21CS53-DATABSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Module 2

Chapter 1: The Relational Data Model and Relational Algebra

1.1 Relational Model Concepts

Domain: A (usually named) set/universe of atomic values, where by "atomic" we mean

simply that, from the point of view of the database, each value in the domain is indivisible
(i.e., cannot be broken down into component parts).

Examples of domains:

 USA_phone_number: string of digits of length ten

 SSN: string of digits of length nine
 Name: string of characters beginning with an upper case letter
 GPA: a real number between 0.0 and 4.0
 Sex: a member of the set { female, male }
 Dept_Code: a member of the set { CMPS, MATH, ENGL, PHYS, PSYC, ... }

Domains , Attributes , Tuples ,and Relations

These are all logical descriptions of domains. For implementation purposes, it is

necessary to provide descriptions of domains in terms of concrete data types (or formats)
that are provided by the DBMS (such as String, int, boolean), in a manner analogous to how
programming languages have intrinsic data types.

Attribute: the name of the role played by some value (coming from some domain) in the
context of a relational schema. The domain of attribute A is denoted dom(A).

Tuple: A tuple is a mapping from attributes to values drawn from the respective domains of
those attributes. A tuple is intended to describe some entity (or relationship between entities)
in the miniworld.As an example, a tuple for a PERSON entity might be

{ Name --> "Rumpelstiltskin", Sex --> Male, IQ --> 143 }

Relation: A (named) set of tuples all of the same form (i.e., having the same set of
attributes). The term table is a loose synonym. (Some database purists would argue that a
table is "only" a physical manifestation of a relation.)

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Relational Schema: used for describing (the structure of) a relation. E.g., R(A 1, A2, ..., An)
says that R is a relation with attributes A1, ... An. The degree of a relation is the number of
attributes it has, here n.

Example: STUDENT(Name, SSN, Address)

One would think that a "complete" relational schema would also specify the domain of each
attribute.

Relational Database: A collection of relations, each one consistent with its specified
relational schema. The model was first introduced by Tod Codd of IBM Research in 1970. It
uses the concept of a mathematical relation. Hence, the database is a collection of relations. A
relation can be thought as a table of values, each row in the table represents a collection of
related data values. In relational model terminology, a row is called a tuple, a column header
is called an attribute.

A relation schema R, denoted by R(A1,...,An) , is made up of a relation name R and a list of

attributes A1,...,An. The domain of Ai is denoted by dom(Ai). A relation schema that describes
a relation R is called the name of this relation.

The degree of a relation is the number of attributes in its relation schema. For example, a
relation schema of order 7 STUDENT(Name, SSN, HPhone, Address, WPhone, Age, GPA)
describes students. The relation student can be shown as follows:

Fig: The attributes and tuples of a relation STUDENT

Characteristics of Relations

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Ordering of Tuples: A relation is a set of tuples; hence, there is no order associated

with them. That is, it makes no sense to refer to, for example, the 5th tuple in a relation.
When a relation is depicted as a table, the tuples are necessarily listed in some order, of
course, but you should attach no significance to that order. Similarly, when tuples are
represented on a storage device, they must be organized in some fashion, and it may be
advantageous, from a performance standpoint, to organize them in a way that depends upon
their content.

Ordering of Attributes: A tuple is best viewed as a mapping from its attributes (i.e.,
the names we give to the roles played by the values comprising the tuple) to the
corresponding values. Hence, the order in which the attributes are listed in a table is
irrelevant. (Note that, unfortunately, the set theoretic operations in relational algebra (at least
how E&N define them) make implicit use of the order of the attributes. Hence, E&N view
attributes as being arranged as a sequence rather than a set.)

Values of Attributes: For a relation to be in First Normal Form, each of its attribute
domains must consist of atomic (neither composite nor multi-valued) values. Much of the
theory underlying the relational model was based upon this assumption. Chapter 10 addresses
the issue of including non-atomic values in domains. (Note that in the latest edition of C.J.
Date's book, he explicitly argues against this idea, admitting that he has been mistaken in the
past.) The Null value: used for don't know, not applicable.

Interpretation of a Relation: Each relation can be viewed as a predicate and each

tuple in that relation can be viewed as an assertion for which that predicate is satisfied (i.e.,
has value true) for the combination of values in it. In other words, each tuple represents a
fact. Example (see Figure 2.1): The first tuple listed means: There exists a student having
name Benjamin Bayer, having SSN 305-61-2435, having age 19, etc.

Keep in mind that some relations represent facts about entities (e.g., students) whereas others
represent facts about relationships (between entities). (e.g., students and course sections).

The closed world assumption states that the only true facts about the miniworld are those
represented by whatever tuples currently populate the database.

A tuple can be considered as a set of (<attribute>, <value>) pairs. Thus the following two
tuples are identical:

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t1 = <(Name, B. Bayer),(SSN, 305-61-2435),(HPhone, 3731616), (Address, 291 Blue Lane),

(WPhone, null),(Age, 23),(GPA, 3.25)>

t2 = <(HPhone, 3731616),(WPhone, null),(Name, B. Bayer),(Age, 23),

(Address,91 Blue Lane),(SSN, 305-61-2435),(GPA, 3.25)>

Tuple ordering is not a part of relation, that is the following relation is identical to that of
previously considered table.

The relation STUDENT with a different order of tuples

Relational Model Notation:

A relation schema R of degree n is denoted by R(A1,...,An).

An n-tuple t in a relation r(R) is dented by t = v1,...,vn , where

 vi is the value corresponding to attribute Ai .

 Both t[Ai] and t.Ai refer to the value Ai . The letters Q, R, S denote relation
names.
 The letters q, r, s denote relation states.
 The letters t, u, v denote tuples.

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An attribute A can be qualified with the relation name R using the dot notation R.A -for
example, STUDENT.Name or STUDENT.Age.

R(A1, A2, ..., An) is a relational schema of degree n denoting that there is a relation R having as
its attributes A1, A2, ..., An.By convention, Q, R, and S denote relation names. By convention,
q, r, and s denote relation states. For example, r(R) denotes one possible state of relation R. If
R is understood from context, this could be written, more simply, as r. By convention, t, u,
and v denote tuples. The "dot notation" R.A (e.g., STUDENT.Name) is used to qualify an
attribute name, usually for the purpose of distinguishing it from a same-named attribute in a
different relation (e.g., DEPARTMENT.Name).

1.2 Relational Model Constraints and Relational Database Schemas

Constraints on databases can be categorized as follows:

inherent model-based: Example: no two tuples in a relation can be duplicates (because a

relation is a set of tuples)

schema-based: can be expressed using DDL; this kind is the focus of this section.

application-based: are specific to the "business rules" of the miniworld and typically
difficult or impossible to express and enforce within the data model. Hence, it is left to
application programs to enforce.

Elaborating upon schema-based constraints:

Domain Constraints:Each attribute value must be either null (which is really a non-value) or
drawn from the domain of that attribute. Note that some DBMS's allow you to impose the not
null constraint upon an attribute, which is to say that that attribute may not have the
(non-)value null.

Key Constraints:A relation is a set of tuples, and each tuple's "identity" is given by the
values of its attributes. Hence, it makes no sense for two tuples in a relation to be identical
(because then the two tuples are actually one and the same tuple). That is, no two tuples may
have the same combination of values in their attributes.

Usually the miniworld dictates that there be (proper) subsets of attributes for which no two
tuples may have the same combination of values. Such a set of attributes is called a superkey
of its relation. From the fact that no two tuples can be identical, it follows that the set of all
attributes of a relation constitutes a superkey of that relation.

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A key is a minimal superkey, i.e., a superkey such that, if we were to remove any of its
attributes, the resulting set of attributes fails to be a superkey.

Example: Suppose that we stipulate that a faculty member is uniquely identified by Name
and Address and also by Name and Department, but by no single one of the three attributes
mentioned. Then { Name, Address, Department } is a (non-minimal) superkey and each of {
Name, Address } and { Name, Department } is a key (i.e., minimal superkey).

Candidate key: any key! (Hence, it is not clear what distinguishes a key from a candidate
key.)

Primary key: a key chosen to act as the means by which to identify tuples in a relation.

Typically, one prefers a primary key to be one having as few attributes as possible.

Relational Databases and Relational Database Schemas:

A relational database schema is a set of schemas for its relations together with a set of
integrity constraints. A relational database state/instance/snapshot is a set of states of its
relations such that no integrity constraint is violated. Figure 3.5 shows a relational database
schema that we call COMPANY = { EMPLOYEE , DEPARTMENT ,
DEPT_LOCATIONS , PROJECT , WORKS_ON , DEPENDENT }. The underlined
attributes represent primary keys.

When we refer to a relational database, we implicitly include both its schema and its current
state. A database state that does not obey all the integrity constraints is called an invalid
state, and a state that satisfies all the constraints in the defined set

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of integrity constraints IC is called a valid state.

In Figure 3.5, the Dnumber attribute in both DEPARTMENT and DEPT_LOCATIONS

stands for the same real-world concept—the number given to a department. That same
concept is called Dno in EMPLOYEE and Dnum in PROJECT . Attributes that represent the
same real-world concept may or may not have identical names in different relations.
Alternatively, attributes that represent different concepts may have the same name in
different relations. For example, we could have used the attribute name Name for both Pname
of PROJECT and Dname of DEPARTMENT ; in this case, we would have two attributes that
share the same name but represent different real- world concepts—project names and
department names

Entity Integrity, Referential Integrity, and Foreign Keys

Entity Integrity Constraint:In a tuple, none of the values of the attributes forming the
relation's primary key may have the (non-)value null. Or is it that at least one such attribute
must have a non-null value? In my opinion, E&N do not make it clear!

Referential Integrity Constraint: A foreign key of relation R is a set of its attributes

intended to be used (by each tuple in R) for identifying/referring to a tuple in some relation S.

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(R is called the referencing relation and S the referenced relation.) For this to make sense, the
set of attributes of R forming the foreign key should "correspond to" some superkey of S.
Indeed, by definition we require this superkey to be the primary key of S.

This constraint says that, for every tuple in R, the tuple in S to which it refers must actually be
in S. Note that a foreign key may refer to a tuple in the same relation and that a foreign key
may be part of a primary key (indeed, for weak entity types, this will always occur). A
foreign key may have value null (necessarily in all its attributes??), in which case it does not
refer to any tuple in the referenced relation.

Semantic Integrity Constraints: Application-specific restrictions that are unlikely to be

expressible in DDL. Examples: salary of a supervisee cannot be greater than that of her/his
supervisor salary of an employee cannot be lowered

1.3 Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint Violations

For each of the update operations (Insert, Delete, and Update), we consider what kinds of
constraint violations may result from applying it and how we might choose to react.

Insert:

 Domain constraint violation: some attribute value is not of correct domain

 Entity integrity violation: key of new tuple is null
 Key constraint violation: key of new tuple is same as existing one
 Referential integrity violation: foreign key of new tuple refers to non-existent tuple

If an insertion violates one or more constraints, the default option is to reject the insertion.
Ways of dealing with it: reject the attempt to insert! Or give user opportunity to try again
with different attribute values.

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Operation:

Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, NULL , ‘1960-04-05’, ‘6357 Windy Lane, Katy,

TX’, F, 28000, NULL , 4> into EMPLOYEE .

Result: This insertion violates the entity integrity constraint ( NULL for the

primary key Ssn ), so it is rejected.

Operation:

Insert <‘Alicia’, ‘J’, ‘Zelaya’, ‘999887777’, ‘1960-04-05’, ‘6357 Windy Lane, Katy,

TX’, F, 28000, ‘987654321’, 4> into EMPLOYEE .

Result: This insertion violates the key constraint because another tuple with

the same Ssn value already exists in the EMPLOYEE relation, and so it is

rejected.

Operation:

Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, ‘677678989’, ‘1960-04-05’, ‘6357 Windswept,

Katy, TX’, F, 28000, ‘987654321’, 7> into EMPLOYEE .

Result: This insertion violates the referential integrity constraint specified on

Dno in EMPLOYEE because no corresponding referenced tuple exists in

DEPARTMENT with Dnumber = 7.

Operation:

Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, ‘677678989’, ‘1960-04-05’, ‘6357 Windy Lane,

Katy, TX’, F, 28000, NULL , 4> into EMPLOYEE .

Result: This insertion satisfies all constraints, so it is acceptable.

Delete: Referential integrity violation: a tuple referring to the deleted one exists. Three
options for dealing with it:

 Reject the deletion

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 Attempt to cascade (or propagate) by deleting any referencing tuples (plus

those that reference them, etc., etc.)
 Modify the foreign key attribute values in referencing tuples to null or to some
valid value referencing a different tuple

Operation:

Delete the WORKS_ON tuple with Essn = ‘999887777’ and Pno = 10.

Result: This deletion is acceptable and deletes exactly one tuple.

Operation:

Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘999887777’.

Result: This deletion is not acceptable, because there are tuples in

WORKS_ON that refer to this tuple. Hence, if the tuple in EMPLOYEE is

deleted, referential integrity violations will result.

Operation:

Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘333445555’.

Result: This deletion will result in even worse referential integrity violations,

because the tuple involved is referenced by tuples from the EMPLOYEE ,

DEPARTMENT , WORKS_ON , and DEPENDENT relations.

Update:Key constraint violation: primary key is changed so as to become same as another

tuple's referential integrity violation:

 foreign key is changed and new one refers to nonexistent tuple

 primary key is changed and now other tuples that had referred to this one violate the
constraint

Operation:

Update the salary of the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘999887777’ to 28000.

Result: Acceptable.

Operation:

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Update the Dno of the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘999887777’ to 1.

Result: Acceptable.

Operation:

Update the Dno of the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘999887777’ to 7.

Result: Unacceptable, because it violates referential integrity.

Operation:

Update the Ssn of the EMPLOYEE tuple with Ssn = ‘999887777’ to

‘987654321’.

Result: Unacceptable, because it violates primary key constraint by repeating a value that
already exists as a primary key in another tuple; it violates referential integrity constraints
because there are other relations that refer to the existing value of Ssn .

1.4 Transactions:

This concept is relevant in the context where multiple users and/or application
programs are accessing and updating the database concurrently. A transaction is a logical unit
of work that may involve several accesses and/or updates to the database (such as what might
be required to reserve several seats on an airplane flight). The point is that, even though
several transactions might be processed concurrently, the end result must be as though the
transactions were carried out sequentially. (Example of simultaneous withdrawals from same
checking account.)

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Chapter 2: The Relational Algebra

2.1 Relational Operations:

SELECT and PROJECT operations.

Set operations: These include UNION U, INTERSECTION | |, DIFFERENCE -,

CARTESIAN PRODUCT X.

JOIN operations .

Other relational operations: DIVISION, OUTER JOIN, AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS.

SELECT and PROJECT

SELECT operation (denoted by ): The SELECT operation is used to choose a subset of
the tuples from a relation that satisfies a selection condition. 3 One can consider the SELECT
operation to be a filter that keeps only those tuples that satisfy a qualifying condition.
Alternatively, we can consider the SELECT operation to restrict the tuples in a relation to
only those tuples that satisfy the condition. The SELECT operation can also be visualized as
a horizontal partition of the relation into two sets of tuples—those tuples that satisfy the
condition and are selected, and those tuples that do not satisfy the condition and are
discarded. For example, to select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department is 4 , or those
whose salary is greater than $30,000, we can individually specify each of these two
conditions with a SELECT operation as follows

σ Dno = 4 ( EMPLOYEE )
σ Salary > 30000 ( EMPLOYEE )

In general, the SELECT operation is denoted by

σ < selection condition > ( R )

where the symbol σ (sigma) is used to denote the SELECT operator and the selection
condition is a Boolean expression (condition) specified on the attributes of relation R. Notice
that R is generally a relational algebra expression whose result is a relation—the simplest
such expression is just the name of a database relation. The relation resulting from the
SELECT operation has the same attributes as R.
The Boolean expression specified in <selection condition> is made up of a number of clauses
of the form

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<attribute name> <comparison op> <constant value>

or
<attribute name> <comparison op> <attribute name>

where <attribute name> is the name of an attribute of R, <comparison op> is normally one of
the operators {=, <, ≤, >, ≥, ≠}, and <constant value> is a constant value from the attribute
domain. Clauses can be connected by the standard Boolean operators and, or, and not to form
a general selection condition. For example, to select the tuples for all employees who either
work in department 4 and make over $25,000 per year, or work in department 5 and make
over $30,000, we can specify the following SELECT operation:

σ ( Dno = 4 AND Salary > 25000 ) OR ( Dno = 5 AND Salary > 30000 ) ( EMPLOYEE )
selected. All the selected tuples appear in the result of the SELECT operation. The Boolean
conditions AND , OR , and NOT have their normal interpretation, as follows:

 (cond1 AND cond2) is TRUE if both (cond1) and (cond2) are TRUE ; other-
wise, it is FALSE .
 (cond1 OR cond2) is TRUE if either (cond1) or (cond2) or both are TRUE ;
otherwise, it is FALSE .
 ( NOT cond) is TRUE if cond is FALSE ; otherwise, it is FALSE .
The SELECT operator is unary; that is, it is applied to a single relation. Moreover, the
selection operation is applied to each tuple individually; hence, selection conditions cannot
involve more than one tuple. The degree of the relation resulting from a SELECT operation
—its number of attributes is the same as the degree of R. The number of tuples in the
resulting relation is always less than or equal to the number of tuples in R. That is, |σ c (R)| ≤
|R| for any condition C. The fraction of tuples
selected by a selection condition is referred to as the selectivity of the condition.

Notice that the SELECT operation is commutative; that is,

σ < cond1 > ( σ < cond2 > ( R )) = σ < cond2 > ( σ < cond1 > ( R ))

Hence, a sequence of SELECT s can be applied in any order. In addition, we can always
combine a cascade (or sequence) of SELECT operations into a single SELECT operation
with a conjunctive ( AND ) condition; that is,
σ < cond1 > ( σ < cond2 > ( ... ( σ < condn > ( R )) ... )) = σ < cond1 > AND < cond2 >
AND...AND < condn > ( R )

In SQL, the SELECT condition is typically specified in the WHERE clause of a query.

For example, the following operation:

σ Dno = 4 AND Salary > 25000 ( EMPLOYEE ) would correspond to the following SQL
query:
SELECT *
FROM EMPLOYEE
WHERE Dno =4 AND Salary >25000;

PROJECT operation (denoted by (pi)):

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Keeps only certain attributes (columns) from a relation R specified in an attribute list L.
Form of operation: L(R) . Resulting relation has only those attributes of R specified in
L .The PROJECT operation eliminates duplicate tuples in the resulting relation so that it
remains a mathematical set (no duplicate elements). Duplicate tuples are eliminated by the
operation.
Example: SEX,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)

If several male employees have salary 30000, only a single tuple <M, 30000> is kept in the
resulting relation.

Sequences of operations:

Several operations can be combined to form a relational algebra expression (query)

Example: Retrieve the names and salaries of employees who work in department 4:

FNAME,LNAME,SALARY ( DNO=4(EMPLOYEE) )

Alternatively, we specify explicit intermediate relations for each step:

DEPT4_EMPS DNO=4(EMPLOYEE)

FNAME, LNAME, SALARY(DEPT4_EMPS)

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Attributes can optionally be renamed in the resulting left-hand-side relation (this may be
required for some operations that will be presented later):

DEPT4_EMPS (EMPLOYEE)
DNO=4

(FIRSTNAME,LASTNAME,SALARY)
NAME,LNAME,SALARY(DEPT4_EMPS)

Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory Operations

Binary operations from mathematical set theory:

UNION: R1 R2, INTERSECTION: R1 R2, SET DIFFERENCE: R1 - R2, CARTESIAN
PRODUCT: R1 X R2.

For , , -, the operand relations R1(A1, A2, ..., An) and R2(B1, B2, ..., Bn) must have the
same number of attributes, and the domains of corresponding attributes must be compatible;
that is, dom(Ai) = dom(Bi) for i=1, 2, ..., n. This condition is called union compatibility. The
resulting relation for , , or - has the same attribute names as the first operand relation R1
(by convention).

DEP5_EMPS ← σ Dno = 5 ( EMPLOYEE )

RESULT1 ← π Ssn ( DEP5_EMPS )

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RESULT2 ( Ssn ) ← π Super_ssn ( DEP5_EMPS )

RESULT ← RESULT1 ∪ RESULT2

The relation RESULT1 has the Ssn of all employees who work in department 5, whereas
RESULT2 has the Ssn of all employees who directly supervise an employee who works in
department 5. The UNION operation produces the tuples that are in either RESULT1 or
RESULT2 or both, while eliminating any duplicates. Thus, the Ssn value ‘333445555’
appears only once in the result.

We can define the three operations UNION , INTERSECTION , and SET DIFFERENCE
on two union-compatible relations R and S as follows:
UNION : The result of this operation, denoted by 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.
INTERSECTION : The result of this operation, denoted by R ∩ S, is a relation that includes
all tuples that are in both R and S.
SET DIFFERENCE (or MINUS ): The result of this operation, denoted by R – S, is a
relation that includes all tuples that are in R but not in S.

Figure 6.4 illustrates the three operations. The relations STUDENT and INSTRUCTOR in
Figure 6.4(a) are union compatible and their tuples represent the names of students and the
names of instructors, respectively. The result of the UNION operation in Figure 6.4(b) shows
the names of all students and instructors. Note that duplicate tuples appear only once in the
result. The result of the
INTERSECTION operation (Figure 6.4(c)) includes only those who are both students and
instructors.

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CARTESIAN PRODUCT

R(A1, A2, ..., Am, B1, B2, ..., Bn) R1(A1, A2, ..., Am) X R2 (B1, B2, ..., Bn)
A tuple t exists in R for each combination of tuples t1 from R1 and
t2 from R2 such that:

t[A1, A2, ..., Am] = t1 and t[B1, B2, ..., Bn] = t2

If R1 has n1 tuples and R2 has n2 tuples, then R will have n1*n2 tuples.

CARTESIAN PRODUCT is a meaningless operation on its own. It can combine related

tuples from two relations if followed by the appropriate SELECT operation.

Example: Combine each DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple of the
manager. DEP_EMP DEPARTMENT X EMPLOYEE

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DEPT_MANAGER MGRSSN=SSN(DEP_EMP)

Binary Relational operations : JOIN and DIVISION

The JOIN operation

The JOIN operation, denoted by , is used to combine related tuples from two relations into
single “longer” tuples. To illustrate JOIN , 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 Mgr_ssn value in the
department tuple.

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DEPT_MGR ← DEPARTMENT
Mgr_ssn = Ssn EMPLOYEE
RESULT ← π Dname , Lname , Fname ( DEPT_MGR )

The first operation is illustrated in Figure 6.6. Note that Mgr_ssn is a foreign key of the
DEPARTMENT relation that references Ssn , the primary key of the EMPLOYEE relation.
This referential integrity constraint plays a role in having matching tuples in the referenced
relation EMPLOYEE .
The JOIN operation can be specified as a CARTESIAN PRODUCT operation followed by a
SELECT operation. However, JOIN is very important because it is used very frequently
when specifying database queries. Consider the earlier example illustrating CARTESIAN
PRODUCT , which included the following sequence of operations:

EMP_DEPENDENTS ← EMPNAMES × DEPENDENT

ACTUAL_DEPENDENTS ← σ Ssn = Essn ( EMP_DEPENDENTS )

The general form of a JOIN operation on two relations 5 R(A 1 , A 2 , ..., A n ) and S(B 1 ,B
2 , ..., B m ) is

R <join condition> S

THETA JOIN: A general join condition is of the form

<condition> AND <condition> AND...AND <condition>
where each <condition> is of the form A i θ B j , A i is an attribute of R, B j is an attribute of
S, A i and B j have the same domain, and θ (theta) is one of the comparison operators {=, <,
≤, >, ≥, ≠}. A JOIN operation with such a general join condition is called a THETA JOIN .

Variations of JOIN: The EQUIJOIN and NATURAL JOIN

EQUIJOIN: The join condition c includes one or more equality comparisons involving
attributes from R1 and R2. That is, c is of the form:

(Ai=Bj) AND ... AND (Ah=Bk); 1<i,h<m, 1<j,k<n

In the above EQUIJOIN operation:

Ai, ..., Ah are called the join attributes of R1
Bj, ..., Bk are called the join attributes of R2

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Example of using EQUIJOIN:

Retrieve each DEPARTMENT's name and its manager's name:

T DEPARTMENT MGRSSN = SSN EMPLOYEE

RESULT
DNAME,FNAME,LNAME (T)

NATURAL JOIN (*):

In an EQUIJOIN R R1 c R2, the join attribute of R2 appear redundantly in the result
relation R. In a NATURAL JOIN, the redundant join attributes of R2 are eliminated from R.
The equality condition is implied and need not be specified. R R1 *(join attributes of R1),
(join attributes of R2) R2

Example: Retrieve each EMPLOYEE's name and the name of the DEPARTMENT he/she
works for:

T EMPLOYEE *(DNO),(DNUMBER) DEPARTMENT

RESULT
FNAME,LNAME,DNAME (T)
If the join attributes have the same names in both relations, they need not be specified and we
can write R R1 * R2.

Example: Retrieve each EMPLOYEE's name and the name of his/her SUPERVISOR:

SUPERVISOR(SUPERSSN,SFN,SLN) (EMPLOYEE)
SSN,FNAME,LNAME

T EMPLOYEE * SUPERVISOR
RESULT
FNAME,LNAME,SFN,SLN(T)

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Note: In the original definition of NATURAL JOIN, the join attributes were required to have
the same names in both relations. There can be a more than one set of join attributes with a
different meaning between the same two relations. For example:

JOIN ATTRIBUTES

RELATIONSHIP

EMPLOYEE.SSN= EMPLOYEE manage DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN the

DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE.DNO= EMPLOYEE works for
DEPARTMENT.DNUMBER the DEPARTMENT

Example: Retrieve each EMPLOYEE's name and the name of the DEPARTMENT he/she
works for:

T EMPLOYEE DNO=DNUMBER DEPARTMENT

RESULT
FNAME,LNAME,DNAME(T)

A relation can have a set of join attributes to join it with itself :

JOIN ATTRIBUTES RELATIONSHIP

EMPLOYEE(1).SUPERSSN=

EMPLOYEE(2).SSN

One can think of this as joining two distinct copies

EMPLOYEE(2) supervises

EMPLOYEE(1)

of the relation, although only one relation

actually exists In this case, renaming can be useful.

Example: Retrieve each EMPLOYEE's name and the name of his/her SUPERVISOR:

SUPERVISOR(SSSN,SFN,SLN) SSN,FNAME,LNAME (EMPLOYEE)

T EMPLOYEE SUPERVISOR
SUPERSSN=SSSN

RESULT
FNAME,LNAME,SFN,SLN(T)

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Complete Set of Relational Algebra Operations:

It has been shown that the set of relational algebra operations {σ, π, ∪, ρ, –, ×} is a
complete set; that is, any of the other original relational algebra operations can be expressed
as a sequence of operations from this set. For example, the INTERSECTION operation can
be expressed by using UNION and MINUS as follows:
R ∩ S ≡ (R ∪ S) – ((R – S) ∪ (S – R))
Although, strictly speaking, INTERSECTION is not required, it is inconvenient to
specify this complex expression every time we wish to specify an intersection. As another
example, a JOIN operation can be specified as a CARTESIAN PRODUCT followed by a
SELECT operation, as we discussed:
R < condition > S≡ σ <condition> (R × S)
Similarly, a NATURAL JOIN can be specified as a CARTESIAN PRODUCT
preceded by RENAME and followed by SELECT and PROJECT operations.

The DIVISION Operation

The DIVISION operation, denoted by ÷, is useful for a special kind of query that
sometimes occurs in database applications. An example is Retrieve the names of employees
who work on all the projects that ‘John Smith’ works on. To express this query using the
DIVISION operation, proceed as follows. First, retrieve the list of project numbers that ‘John
Smith’ works on in the intermediate relation
SMITH_PNOS :
SMITH ← σ Fname = ‘John’ AND Lname = ‘Smith’ ( EMPLOYEE )
SMITH_PNOS ← π Pno ( WORKS_ON X Essn = Ssn SMITH )
Next, create a relation that includes a tuple < Pno , Essn > whenever the employee
whose Ssn is Essn works on the project whose number is Pno in the intermediate
relation SSN_PNOS :
SSN_PNOS ← π Essn , Pno ( WORKS_ON )
Finally, apply the DIVISION operation to the two relations, which gives the desired
employees’ Social Security numbers:
SSNS ( Ssn ) ← SSN_PNOS ÷ SMITH_PNOS
RESULT ← π Fname , Lname ( SSNS * EMPLOYEE )

The preceding
operations are shown
in Figure 6.8(a).

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Figure 6.8(b) illustrates a DIVISION operation where X = {A}, Y = {B}, and Z = {A,B}.
Notice that the tuples (values) b 1 and b 4 appear in R in combination with all three tuples in
S; that is why they appear in the resulting relation T. All other values of B in R do not appear
with all the tuples in S and are not selected: b 2 does not appear with a 2 , and b 3 does not
appear with a 1 . The DIVISION operation can be expressed as a sequence of π, ×, and –
operations as
follows:
T1 ← π Y (R)
T2 ← π Y ((S × T1) – R)
T ← T1 – T2

Notation For Query Tress

A query tree is a tree data structure that corresponds to a relational algebra expression. It
represents the input relations of the query as leaf nodes of the tree, and represents the
relational algebra operations as internal nodes. An execution of the query tree consists of
executing an internal node operation whenever its operands (represented by its child nodes)
are available, and then replacing that internal node by the relation that results from executing
the operation. The execution terminates when the root node is executed and produces the
result relation for the query.

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Figure 6.9 shows a query tree for Query 2 (see Section 4.3.1): For every project
located in ‘Stafford’, list the project number, the controlling department number, and
the department manager’s last name, address, and birth date.In Figure 6.9, the three leaf
nodes P , D , and E represent the three relations PROJECT ,
DEPARTMENT , and EMPLOYEE . The relational algebra operations in the expression are
represented by internal tree nodes. The query tree signifies an explicit order of execution in
the following sense. In order to execute Q2 , the node marked (1) in Figure 6.9 must begin
execution before node (2) because some resulting tuples of operation (1) must be available
before we can begin to execute operation (2). Similarly, node (2) must begin to execute and
produce results before node (3) can start execution, and so on.

Additional Relational Operations

Generalized Projection
The generalized projection operation extends the projection operation by allowing functions
of attributes to be included in the projection list. The generalized form can be expressed as:

π F1, F2, ..., Fn (R)

where F 1 , F 2 , ..., F n are functions over the attributes in relation R and may involve
arithmetic operations and constant values. This operation is helpful when developing reports
where computed values have to be produced in the columns of a query result.
As an example, consider the relation

EMPLOYEE ( Ssn , Salary , Deduction , Years_service )

A report may be required to show

Net Salary = Salary – Deduction ,

Bonus = 2000 * Years_service , and
Tax = 0.25 * Salary .

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Then a generalized projection combined with renaming may be used as follows:

REPORT ← ρ ( Ssn, Net_salary, Bonus, Tax ) ( π Ssn, Salary – Deduction, 2000 *

Years_service,
0.25 * Salary ( EMPLOYEE )).

AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS ( )

Functions such as SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX are often applied to sets of
values or sets of tuples in database applications

<grouping attributes> (R)

<function list>

The grouping attributes are optional

Example 1: Retrieve the average salary of all employees (no grouping needed):

(AVGSAL) AVERAGE SALARY (EMPLOYEE)

Example 2: For each department, retrieve the department number, the number of employees,
and the average salary (in the department):
(DNO,NUMEMPS,AVGSAL) DNO
COUNT SSN, AVERAGE SALARY (EMPLOYEE)
DNO is called the grouping attribute in the above example

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 rela- tionship between
tuples of the same type, such as the relationship between an employee and a supervisor. This
relationship is described by the foreign key Super_ssn of the EMPLOYEE relation in Figures
3.5 and 3.6, and it relates each employee tuple (in the role of supervisee) to another employee
tuple (in the role of supervisor). An example of a recursive operation is to retrieve all
supervisees of an employee e at all levels—that is, all employees eЈ directly supervised by e,

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all employees eЈI directly supervised by each employee eЈ, all employees eЈЈЈ directly
supervised by each employee eЈЈ, and so on.
For example, to specify the Ssn s of all employees eЈ directly supervised—at level one—by
the employee e whose name is ‘James Borg’ (see Figure 3.6), we can apply the following
operation:
BORG_SSN ← π Ssn ( σ Fname = ‘James’ AND Lname = ‘Borg’ ( EMPLOYEE ))
SUPERVISION ( Ssn1 , Ssn2 ) ← π Ssn , Super_ssn ( EMPLOYEE )
RESULT1 ( Ssn ) ← π Ssn1 ( SUPERVISION
Ssn2 = Ssn BORG_SSN )

To retrieve all employees supervised by Borg at level 2—that is, all employees Eјј supervised
by some employee eЈ who is directly supervised by Borg—we can apply another JOIN to the
result of the first query, as follows:
RESULT2 ( Ssn ) ← π Ssn1 ( SUPERVISION
Ssn2 = Ssn RESULT1 )

To get both sets of employees supervised at levels 1 and 2 by ‘James Borg’, we can
apply the UNION operation to the two results, as follows:
RESULT ← RESULT2 ∪ RESULT1
The results of these queries are illustrated in Figure 6.11

OUTER JOIN Operations

In a regular EQUIJOIN or NATURAL JOIN operation, tuples in R 1 or R2 that do not have
matching tuples in the other relation do not appear in the result. A set of operations, called
outer joins, were developed for the case where the user wants to keep all the tuples in R, or

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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 Some queries require all tuples in R 1 (or R2
or both) to appear in the result When no matching tuples are found, nulls are placed for the
missing attributes

LEFT OUTER JOIN: R1 X R2 lets every tuple in R1 appear in the result

RIGHT OUTER JOIN: R1 X R2 lets every tuple in R2 appear in the result

FULL OUTER JOIN: R1 X R2 lets every tuple in R1 or R2 appear in the result

For example, suppose that we want a list of all employee names as well as 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. We can apply an operation LEFT OUTER JOIN ,
denoted by , to retrieve the result as
follows:

TEMP ← ( EMPLOYEE
Ssn = Mgr_ssn DEPARTMENT )
RESULT ← π Fname , Minit , Lname , Dname ( TEMP )

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. The result of these operations is shown in Figure 6.12.
A similar operation, RIGHT OUTER JOIN , denoted by , 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.

OUTER UNION Operations

The OUTER UNION operation was developed to take the union of tuples from two
relations that have some common attributes, but are not union (type) compatible. This
operation will take the UNION of tuples in two relations R(X, Y) and S(X, Z) that are
partially compatible, meaning that only some of their attributes, say X, are union compatible.
The attributes that are union compatible are represented only once in the result, and those
attributes that are not union compatible from either relation are also kept in the result relation
T(X, Y, Z). It is therefore the same as a FULL OUTER JOIN on the common attributes.
For example, an OUTER UNION can be applied to two relations whose schemas are
STUDENT ( Name , Ssn , Department , Advisor ) and INSTRUCTOR ( Name , Ssn ,

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Department , Rank ). Tuples from the two relations are matched based on having the same
combination of values
of the shared attributes— Name , Ssn , Department . The resulting relation,
STUDENT_OR_INSTRUCTOR , will have the following attributes:

STUDENT_OR_INSTRUCTOR ( Name , Ssn , Department , Advisor , Rank )

Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra

Query 1. Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the ‘Research’
department.
RESEARCH_DEPT ← σ Dname = ‘Research’ ( DEPARTMENT )
RESEARCH_EMPS ← ( RESEARCH_DEPT
Dnumber = Dno EMPLOYEE )
RESULT ← π Fname , Lname , Address ( RESEARCH_EMPS )
As a single in-line expression, this query becomes:
π Fname , Lname , Address ( σ Dname = ‘Research’ ( DEPARTMENT
Dnumber = Dno ( EMPLOYEE ))

Query 2. For every project located in ‘Stafford’, list the project number, the controlling
department number, and the department manager’s last name, address, and birth date.

STAFFORD_PROJS ← σ Plocation = ‘Stafford’ ( PROJECT )

CONTR_DEPTS ← ( STAFFORD_PROJS
Dnum = Dnumber DEPARTMENT )
PROJ_DEPT_MGRS ← ( CONTR_DEPTS
Mgr_ssn = Ssn EMPLOYEE )
RESULT ← π Pnumber , Dnum , Lname , Address , Bdate ( PROJ_DEPT_MGRS )
In this example, we first select the projects located in Stafford, then join them with their
controlling departments, and then join the result with the department managers. Finally, we
apply a project operation on the desired attributes.

Query 3. Find the names of employees who work on all the projects controlled by
department number 5.

DEPT5_PROJS ← ρ ( Pno ) ( π Pnumber ( σ Dnum = 5 ( PROJECT )))

EMP_PROJ ← ρ ( Ssn , Pno ) ( π Essn , Pno ( WORKS_ON ))
RESULT_EMP_SSNS ← EMP_PROJ ÷ DEPT5_PROJS
RESULT ← π Lname , Fname ( RESULT_EMP_SSNS * EMPLOYEE )
In this query, we first create a table DEPT5_PROJS that contains the project numbers of all
projects controlled by department 5. Then we create a table EMP_PROJ that holds ( Ssn ,
Pno ) tuples, and apply the division operation. Notice that we renamed the attributes so that
they will be correctly used in the division operation. Finally, we join the result of the division,
which holds only Ssn values, with the EMPLOYEE table to retrieve the desired attributes
from EMPLOYEE .

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Query 4. Make a list of project numbers for projects that involve an employee whose
last name is ‘Smith’, either as a worker or as a manager of the department that controls
the project.

SMITHS ( Essn ) ← π Ssn ( σ Lname = ‘Smith’ ( EMPLOYEE ))

SMITH_WORKER_PROJS ← π Pno ( WORKS_ON * SMITHS )
MGRS ← π Lname , Dnumber ( EMPLOYEE
Ssn = Mgr_ssn DEPARTMENT )
SMITH_MANAGED_DEPTS ( Dnum ) ← π Dnumber ( σ Lname = ‘Smith’ ( MGRS ))
SMITH_MGR_PROJS ( Pno ) ← π Pnumber ( SMITH_MANAGED_DEPTS * PROJECT )
RESULT ← ( SMITH_WORKER_PROJS ∪ SMITH_MGR_PROJS )

Mapping Conceptual design into a relational mapping

Relational Database Design Using ER-to-Relational Mapping

In this section we describe the steps of an algorithm for ER-to-relational mapping.

We use the COMPANY database example to illustrate the mapping procedure. The COMPANY
ER schema is shown again in Figure 9.1, and the corresponding COMPANY relational database
schema is shown in Figure 9.2 to illustrate the mapping steps

Step 1: Mapping of Regular Entity Types.

Step 2: Mapping of Weak Entity Types.

Step 3: Mapping of Binary 1:1 Relationship Types

Step 4: Mapping of Binary 1:N Relationship Types

Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship Types.

Step 6: Mapping of Multivalued Attributes.

Step 7: Mapping of N-ary Relationship Types

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SQL
 The name SQL stands for Structured Query Language.
 The SQL language may be considered as one of the major reasons for the success of relational
databases in the commercial world.
 SQL is a comprehensive database language because

 It has statements for data definition ,database construction and database manipulation
 It does automatic query optimizations
 It has facilities for defining views on the database
 It has facilities for specifying security and authorization
 It has facilities for defining integrity constraints
 It has facilities for specifying transaction controls
 It also has rules for embedding SQL statements into a general-purpose programming language
such as Java or COBOL or C/C

3.1 SQL DATA DEFINITION AND DATA TYPES:

 SQL uses the terms table, row, and column for the formal relational model terms relation,
tuple, and attribute, respectively.

 The SQL command for data definition is the CREATE statement, which can be used to
create schemas, tables (relations), and domains as well as other constructs such as views,
assertions, and triggers.

3.1.1 Schema and Catalog Concepts in SQL:

 The database schema concept can be used to group together tables and other constructs that
belong to the same database application.

 An SQL schema is identified by a schema name, and includes an authorization identifier to

indicate the user or account who owns the schema, as well as descriptors for each element in
the schema.

 Schema elements include tables, constraints, views, domains, and other constructs (such as
authorization grants) that describe the schema.

 A schema is created via the CREATE SCHEMA statement, which can include all the
schema elements' definitions.

 The schema can be assigned a name and authorization identifier, and the elements can be
defined later.

 For example, the following statement creates a schema called COMPANY, owned by the
user with authorization identifier SMITH:

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CREATE SCHEMA COMPANY AUTHORIZATION SMITH;

 In general, not all users are authorized to create schemas and schema elements. The
privilege to create schemas, tables, and other constructs must be explicitly granted to the
relevant user accounts by the system administrator or DBA.

 SQL2 uses the concept of a catalog - a named collection of schemas in an SQL

environment.
 A catalog always contains a special schema called INFORMATION_SCHEMA, which
provides information on all the schemas in the catalog and all the element descriptors in these
schemas.

 Integrity constraints such as referential integrity can be defined between relations only if
they exist in schemas within the same catalog.

3.1.2 The CREATE TABLE Command in SQL:

 The CREATE TABLE command is used to specify a new table by giving it a name and
specifying its attributes and initial constraints.

 The attributes are specified first, and each attribute is given a name, a data type to specify its
domain of values, and any attribute constraints, such as NOT NULL.

 The key, entity integrity, and referential integrity constraints can be specified within the
CREATE TABLE statement after the attributes are declared, or they can be added later using
the ALTER TABLE command.

 We can explicitly attach the schema name to the relation name, separated by a period.

CREATE TABLE COMPANY. EMPLOYEE...

rather than

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE …

 The relations declared through CREATE TABLE statements are called “base tables” or base
relations; this means that the relation and its rows are actually created and stored as a file by
the DBMS.

 Base relations are distinguished from “virtual relations”, created through the CREATE
VIEW statement, which may or may not correspond to an actual physical file.

 In SQL the attributes in a base table are considered to be ordered in the sequence in which
they are specified in the CREATE TABLE statement. However, rows are not considered to
be ordered within a table.

Figure 8.1 shows sample data definition statements in SQL for the COMPANY database.

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3.1.3 Attribute Data Types and Domains in SQL:

The basic data types available for attributes include numeric, character string, bit string,
boolean, date, and time.

a) Numeric data types include:

 integer numbers of various sizes (INTEGER or INT, and SMALLINT).

 floating-point (real) numbers of various precision (FLOAT or REALand DOUBLE

PRECISION).

 Formatted numbers which can be declared by using DECIMAL(i,j)or DEC(i,j) or

NUMERIC(i,j)-where i, the precision, is the total number of decimal digits and j, the scale, is
the number of digits after the decimal point. The default for scale is zero, and the default for
precision is implementation-defined.

b) Character-string data types are either:

 fixed length--CHAR(n) or CHARACTER(n), where n is the number of characters.

 varying length-VARCHAR(n) or CHAR VARYING(n) or CHARACTER VARYING(n),

where n is the maximum number of characters.

 When specifying a literal string value, it is placed between single quotation marks
(apostrophes), and it is case sensitive (a distinction is made between uppercase and
lowercase.

 For fixed-length strings, a shorter string is padded with blank characters to the right.

For example, if the value 'Smith' is for an attribute of type CHAR(10), it is padded with five
blank characters to become 'Smith ' if needed.

 Padded blanks are generally ignored when strings are compared. For comparison purposes,
strings are considered ordered in alphabetic order;

 If a string str1 appears before another string str2 in alphabetic order, then str1 is considered
to be less than str2.
 There is also a concatenation operator denoted by || (doublevertical bar) that can
concatenate two strings in SQL.

For example, 'abc' || 'XYZ' results in a single string 'abcXYZ'.

c) Bit-string data types are either of fixed length -BIT(n) or varying length-BIT VARYING(n),
where ‘n’ is the maximum number of bits.

 The default for ‘n’, the length of a character string or bit string, is 1.
 Literal bit strings are placed between single quotes but preceded by a B to distinguish them
from character strings; For example, B'10101

d) A Boolean data type has the traditional values of TRUE or FALSE in SQL.

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 Because of the presence of NULL values, a three-valued logic is used, so a third possible
value for a boolean data type is UNKNOWN.

e) New data types for date and time were added in SQL2.

 The DATE data type has ten positions, and its components are YEAR, MONTH, and DAY in
the form YYYY-MM-DD.

 The TIME data type has at least eight positions, with the components HOUR, MINUTE,and
SECOND in the form HH:MM:SS.

 The < (less than) comparison can be used with dates or times-an earlier date is considered
to be smaller than a later date, and similarly with time.

 Literal values are represented by single-quoted strings preceded by the keyword DATE or
TIME;

For example, DATE '2002-09-27' or TIME '09: 12:47'.

f) A timestamp data type (TIMESTAMP) includes both the DATE and TIME fields, plus a
minimum of six positions for decimal fractions of seconds.

 Literal values are represented by single-quoted strings preceded by the keyword

TIMESTAMP, with a blank space between data and time;

For example, TIMESTAMP'2002-09-27 09:12:47 648302'.

g) Another data type related to DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP is the INTERVAL data type.

 This specifies an interval-a “relative value” that can be used to increment or decrement an
absolute value of a date, time, or timestamp.

 Intervals are qualified to be either YEAR/MONTH intervals or DAY/TIME intervals.

Domain
 It is possible to specify the data type of each attribute directly, as in Figure 8.1;
 A domain can be declared, and the domain name can be used with the attribute
specification.

For example, we can create a domain SSN_TYPE by the following statement:

CREATE DOMAIN SSN_TYPE AS CHAR(9);

We can use SSN_TYPE in place of CHAR(9) in Figure 8.1 for the attributes SSN and SUPERSSN of
EMPLOYEE, MGRSSN of DEPARTMENT, ESSN of WORKS_ON, and ESSN of DEPENDENT.

3.2 SPECIFYING CONSTRAINTS IN SQL:

Basic constraints can be specified in SQL as part of table creation. These include:

 key and referential integrity constraints

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 restrictions on attribute domains and NULLs

 constraints on individual tuples(rows) within a relation.

3.2.1 Specifying Attribute Constraints and Attribute Defaults:

 Because SQL allows NULLs as attribute values, a constraint NOT NULL may be specified
if NULL is not permitted for a particular attribute.

 NOT NULL is always implicitly specified for the attributes that are part of the primary key
of each relation, but it can be specified for any other attributes whose values are required not
to be NULL, as shown in Figure 8.1.

 It is also possible to define a default value for an attribute by appending the clause

DEFAULT <value> to an attribute definition.

 The default value is included in any new tuple if an explicit value is not provided for that
attribute. Figure 8.2 illustrates examples of specifying a default values to various attributes.

 If no default clause is specified, the default value is NULL for attributes that do not have
the NOT NULL constraint.

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 Another type of constraint can restrict attribute or domain values using the CHECK clause
following an attribute or domain definition.

 For example, suppose that department numbers are restricted to integer numbers between 1
and 20; then, we can change the attribute declaration of DNUMBER in the DEPARTMENT
table (see Figure 8.1) to the following:

DNUMBER INT NOT NULL CHECK (DNUMBER > 0 AND DNUMBER < 21);

 The CHECK clause can also be used in conjunction with the CREATE DOMAIN statement.

 For example, we can write the following statement:

CREATE DOMAIN D_NUM AS INTEGER CHECK (D_NUM > 0 AND D_NUM < 21);

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We can then use the created domain D_NUM as the attribute type for all attributes that refer to
department numbers in Figure 8.1, such as DNUMBER of DEPARTMENT, DNUM of PROJECT,
DNO of EMPLOYEE, and so on.

3.2.2 Specifying Key and Referential Integrity Constraints:

 The PRIMARY KEY clause specifies one or more attributes that make up the primary key of
a relation.

 If a primary key has a single attribute, the clause can follow the attribute directly. For
example, the primary key of DEPARTMENT can be specified as follows

DNUMBER INT PRIMARY KEY;

 The UNIQUE clause specifies alternate (secondary) keys, as illustrated in the

DEPARTMENT and PROJECT table declarations in Figure 8.1.

 Referential integrity is specified via the FOREIGN KEY clause

 A referential integrity constraint is violated when rows are inserted or deleted, or when a
foreign key or primary key attribute value is modified.

 The default action that SQL takes for an integrity violation is to reject the update operation
that will cause a violation.

 However, the schema designer can specify an alternative action to be taken if a referential
integrity constraint is violated, by attaching a referential triggered action clause to any
foreign key constraint.

 The options include SET NULL, CASCADE, and SET DEFAULT. An option must be
qualified with either ON DELETE or ON UPDATE as shown in figure 8.2.

 We illustrate this with the examples shown in Figure 8.2. Here, the database designer chooses
SET NULL ON DELETE and CASCADE ON UPDATE for the foreign key SUPERSSN of
EMPLOYEE (Figure 8.3)

This means that if the row for a supervising employee is deleted, the value of SUPERSSN is
automatically set to NULL for all employee rows that were referencing the deleted employee tuple.
On the other hand, if the SSN value for a supervising employee is updated (say, because it was
entered incorrectly), the new value is cascaded to SUPERSSN for all employee tuples referencing the
updated employee tuple.

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Figure 8.3: One possible database state for the COMPANY database

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3.2.3 Giving Names to Constraints:

 Figure 8.2 also illustrates how a constraint may be given a constraint name, following the
keyword CONSTRAINT. The names of all constraints within a particular schema must be
unique.

 A constraint name is used to identify a particular constraint in case the constraint must be
dropped later and replaced with another constraint. Giving names to constraints is optional.

3.2.4 Specifying Constraints on Tuples Using CHECK:

 In addition to key and referential integrity constraints, which are specified by special
keywords, other table constraints can be specified through additional CHECK clauses at the
end of a CREATE TABLE statement.

 These can be called tuple-based constraints because they apply to each tuple individually
and are checked whenever a tuple is inserted or modified.

 For example, suppose that the DEPARTMENT table in Figure 8.1 had an additional attribute
DEPT_CREATE_DATE, which stores the date when the department was created. Then we
could add the following CHECK clause at the end of the CREATE TABLE statement for the
DEPARTMENT table to make sure that a manager's start date is greater than the department
creation date:

CHECK (DEPT_CREATE_DATE < MGRSTARTDATE);

3.3 Retrieval Queries in SQL:

SQL has one basic statement for retrieving information from a database: the SELECT

statement.

3.3.1 The SELECT-FROM-WHERE Structure of Basic SQL Queries:

The basic form of the SELECT statement, sometimes called a mapping or a select- from-
where block, is formed of the three clauses SELECT, FROM, and WHERE and has the following
form:

SELECT <attribute list> FROM <table list> WHERE <condition>;

Where

 <attribute list> is a list of attribute names whose values are to be retrieved by the query.
 <table list> is a list of the relation names required to process the query.

 <condition> is a conditional (Boolean) expression that identifies the tuples to be retrieved by

the query.

 In SQL, the basic logical comparison operators for comparing attribute values with one
another and with literal constants are =, <, <=, >, >=, and <>.
 These correspond to the relational algebra operators =, <, ~, >, ~, and *, respectively, and to
the c{c++ programming language operators =, <, <=, >, >=, and !=.

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Examples:

This query involves only the EMPLOYEE relation listed in the FROM clause. The query selects the
EMPLOYEE tuples that satisfy the condition of the WHERE clause, then projects the result on the
BDATE and ADDRESS attributes listed in the SELECT clause.

Figure 8.3a shows the result of query QO.

The result of query Ql is shown in Figure 8.3b

 The condition DNUM = DNUMBER relates a project to its controlling department.

 The condition MGRSSN = SSN relates the controlling department to the employee who
manages that department.
 The condition PLOCATION='Stafford' selects the specified project location.

The result of query Q2 is shown in Figure 8.3c.

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3.3.2 Ambiguous Attribute Names, Aliasing, and Tuple Variables:

 In SQL the same name can be used for two (or more) attributes as long as the attributes are
in different relations.

 If this is the case, and if a query refers to two or more attributes with the same name, we
must qualify the attribute name with the relation name to prevent ambiguity.

 This is done by prefixing the relation name to the attribute name and separating the two by
a period.

To illustrate this, suppose that the DNO and LNAME attributes of the EMPLOYEE relation were
called DNUMBER and NAME, and the DNAME attribute of DEPARTMENT was also called
NAME; then, to prevent ambiguity. Query Ql would be rephrased as shown in QIA.

 Ambiguity also arises in the case of queries that refer to the same relation twice, as in the
following example:

 In this case, we are allowed to declare alternative relation names E and S, called “aliases” or
“tuple variables”, for the EMPLOYEE relation.
 An alias can follow the keyword AS, as shown in Q8, or it can directly follow the relation
name-for example, by writing EMPLOYEE E, EMPLOYEE S in the FROM clause of Q8.

 It is also possible to rename the relation attributes within the query in SQL by giving them
aliases.

 For example, if we write EMPLOYEE AS E(FN, MI, LN, SSN, SD, ADDR, SEX, SAL,
SSSN, DNO) in the FROM clause, FN becomes an alias for FNAME, MI for MINH, LN for
LNAME, and so on.

In Q8, we can think of E and S as two different copies of the EMPLOYEE relation;

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 The first, E represents employees in the role of supervisees

 The second, S, represents employees in the role of supervisors. The result of query Q8 is
shown in Figure 8.3d.

Whenever one or more aliases are given to a relation, we can use these names to represent different
references to that relation. This permits multiple references to the same relation within a query. We
could specify query Q1A as in Q1B:

3.3.3 Unspecified WHERE Clause and Use of the Asterisk:

 A missing WHERE clause indicates no condition on tuple selection; hence, all tuples of the
relation specified in the FROM clause qualify and are selected for the query result.

 If more than one relation is specified in the FROM clause and there is no WHERE clause,
then the CROSS PRODUCT-all possible tuple combinations-of these relations is selected.

 For example, Query 9 selects all EMPLOYEE SSNS (Figure 8.3e), and Query 10 selects all
combinations of an EMPLOYEE SSN and a DEPARTMENT DNAME (Figure 8.3f).

 It is extremely important to specify every selection and join condition in the WHERE
clause; if any such condition is overlooked then incorrect and very large relations may result.

 To retrieve all the attribute values of the selected tuples, we do not have to list the attribute
names explicitly in SQL; we just specify an asterisk (*), which stands for all the attributes.

 Query Q1C retrieves all the attribute values of any EMPLOYEE who works in
DEPARTMENT number 5 (Figure 8.3g)

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 Query Q1D retrieves all the attributes of an EMPLOYEE and the attributes of the
DEPARTMENT in which he or she works the 'Research' department.

 Query Ql0A specifies the CROSS PRODUCT of the EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT
relations.

3.3.4 Tables as Sets in SQL:

 An SQL table with a key is restricted to being a set, since the key value must be distinct in
each tuple.

 SQL usually treats a table not as a set but rather as a multiset;

 Duplicate tuples can appear more than once in a table, and in the result of a query.

 SQL does not automatically eliminate duplicate tuples in the results of queries, for the
following reasons:

 Duplicate elimination is an expensive operation. One way to implement it is to sort the tuples
first and then eliminate duplicates.

 The user may want to see duplicate tuples in the result of a query.

 When an aggregate function (SUM,MAX,MIN,AVG) is applied to tuples, in most cases we

do not want to eliminate duplicates.

 If we do want to eliminate duplicate tuples from the result of an SQL query, we use the
keyword DISTINCT in the SELECT clause, meaning that only distinct tuples should remain
in the result.

 In general, a query with SELECT DISTINCT eliminates duplicates, whereas a query with
SELECT ALL does not.

 Specifying SELECT with neither ALL nor DISTINCT-as in our previous examples-is
Equivalent to SELECT ALL.

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 Query 11 retrieves the salary of every employee; if several employees have the same
salary, that salary value will appear as many times in the result of the query, as shown in
Figure 8.4(a).

 By using the keyword DISTINCT as in Q11A, we get only the distinct salary values , as
shown in Figure 8.4(b).

 SQL has directly incorporated some of the set operations of relational algebra.

 There is set union (UNION) operation

 There is set difference (EXCEPT) operation

 And there is set intersection (INTERSECT) operation

 The relations resulting from these set operations are sets of tuples; that is, duplicate tuples are
eliminated from the result.

 Because these set operations apply only to union-compatible relations, we must make sure
that the two relations on which we apply the operation have the same attributes and that the
attributes appear in the same order in both relations.

 The following example illustrates the use of UNION.

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 The first SELECT query retrieves the projects that involve a 'Smith' as manager of the
department that controls the project

 The second SELECT retrieves the projects that involve a 'Smith' as a worker on the project.

 Applying the UNION operation to the two SELECT queries gives the desired result.

Figure 8.5 illustrates the other multiset operations

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3.3.5 Sub-string Pattern Matching and Arithmetic Operators:

 SQL allows comparison conditions on only parts of a character string, using the LIKE

comparison operator.

 This can be used for string pattern matching.

Partial strings are specified using two reserved characters: % replaces an arbitrary number of zero or
more characters and the underscore( _ )replaces a single character.

 To retrieve all employees who were born during the 1950s, we can use Query 12A. Here,
'5' must be the third character of the string (according to our format for date), so we use the
value ' 5 ', with each underscore serving as a placeholder for an arbitrary character.

 If an underscore or % is needed as a literal character in the string, the character should be

preceded by an escape character, which is specified after the string using the keyword
ESCAPE.

For example, 'AB\_CD\%EF' ESCAPE '\' represents the literal string AB_CD%EF', because \ is
specified as the escape character. Any character not used in the string can be chosen as the escape
character.

 If an apostrophe (') is needed, it is represented as two consecutive apostrophes (") so that it

will not be interpreted as ending the string.

 The standard arithmetic operators for addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and
division (/) can be applied to numeric values or attributes with numeric domains.

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 For string data types, the concatenate operator ‘||’ can be used in a query to append two
string values.

 For date, time, timestamp, and interval data types, operators include incrementing (+) or
decrementing (-) a date, time, or timestamp by an interval.

 Another comparison operator that can be used for convenience is BETWEEN, which is
illustrated in Query 14.

3.3.6 Ordering of Query Results:

 SQL allows the user to order the tuples in the result of a query by the values of one or more
attributes, using the ORDER BY clause.

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 The default order is in ascending order of values.

 We can specify the keyword DESC if we want to see the result in a descending order of
values.

3.4. INSERT, DELETE, AND UPDATE STATEMENTS IN SQL:

In SQL, three commands can be used to modify the database: INSERT, DELETE, and
UPDATE. We discuss each of these in turn.

3.4.1 The INSERT Command:

 In its simplest form, INSERT is used to add a single tuple to a relation. We must specify the
relation name and a list of values for the tuple.

 The values should be listed in the same order in which the corresponding attributes were
specified in the CREATE TABLE command.

 For example, to add a new tuple to the EMPLOYEE relation, we can use U1:

 A second form of the INSERT statement allows the user to specify explicit attribute names
that correspond to the values provided in the INSERT command.
 This is useful if a relation has many attributes but only a few of those attributes are to be
assigned values in the new tuple.
 However, the values must include all attributes with NOT NULL specification and no default
value.
 Attributes with NULL allowed or DEFAULT values are the ones that can be left out.

 For example, to enter a tuple for a new EMPLOYEE for whom we know only the

FNAME, LNAME, DNO, and SSN attributes, we can use U1A:

U1A: INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE (FNAME, LNAME, DNO , SSN)

VALUES (Richard, Marini, ‘4’ , ‘653298653’)

Attributes not specified in UlA are set to their DEFAULT or to NULL.

 It is also possible to insert into a relation multiple tuples separated by commas in a single
INSERT command. The attribute values forming each tuple are enclosed in parentheses.

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INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES ( ('Richard', 'K', 'Marini', '653298653', '1962-12-30',

'98 Oak Forest,Katy,TX', 'M', 7000, '987654321', 4) , ('Roy', ‘J',

'Mathews', '653298654', '1968-11-23', '94 Fulkerson,NY', 'M', 9000, '987664351', 5) );

 A DBMS that fully implements SQL-99 should support and enforce all the integrity
constraints that can be specified in the DDL. However, some DBMSs do not incorporate all
the constraints (like referential integrity), in order to maintain the efficiency of the DBMS and
because of the complexity of enforcing all constraints.

 If a system does not support some constraint, the users or programmers must enforce the
constraint.

 For example, if we issue the command in U2 on the database shown in Table 5.1, a DBMS
not supporting referential integrity will do the insertion even though no DEPARTMENT
tuple exists in the database with DNUMBER = 2.

 It is the responsibility of the user to check that any such constraints whose checks are not
implemented by the DBMS are not violated.
 A single INSERT command can be used for inserting multiple tuples into a relation in
conjunction with creating the relation and loading the relation with the result of a query.

 For example, to create a temporary table DEPT_NAME that has the name, number of
employees, and total salaries for each department, we can write the statements in U3A and

U3B:

 We can now query DEPTS_INFO as we would any other relation; when we do not need it any
more, we can remove it by using the DROP TABLE command.

3.4.2 The DELETE Command:

 The DELETE command removes tuples from a relation

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 It includes a WHERE clause to select the tuples to be deleted. Tuples are explicitly deleted
from only one table at a time.

 However, the deletion may propagate to tuples in other relations if referential triggered
actions are specified in the referential integrity constraints of the DDL.

 Depending on the number of tuples selected by the condition in the WHERE clause, zero,
one, or several tuples can be deleted by a single DELETE command.

 A missing WHERE clause specifies that all tuples in the relation are to be deleted; however,
the table remains in the database as an empty table.

 The DELETE commands in U4A to U4D, if applied independently to the database of Table
5.1, will delete zero, one, four, and all tuples, respectively, from the EMPLOYEE relation:

3.4.3 The UPDATE Command:

 The UPDATE command is used to modify attribute values of one or more selected
tuples.

 As in the DELETE command, a WHERE clause in the UPDATE command selects the
tuples to be modified from a single relation.

 However, updating a primary key value may propagate to the foreign key values of
tuples in other relations if such a referential triggered action is specified in the
referential integrity constraints of the DDL.

 An additional SET clause in the UPDATE command specifies the attributes to be

modified and their new values.

 For example, to change the location and controlling department number of project
number 10 to 'Bellaire' and 5, respectively, we use U5:

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 Several tuples can be modified with a single UPDATE command.

 Example to give all employees in the 'Research' department a 10 percent rise in salary

3.5 ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF SQL:

 SQL has the capability to specify more general constraints, called assertions, using the
CREATE ASSERTION statement.

 SQL has language constructs for specifying views, also known as virtual tables, using
the CREATE VIEW statement. Views are derived from the base tables declared
through the CREATE TABLE statement.

 SQL has several different techniques for writing programs in various programming
languages that can include SQL statements to access one or more databases. These
include embedded SQL, dynamic SQL SQL/CLI (Call Language Interface) and its
predecessor ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity), and SQL/PSM (Program Stored
Modules).

 Each commercial RDBMS will have, in addition to the SQL commands, a set of
commands for specifying physical database design parameters, file structures for
relations, and access paths such as indexes. We call these commands a storage
definition language (SDL).

 SQL has transaction control commands. These are used to specify units of database
processing for concurrency control and recovery purposes.

 SQL has language constructs for specifying the granting and revoking of privileges to
users. Privileges typically correspond to the right to use certain SQL commands to
access certain relations. Each relation is assigned an owner, and either the owner or
the DBA staff can grant to selected users the privilege to use an SQL statement-such
as SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, or UPDATE-to access the relation. In addition, the
DBA staff can grant the privileges to create schemas, tables, or views to certain users.
These SQL commands-called GRANT and REVOKE.

 SQL has language constructs for creating Triggers. These are generally referred to as
active database techniques, since they specify actions that are automatically triggered
by events such as database updates.

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 SQL has incorporated many features from object-oriented models to have more
powerful capabilities, leading to enhanced relational systems known as object-
relational. Capabilities such as creating complex-structured attributes (also called
nested relations), specifying abstract data types (called DDTs or user-defined types)
for attributes and tables, creating object identifiers for referencing tuples, and
specifying operations on these types.
 SQL and relational databases can interact with new technologies such as XML
(eXtended Markup Language) and OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing for Data
Warehouses).

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