number branch-name amount

L-170 Downtown 3000
L-230 Redwood 4000
L-260 Perryridge 1700

• Relation borrower
customer-name loan-number
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155
 Outer Join – Example
• Inner Join

loan Borrower
loan-number branch-name amount customer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith

Left Outer Join

loan Borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
 Outer Join – Example
• Right Outer Join
loan borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes

Full Outer Join

loan borrower
loan-number branch-name amount customer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
L-155 null null Hayes
The employee and ft-works Relations
The Result of employee ft-works
The Result of employee ft-works
Result of employee ft-works
Result of employee ft-works
 Null Values
• It is possible for tuples to have a null value, denoted
by null, for some of their attributes
• null signifies an unknown value or that a value does
not exist.
• The result of any arithmetic expression involving null
is null.
• Aggregate functions simply ignore null values
• Is an arbitrary decision. Could have returned null as result
instead.
• We follow the semantics of SQL in its handling of null values

• For duplicate elimination and grouping, null is

treated like any other value, and two nulls are
assumed to be the same
• Alternative: assume each null is different from each other
• Both are arbitrary decisions, so we simply follow SQL
 Null Values
• Comparisons with null values return the special truth
value unknown
• If false was used instead of unknown, then not (A < 5)
would not be equivalent to A >= 5
• Three-valued logic using the truth value unknown:
• OR: (unknown or true) = true,
(unknown or false) = unknown
(unknown or unknown) = unknown
• AND: (true and unknown) = unknown,
(false and unknown) = false,
(unknown and unknown) = unknown
• NOT: (not unknown) = unknown
• In SQL “P is unknown” evaluates to true if predicate P evaluates to
unknown
• Result of select
predicate is treated as false if it
evaluates to unknown
Modification of the Database
• The content of the database may be modified using
the following operations:
• Deletion
• Insertion
• Updating

• All these operations are expressed using the

assignment operator.
 Deletion

•A delete request is expressed similarly to a query,

except instead of displaying tuples to the user, the
selected tuples are removed from the database.
• Can delete only whole tuples; cannot delete values on
only particular attributes
• A deletion is expressed in relational algebra by:
rr–E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra
query.
Deletion Examples
 Insertion
• To insert data into a relation, we either:
• specify a tuple to be inserted
• write a query whose result is a set of tuples to be inserted

• in relational algebra, an insertion is expressed by:

r r  E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra
expression.
• The insertion of a single tuple is expressed by letting
E be a constant relation containing one tuple.
 Insertion Examples
• Insert information in the database specifying that Smith
has $1200 in account A-973 at the Perryridge branch.
Tuples Inserted Into loan and
borrowers
Updating
• A mechanism to change a value in a tuple without
charging all values in the tuple
• Use the generalized projection operator to do this
task
r   F1, F2, …, FI, (r)
• Each Fi is either
• the ith attribute of r, if the ith attribute is not updated, or,
• if the attribute is to be updated Fi is an expression, involving
only constants and the attributes of r, which gives the new
value for the attribute
 Update Examples
• Make interest payments by increasing all balances by 5
percent.

• Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000 6 percent

interest and pay all others 5 percent
 Views
• In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see the
entire logical model (i.e., all the actual relations stored in
the database.)
• Consider a person who needs to know a customer’s loan
number but has no need to see the loan amount. This
person should see a relation described, in the relational
algebra, by
customer-name, loan-number (borrower loan)
• Any relation that is not of the conceptual model but is
made visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is called a
view.
 View Definition
•A view is defined using the create view statement
which has the form
create view v as <query expression

where <query expression> is any legal relational

algebra query expression. The view name is
represented by v.
• Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to
refer to the virtual relation that the view generates.
• View definition is not the same as creating a new
relation by evaluating the query expression
• Rather,a view definition causes the saving of an expression;
the expression is substituted into queries using the view.
 View Examples
• Consider the view (named all-customer) consisting of
branches and their customers.
 Updates Through View
• Database modifications expressed as views must be
translated to modifications of the actual relations in
the database.
• Consider the person who needs to see all loan data in
the loan relation except amount. The view given to
the person, branch-loan, is defined as:
create view branch-loan as
branch-name, loan-number (loan)
• Since we allow a view name to appear wherever a
relation name is allowed, the person may write:

branch-loan  branch-loan  {(“Perryridge”, L-37)}

 Updates Through Views (Cont.)
• The previous insertion must be represented by an insertion
into the actual relation loan from which the view branch-
loan is constructed.
• An insertion into loan requires a value for amount. The
insertion can be dealt with by either.
• rejecting the insertion and returning an error message to the user.
• inserting a tuple (“L-37”, “Perryridge”, null) into the loan relation

• Some updates through views are impossible to translate

into database relation updates
• create view v as branch-name = “Perryridge” (account))
v  v  (L-99, Downtown, 23)
• Others cannot be translated uniquely
• all-customer  all-customer  {(“Perryridge”, “John”)}
• Have to choose loan or account, and
create a new loan/account number!
Views Defined Using Other Views

• One view may be used in the expression defining

another view
• A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a view
relation v2 if v2 is used in the expression defining v1
• A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation v2
if either v1 depends directly to v2 or there is a path of
dependencies from v1 to v2
• A view relation v is said to be recursive if it depends
on itself.
View Expansion
• A way to define the meaning of views defined in
terms of other views.
• Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may
itself contain uses of view relations.
• View expansion of an expression repeats the
following replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the expression
defining vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
• As long as the view definitions are not recursive, this
loop will terminate
E-R Diagram
The branch Relation
Thank You!!!
 Division Operation (Cont.)
• Property
• Let q – r  s
• Then q is the largest relation satisfying q x s  r

• Definition in terms of the basic algebra operation

Let r(R) and s(S) be relations, and let S  R

r  s = R-S (r) –R-S ( (R-S (r) x s) – R-S,S(r))

To see why
• R-S,S(r) simply reorders attributes of r

• R-S(R-S (r) x s) – R-S,S(r)) gives those tuples t in

R-S (r) such that for some tuple u  s, tu  r.