Chapter 5:

Relational Algebra
Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 2
Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 3
Relational Algebra Overview
◼ Relational algebra is the basic set of operations
for the relational model.
❑ These operations enable a user to specify basic
retrieval requests (or queries).
◼ The result of an operation is a new relation,
which may have been formed from one or more
input relations.
❑ This property makes the algebra “closed” (all objects
in relational algebra are relations).
◼ A sequence of relational algebra operations
forms a relational algebra expression.
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Relational Algebra Overview
◼ Unary Relational Operations:
❑ SELECT (symbol:  (sigma))
❑ PROJECT (symbol:  (pi))
❑ RENAME (symbol:  (rho))
◼ Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory:
❑ UNION (), INTERSECTION (), DIFFERENCE (or
MINUS, –)
❑ CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )
◼ Binary Relational Operations:
❑ JOIN (several variations of JOIN exist)
❑ DIVISION
◼ Additional Relational Operations:
❑ OUTER JOINS, OUTER UNION
❑ AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN,
MAX)
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COMPANY Database Schema

6
The following query results refer to this database state

Jan - 2015 7
The following query results refer to this database state

8
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
◼ The SELECT operation (denoted by 
(sigma)) is used to select a subset of the
tuples from a relation based on a selection
condition.
◼ Examples:
❑ Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department
number is 4:
 DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
❑ Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater
than $30,000:
 SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)

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Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
◼ In general, the select operation is denoted by
<selection condition>(R) where
❑  (sigma) is used to denote the select operator.

❑ <selection condition> is a Boolean expression

specified on the attributes of relation R.
❑ Tuples that make the condition true appear in the
result of the operation, and tuples that make the
condition false are discarded from the result of
the operation.

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Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
◼ SELECT Operation Properties
❑ The relation S =  <selection condition>(R) has the same schema
(same attributes) as R.
❑ SELECT  is commutative:
<cond1>( < cond2>(R)) = <cond2>(<cond1>(R))
❑ Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence)
of SELECT operations may be applied in any order:
<cond1>(<cond2>(<cond3>(R))
= <cond2>(<cond3>(<cond1>(R)))
= <cond1>AND<cond2>AND<cond3>(R)

❑ The number of tuples in the result of a SELECT is less

than (or equal to) the number of tuples in the input relation
R.
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Example of SELECT operation

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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
◼ PROJECT Operation is denoted by  (pi).
◼ This operation keeps certain columns
(attributes) from a relation and discards the
other columns.
❑ PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning: the list of
specified columns (attributes) is kept in each
tuple, the other attributes in each tuple are
discarded.
◼ Example: To list each employee’s first and
last name and salary, the following is used:
LNAME, FNAME,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)
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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
◼ The general form of the project operation is:
<attribute list>(R)
❑ <attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from
relation R

◼ The project operation removes any

duplicate tuples because the result of the
project operation do not allow duplicate
elements.

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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
◼ PROJECT Operation Properties
❑ The number of tuples in the result of projection
<list>(R) is always less than or equal to the
number of tuples in R.
◼ If the list of attributes includes a key of R, then the
number of tuples in the result of PROJECT is equal to
the number of tuples in R.
❑ PROJECT is not commutative
 <list1> ( <list2> (R) ) =  <list1> (R) as long as <list2>
contains the attributes in <list1>

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Example of PROJECT operation

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Examples of applying SELECT and
PROJECT operations

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Relational Algebra Expressions
◼ We may want to apply several relational
algebra operations one after the other.
❑ Either we can write the operations as a single
relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations, or
❑ We can apply one operation at a time and create
intermediate result relations.
◼ In the latter case, we must give names to the
relations that hold the intermediate results.

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Single expression versus sequence of
relational operations
◼ To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all
employees who work in department number 5, we must
apply a select and a project operation.

◼ We can write a single relational algebra expression as

follows:
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY( DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))

◼ OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations,

giving a name to each intermediate relation:
❑ DEP5_EMPS   DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
❑ RESULT   FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)

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Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
◼ The RENAME operator is denoted by  (rho).
◼ In some cases, we may want to rename the
attributes of a relation or the relation name or
both.
❑ Useful when a query requires multiple operations.
❑ Necessary in some cases (see JOIN operation
later).

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Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
◼ The general RENAME operation  can be
expressed by any of the following forms:
❑ S (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes both:
◼ the relation name to S, and
◼ the column (attribute) names to B1, B1, …..Bn
❑ S(R) changes:
◼ the relation name only to S
❑ (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes:
◼ the column (attribute) names only to B1, B1, …..Bn

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Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 22
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
◼ Binary operation, denoted by .
◼ The result of R  S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R or in S or in both R
and S.
◼ Duplicate tuples are eliminated.
◼ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible” (or UNION compatible):
❑ R and S must have same number of attributes.
❑ Each pair of corresponding attributes must be type
compatible (have same or compatible domains).

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Example of the result of a UNION
operation

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Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory
◼ Type Compatibility of operands is required for
the binary set operation UNION , (also for
INTERSECTION , SET DIFFERENCE –).

◼ The resulting relation for R1R2 (also for

R1R2, or R1–R2) has the same attribute
names as the first operand relation R1 (by
convention).

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Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: INTERSECTION
◼ INTERSECTION is denoted by .
◼ The result of the operation R  S, is a
relation that includes all tuples that are in
both R and S.
❑ The attribute names in the result will be the same
as the attribute names in R.
◼ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”.

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Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: SET DIFFERENCE
◼ SET DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or
EXCEPT) is denoted by –.
◼ The result of R – S, is a relation that includes
all tuples that are in R but not in S.
❑ The attribute names in the result will be the same
as the attribute names in R.
◼ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”.

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Example to
illustrate the
result of
UNION,
INTERSECT,
DIFFERENCE

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Some properties of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE
◼ Notice that both union and intersection are commutative
operations; that is:
❑ R  S = S  R, and R  S = S  R

◼ Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary

operations applicable to any number of relations
because both are associative operations:
❑ R  (S  T) = (R  S)  T

❑ (R  S)  T = R  (S  T)

◼ The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in

general
❑ R – S ≠ S – R

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Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
◼ CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT
Operation
❑ Denoted by R(A1, A2, ..., An) x S(B1, B2, ..., Bm)
❑ Result is a relation with degree n + m attributes:
◼ Q(A1, A2, ..., An, B1, B2, ..., Bm), in that order.
❑ Hence, if R has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR ),
and S has nS tuples, then R x S will have nR * nS
tuples.
❑ The two operands do NOT have to be "type
compatible”.

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Example of CARTESIAN
PRODUCT operation

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Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 32
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
◼ JOIN Operation (denoted by )
❑ The sequence of CARTESIAN PRODECT
followed by SELECT is used quite commonly
to identify and select related tuples from two
relations.
❑ A special operation, called JOIN combines this
sequence into a single operation.
❑ This operation is very important for any
relational database with more than a single
relation, because it allows us combine related
tuples from various relations

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
◼ JOIN Operation (denoted by )
❑ The general form of a join operation on two
relations R(A1, A2, . . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . .,
Bm) is:
R <join condition>S

◼ where R and S can be any relations that

result from general relational algebra
expressions.

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
◼ Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the
name of the manager of each department.
❑ To get the manager’s name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple
whose SSN value matches the MGRSSN value in
the department tuple.
DEPT_MGRDEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSNEMPLOYEE

◼ MGRSSN = SSN is the join condition

❑ Combines each department record with the employee
who manages the department.
❑ The join condition can also be specified as:
DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN= EMPLOYEE.SSN
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COMPANY Database Schema

36
The following query results refer to this database state

Jan - 2015 37
The following query results refer to this database state

38
Example of applying the JOIN
operation

DEPT_MGR  DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSN EMPLOYEE

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Example of JOIN operation

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Some properties of JOIN
◼ Consider the following JOIN operation:
❑ R(A1, A2, . . ., An) S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
R.Ai=S.Bj
❑ Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
◼ Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order
❑ The resulting relation state has one tuple for each
combination of tuples - r from R and s from S, but only if
they satisfy the join condition r[Ai]=s[Bj].
❑ Hence, if R has nR tuples, and S has nS tuples, then the
join result will generally have less than nR * nS tuples.
❑ Only related tuples (based on the join condition) will appear
in the result.

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Some properties of JOIN
◼ The general case of JOIN operation is called
a Theta-join: R <theta> S

◼ The join condition is called theta.

◼ Theta can be any general boolean
expression on the attributes of R and S; for
example:
❑ R.Ai < S.Bj AND (R.Ak = S.Bl OR R.Ap < S.Bq)

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Binary Relational Operations:
EQUIJOIN
◼ A join, where the only comparison operator
used is =, is called an EQUIJOIN.
❑ In the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have one
or more pairs of attributes (whose names need
not be identical) that have identical values in
every tuple.

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Binary Relational Operations:
NATURAL JOIN Operation
◼ NATURAL JOIN Operation
❑ Another variation of JOIN called NATURAL JOIN, denoted by *,
was created to get rid of the second (superfluous) attribute in an
EQUIJOIN condition.
❑ The standard definition of natural join requires that the two join
attributes, or each pair of corresponding join attributes, have
the same name in both relations.
❑ If this is not the case, a renaming operation is applied first
◼ Example: Q  R(A,B,C,D) * S(C,D,E)
❑ The implicit join condition includes each pair of attributes with the
same name, “AND” ed together: R.C = S.C AND R.D = S.D
❑ Result keeps only one attribute of each such pair:
◼ Q(A,B,C,D,E)

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Example of NATURAL JOIN
operation
*

45
Example of NATURAL JOIN
operation

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Complete Set of Relational Operations
◼ The set of operations {,  , , - , X} is called
a complete set because any other relational
algebra expressions can be expressed by a
combination of these five operations.

◼ For example:
❑ R  S = (R  S ) – ((R - S)  (S - R))
❑ R <join condition>S =  <join condition> (R X S)

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Binary Relational Operations:
DIVISION
◼ DIVISION Operation
❑ The division operation is applied to two relations R(Z)
 S(X), where Z = X  Y (Y is the set of attributes of R
that are not attributes of S).
❑ The result of DIVISION is a relation T(Y) that includes
a tuple t if tuples tR appear in R with tR [Y] = t, and with
tR [X] = ts for every tuple ts in S, i.e., for a tuple t to
appear in the result T of the DIVISION, the values in t
must appear in R in combination with every tuple in S.

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Example of the
DIVISION
operation

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Operations of Relational Algebra

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Operations of Relational Algebra

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Notation for Query Trees
◼ Query tree
❑ Represents the input relations of query as leaf
nodes of the tree.
❑ Represents the relational algebra operations as
internal nodes.

Jan - 2015 52
Jan - 2015 53
Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 54
Additional Relational Operations
◼ Aggregate Functions and Grouping
❑ A type of request that cannot be expressed in the
basic relational algebra is to specify mathematical
aggregate functions on collections of values from the
database.
❑ Examples of such functions include retrieving the
average or total salary of all employees or the total
number of employee tuples.
❑ Common functions applied to collections of numeric
values include SUM, AVERAGE, MAXIMUM, and
MINIMUM. The COUNT function is used for counting
tuples or values.

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Additional Relational Operations
◼ Use of the Functional operator ℱ
❑ ℱMAX Salary (Employee) retrieves the maximum salary
value from the Employee relation
❑ ℱMIN Salary (Employee) retrieves the minimum Salary
value from the Employee relation
❑ ℱSUM Salary (Employee) retrieves the sum of the Salary
from the Employee relation
❑ DNO ℱCOUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (Employee) groups
employees by DNO (department number) and
computes the count of employees and average salary
per department
❑ Note: count just counts the number of rows,
without removing duplicates.

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Examples of applying aggregate functions
and grouping

Jan - 2015 57
Additional Relational Operations
◼ Recursive Closure Operations
❑ Another type of operation that, in general, cannot be
specified in the basic original relational algebra is
recursive closure. This operation is applied to a
recursive relationship.
❑ An example of a recursive operation is to retrieve all
SUPERVISEES of an EMPLOYEE e at all levels.
❑ Although it is possible to retrieve employees at each
level and then take their union, we cannot, in general,
specify a query such as “retrieve the supervisees of
‘James Borg’ at all levels” without utilizing a looping
mechanism.
❑ The SQL3 standard includes syntax for recursive
closure.

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Additional Relational Operations
◼ The OUTER JOIN Operation
❑ In NATURAL JOIN and EQUIJOIN, tuples without a
matching (or related) tuple are eliminated from the join
result.
◼ Tuples with null in the join attributes are also eliminated.
◼ This amounts to loss of information.
❑ A set of operations, called OUTER joins, can be used
when we want to keep all the tuples in R, or all those
in S, or all those in both relations in the result of the
join, regardless of whether or not they have matching
tuples in the other relation.
❑ Outer Union operations: homework !!
Jan - 2015 59
Additional Relational Operations
◼ The left outer join operation keeps every tuple in
the first or left relation R in R S; if no
matching tuple is found in S, then the attributes
of S in the join result are filled or “padded” with
null values.
◼ A similar operation, right outer join, keeps every
tuple in the second or right relation S in the
result of R S.
◼ A third operation, full outer join, denoted by
keeps all tuples in both the left and the right
relations when no matching tuples are found,
padding them with null values as needed.
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Additional Relational Operations
◼ Example: List all employee names and also
the name of the departments they manage if
they happen to manage a department (if they
do not manage one, we can indicate it with a
NULL value)

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The following query results refer to this database state

Jan - 2015 62
Additional Relational Operations

Jan - 2015 63
Example of LEFT OUTER JOIN

64
Example of RIGHT OUTER JOIN

65
Example of FULL OUTER JOIN

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Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 67
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ A relational calculus expression creates a new relation,
which is specified in terms of variables that range over
rows of the stored database relations (in tuple calculus)
or over columns of the stored relations (in domain
calculus).
◼ In a calculus expression, there is no order of operations
to specify how to retrieve the query result—a calculus
expression specifies only what information the result
should contain. This is the main distinguishing feature
between relational algebra and relational calculus.
◼ Relational calculus is considered to be a nonprocedural
language. This differs from relational algebra, where we
must write a sequence of operations to specify a retrieval
request; hence relational algebra can be considered as a
procedural way of stating a query.
Jan - 2015 68
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ The tuple relational calculus is based on specifying a number
of tuple variables. Each tuple variable usually ranges over a
particular database relation, meaning that the variable may
take as its value any individual tuple from that relation.
◼ A simple tuple relational calculus query is of the form {t |
COND(t)} where t is a tuple variable and COND (t) is a
conditional expression involving t.
❑ Example: To find the first and last names of all employees whose
salary is above $50,000, we can write the following tuple calculus
expression:
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME | EMPLOYEE(t) AND t.SALARY>50000}
❑ The condition EMPLOYEE(t) specifies that the range relation of
tuple variable t is EMPLOYEE. The first and last name (FNAME,
LNAME) of each EMPLOYEE tuple t that satisfies the condition
t.SALARY>50000 ( SALARY >50000) will be retrieved.

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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ Two special symbols called quantifiers can
appear in formulas; these are the universal
quantifier () and the existential quantifier
().

◼ Informally, a tuple variable t is bound if it is

quantified, meaning that it appears in an ( t)
or ( t) clause; otherwise, it is free.

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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ Example 1: retrieve the name and address of
all employees who work for the ‘Research’
department.
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME, t.ADDRESS | EMPLOYEE(t) and
( d) (DEPARTMENT(d) and d.DNAME=‘Research’
and d.DNUMBER=t.DNO) }

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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ Example 2: find the names of employees
who work on all the projects controlled by
department number 5.
{e.LNAME, e.FNAME | EMPLOYEE(e) and (( x)
(not(PROJECT(x)) or not(x.DNUM=5)
OR (( w)(WORKS_ON(w) and w.ESSN=e.SSN and
x.PNUMBER=w.PNO))))}

◼ Details: [1] Chapter 6

Jan - 2015 72
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ Another variation of relational calculus called the domain
relational calculus, or simply, domain calculus is equivalent
to tuple calculus and to relational algebra.
◼ QBE (Query-By-Example): see Appendix D
◼ Domain calculus differs from tuple calculus in the type of
variables used in formulas: rather than having variables range
over tuples, the variables range over single values from
domains of attributes. To form a relation of degree n for a
query result, we must have n of these domain variables -
one for each attribute.
◼ An expression of the domain calculus is of the form
{x1, x2, . . ., xn | COND(x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . .,
xn+m)}, where:
❑ x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . ., xn+m are domain variables that range
over domains (of attributes)
❑ COND is a condition or formula of the domain relational calculus.

Jan - 2015 73
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
◼ Example: Retrieve the birthdate and address
of the employee whose name is ‘John B.
Smith’.

{uv | ( q) ( r) ( s) ( t) ( w) ( x) ( y) ( z)
(EMPLOYEE(qrstuvwxyz) and q=’John’ and r=’B’ and
s=’Smith’)}

Jan - 2015 74
Summary

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Jan - 2015 75
Jan - 2015 76
Exercise 1
◼ Using relational algebra: retrieve the name
and address of all employees who work for
the ‘Research’ department

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Exercise 2
◼ Using relational algebra: For every project
located in ‘Stafford’, list the project number,
the controlling department number, and the
department manager’s last name, address,
and birthdate.

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Exercise 3
◼ Using relational algebra: Find the names of
employees who work on all the projects
controlled by department number 5.

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Exercise 4
◼ Using relational algebra: List the names of all
employees with two or more dependents.

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Exercise 5
◼ Using relational algebra: Retrieve the names of
employees who have no dependents.

Jan - 2015 81
Review questions
1) List the operations of relational algebra and the
purpose of each.
2) What is union compatibility? Why do the UNION,
INTERSECTION, and DIFFERENCE operations
require that the relations on which they are applied
be union compatible?
3) How are the OUTER JOIN operations different
from the INNER JOIN operations? How is the
OUTER UNION operation different from UNION?
4) In what sense does relational calculus differ from
relational algebra, and in what sense are they
similar?
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