Chapter 2: Intro to Relational Model

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Example of a Relation

attributes
(or columns)

tuples
(or rows)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Attribute Types

 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
 The special value null is a member of every domain. Indicated
that the value is “unknown”
 The null value causes complications in the definition of many
operations

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relation Schema and Instance
 A1, A2, …, An are attributes

 R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema

Example:
instructor = (ID, name, dept_name, salary)
 Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a subset of
D1 x D2 x … x Dn
Thus, a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where each ai  Di

 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

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relations are Unordered

 Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an arbitrary order)

 Example: instructor relation with unordered tuples

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 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)
 Example: {ID} and {ID,name} are both superkeys of instructor.
 Superkey K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {ID} is a candidate key for Instructor
 One of the candidate keys is selected to be the primary key.

 which one?
 Foreign key: A relation, say r1, may include among its attributes the
primary key of another relation, say r2. This attribute is called a foreign
key from r1, referencing r2. The relation r1 is also called the referencing
relation of the foreign key dependency, and r2 is called the referenced
relation of the foreign key.
 Example – dept_name in instructor is a foreign key from instructor
referencing department

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema Diagram for University Database

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema of the University Database

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Query Languages
 Procedural vs .non-procedural, or declarative
 “Pure” languages:
 Relational algebra
 Tuple relational calculus
 Domain relational calculus
 The above 3 pure languages are equivalent in computing power
 We will concentrate in this chapter on relational algebra
 Not turning-machine equivalent
 consists of 6 basic operations

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation – selection of rows (tuples)

 Relation r

 A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation – selection of columns (Attributes)

 Relation r:

 A,C (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r  s:

 1. The relations in r and s must have the same number of attributes.

 2. The domain of the ‘i’th attribute of r and that of s must be the same
for all i.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set difference of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r – s:

 Those tuples which are in r, but not in s.

 1. The relations in r and s must have the same number of attributes.

 2. The domain of the ‘i’th attribute of r and that of s must be the same
for all i.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set intersection of two relations

 Relation r, s:

 rs

Note: r  s = r – (r – s)
 1. The relations in r and s must have the same number of attributes.
 2. The domain of the ‘i’th attribute of r and that of s must be the same
for all i.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joining two relations -- Cartesian-product
 Relations r, s:

 r x s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-product – naming issue
 Relations r, s: B

 r x s: r.B s.B

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Renaming a Table
 Allows us to refer to a relation expression, (say E) by more than one name.
 x (E)

returns the expression E under the name X

 Relations r

 r x  s (r) r.A r.B s.A s.B

α 1 α 1
α 1 β 2
β 2 α 1
β 2 β 2

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Composition of Operations
 Can build expressions using multiple operations
 Example: A=C (r x s)

 rxs

 A=C (r x s)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joining two relations – Natural Join

 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively.

Then, the “natural join” of relations R and 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

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Example
 Relations r, s:

 Natural Join
 r s

 A, r.B, C, r.D, E ( r.B = s.B ˄ r.D = s.D (r x s)))

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Notes about Relational Languages
 Each Query input is a table (or set of tables)
 Each query output is a table.
 All data in the output table appears in one of the input tables
 Relational Algebra is not Turning complete
 Can we compute:
 SUM
 AVG
 MAX
 MIN

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Summary of Relational Algebra Operators
Symbol (Name) Example of Use
σ
(Selection) σ salary > = 85000 (instructor)
Return rows of the input relation that satisfy the predicate.
Π
(Projection) Π ID, salary (instructor)
Output specified attributes from all rows of the input relation. Remove
duplicate tuples from the output.
x
(Cartesian Product) instructor x department

Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.
∪
(Union) Π name (instructor) ∪ Π name (student)

Output the union of tuples from the two input relations.

-
(Set Difference) Π name (instructor) -- Π name (student)

Output the set difference of tuples from the two input relations.
⋈
(Natural Join) instructor ⋈ department

Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 2

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use