Lecture 3.

Relational Data
Model
(Chapter 5)
[email protected]
Outline
• From Conceptual Models to Physical Models (ER to Relational Model)
• Relational Model Concepts
• Relational Model Constraints and Relational Database Schemas
• Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint Violations

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 From ER (Conceptual model) to Relational
Model Name
Depart
mentID
Postal
Code Locations
Locations

Street
City
N Works 1 Number of
_for DEPARTMENT Employees
EmployeeID
Address

1 Mana N
EMPLOYEE ges
Start_
Date

Name Gender
N Works M
_on PROJECT
FirstName
LastName

Hours ProjectID
Name

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From ER (Conceptual model) to Relational
Model

ER Model

Relational Model

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From ER to the Relational Model
(Conventions)
EMPLOYEE
• Step 1 – Strong Entities
• Create a table that includes all the simple attributes
• Include only the simple components of composite attributes
• Choose a primary key
• Primary key is the column or columns that contain values that uniquely identify each row in table. Primary keys must contain
UNIQUE values, and cannot contain NULL values. The table can not have more then one primary key.

• Step 2 – Weak Entities DEPENDENT

EMPLOYEE
• Create a table that includes all the simple attributes
• Include the primary key from the owner entity, this will become a foreign key
• Foreign key is a column (or columns) in one table that refers to the primary key in another table.

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 From ER to the Relational Model (Conversion
Guide) 1 1
STUDENT has ID_CARD
• Step 3 – 1:1 Relations
• Choose one of the entities (right or left). It is better to choose the entity type with total participation
(double line)
• Copy the primary key from the first table into second table – it becomes a foreign key in the second
table
• Any attributes tied to the relationship goes to the table with the foreign key

EMPLOYEE 1 mana N DEPARTMENT

ges

• Step 4 – 1:N relations

• Choose the entity on the N-side and include copy of the primary key of the entity on the 1-side. The
column becomes a foreign key in the table on the N-side
• Any attributes tied to the relationship goes to the table with the foreign key

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 From ER to the Relational Model (Conversion
Guide) M N Works_
• Step 5 – N:M Relations EMPLOYEE on PROJECT

• Create a new table and include the primary keys from the two participating entities
• Both of these fields become foreign keys in the new table
• Any attributes tied to the relationship goes to the new table
• Step 6 – Multivalued Attributes Locations
Locations

• For each multivalued attribute (A) create a new table and move the attribute (A) to
this table
• Include the primary key form the entity that originally had (A) as an attribute
• The combination of these attributes will be the primary key of the new table
• Step 7 – Derived Attributes Number of
Employees

• Coded separately in SQL as a view. They are not an attributes in a relation table.

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Step 1 - Strong Entities (1)
Postal
Code

City Street

EmployeeID
Address

EMPLOYEE

Name Gender

FirstName
LastName

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Step 1 - Strong Entities (2)

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Step 2 – Relations (N:M)
N Works M
EMPLOYEE PROJECT
_on

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Step 3 –Relation (1:N)
1 Mana N
EMPLOYEE DEPARTMENT
ges

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Step 4 – Multivalued Attributes
Depart
Name mentID
Locations
Locations

DEPARTMENT

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Step 3 – Relation (N:1)

N Works 1
EMPLOYEE DEPARTMENT
_for

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Relation Model
Works_on

Works_on

Works_for

Manages

Note: this diagram does not show Cardinality of relationships

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Terminology

Informal (Casual) Formal (DBMS)

Table Relation
Columns/fields/column header Attributes
All possible column values Domain
Row/Rows Tuple/Tuples
Table definition Schema of relation
Populated Table State of relation

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Relational Data Model Concepts
• Relation data model is used for data storage and processing.
• A relation represented as a table with columns (or attributes) and rows (or
tuples)
• It is based on the mathematical concept of relation based on the idea of sets proposed by Dr.
E.F. Codd of IBM Research in 1970
• Relationships, defined as the associations or interactions between enitties
• The degree of relation refers to number of columns/attributes in the
table/relation
• Properties of a relation/table:
• Should have a distinct relation name (or table name)
• Each value attribute should contain exactly one value
• The attribute names should be distinct names
• Each tuple is distinct (no duplicate tuples)

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Example of Relation

Values inside of the table, called domains D

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Formal Definitions - Schema
• The Schema (or description) of a Relation:
• Denoted by R(A1, A2, .....An)
• R is the name of the relation
• The attributes of the relation are A1, A2, ..., An
• Example:
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone)
• CUSTOMER is the relation name
• Defined over the four attributes: Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone
• Each attribute has a domain or a set of valid values.
• For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.

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Formal Definitions - Tuple
• A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled brackets ‘< … >’)
• Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
• A row in the CUSTOMER relation (or table) is a tuple and would consist of four
values, for example:
• <632895, "John Smith", "101 Main St. Atlanta, GA 30332", "(404) 894-2000">
• This is called a tuple (row) as it has 4 values
• A tuple (row) in the CUSTOMER relation (table).
• A relation (table) is a set of such tuples (rows)

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Formal Definitions - Domain
• A domain is a set of acceptable values that an attribute is allowed to contain
Examples:
• “Swedish_phone_numbers” are the set of 11 digit phone numbers including country code.
• Swedish Personal Number. The set of valid 12 digits personal numbers
• Grade_points. Possible values for grade A (95-100 points), for grade B (86-94), etc.
• Marital Status has a set of possible values: {Married, Single, Divorced..}

• A domain also has a data-type or a format defined for it.

• The Swedish_phone_numbers may have a format: “(+dd)dd-ddd dd dd” where each d is a decimal digit.
• Dates have various formats such as year, month, date formatted as yyyy-mm-dd, or as dd.mm.yyyy
etc.
• It is possible for several attributes to have the same domain:
• Example: Invoice_Date, Order_Date, Shipment_Date can have the same domain type (Date) and the same format (yy-mm-
dd)

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NULL values
• A NULL is a special symbol, independent of data type, which means
either unknown or inapplicable. It does not mean zero or blank.
• Can represent:
• An unknown attribute value
• A known, but missing, attribute value
• A not applicable value
• Issues with NULL values:
• Can create problems when functions such as COUNT, AVERAGE, SUM are used
• Can create logical problems when relational tales are linked/connected
NOTE: The result of a comparison operation is null when either argument is null. The result
of an arithmetic operation is null when either argument is null (except functions that ignore
nulls).

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Characteristics Of Relations
• Ordering of tuples in a relation r(R):
• The tuples are not considered to be ordered, even though they appear to be in the tabular form.
• Ordering of attributes in a relation schema R (and of values within each tuple):
• We will consider the attributes in R(A1, A2, ..., An) and the values in t=<v1, v2, ..., vn> to be ordered .
• The ordering of values in a tuple in relation schema is important
• However, a more general alternative definition of relation does not require this ordering. It includes both the name and the
value for each of the attributes :
• Example: t= { <name, “John” >, <SSN, 123456789> }
• Values in a tuple:
• All values are considered atomic (indivisible) or Simple type. Composite and multi-valued attributes are not
allowed in relation model. Multivalued attributes must be presented by separate relations ( and/or weak
entities), and composite attributes are represented only by their simple component attributes.
• Each value in a tuple must be from the domain of the attribute for that column
• If tuple t = <v1, v2, …, vn> is a tuple (row) in the relation state r of R(A1, A2, …, An)
• Then each vi must be a value from dom(Ai)

• A special null value is used to represent values that are unknown or not available or inapplicable in certain
tuples.
• During database design, it is best to avoid NULL values as much as possible

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CONSTRAINTS
Constraints determine which values are permissible and which are not in the database.
There are of three main types:
1. Inherent or Implicit Constraints: These are based on the data model itself.
For example: relational model does not allow a list as a value for any attribute, the
table names are unique, no duplicated tuples in a table, the primary key can not be NULL.
2. Schema-based or Explicit Constraints: They are expressed in the schema by using the
facilities provided by the model.
For example: max. cardinality ratio constraint in the ER model, key constrains,
constrains on NULLs
3. Application based or semantic constraints: These are beyond the expressive power of
the model and must be specified and enforced by the application programs.

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Relational Integrity Constraints
• Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid relation states.
• There are three main types of (explicit schema-based) constraints that can be
expressed in the relational model:
• Domain constraints
• Key constraints
• Entity integrity constraints
• Referential integrity constraints

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Domain Constraints
• Every value in a tuple must be from the domain of its attribute (or it
could be null, if allowed for that attribute)
• Domain constraints specify that within each tuple, the value of each
attribute A must be an atomic value from the domain dom(A):
• Standard numeric data types for integers (short integer, integer, long integer)
• And real numbers (float and double-precision float)
• Characters, Booleans, fixed-length strings, date, time, timestamp,
enumerated data type, a subrange of values, etc.

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Key Constraints (1)
• Superkey of R:
• Is a set of attributes SK of R with the following condition:
• No two tuples in any valid relation state r(R) will have the same value for SK
• That is, for any distinct tuples t1 and t2 in r(R), t1[SK] ¹ t2[SK]
• This condition must hold in any valid state r(R)
• Key of R:
• A "minimal" superkey is a superkey K such that removal of any attribute from K
results in a set of attributes that is not a superkey (does not possess the superkey
uniqueness property)
• Any superkey formed from a single attribute is also a key. A key with multiple attributes must
require all its attributes together to have the uniqueness property.

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Key Constraints (2)
• Example: Consider the CAR relation schema:
• CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year)
• CAR has two keys:
• Key1 = {SerialNo, Reg#}
• Key2 = {SerialNo}.
• Both are also superkeys of CAR
• {SerialNo, Reg#} is a superkey but not a key.
• In general:
• Any key is a superkey (but not vice versa)
• Any set of attributes that includes a key is a superkey
• A minimal superkey is also a key

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Key Constraints (3)
• If a relation has several superkeys they called a candidate keys, one is chosen
arbitrarily to be the primary key.
• The primary key attributes are underlined.
• Example: Consider the CAR relation schema:
• CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year)
• We chose SerialNo as the primary key
• The primary key value is used to uniquely identify each tuple in a relation
• Provides the tuple identity
• Also used to reference the tuple from another tuple
• General rule: Choose as primary key the smallest of the candidate keys (in terms of
size of attributes)
• Not always applicable – choice is sometimes subjective

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CAR table with two candidate keys –
LicenseNumber chosen as Primary Key

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Referential Integrity
• The referential integrity is specified between the two relations
(tables) is used to maintain the consistency among tuples in the two
relations (tables).
• A set of of attributes FK in relation schema R1 is a foreign key of R1
that references relation R2 if it is satisfies the following rules:
• The attributes in FK have the same domain(s) as the primary key attributes PK
of R2;
• A value of FK in a tuple t1 can occurs as a value of PK for some tuple t2 or is
NULL.

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PK and FK

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Update Operations on Relations
• INSERT a tuple.
• DELETE a tuple.
• MODIFY a tuple.
• Integrity constraints should not be violated by the update operations.
• Several update operations may have to be grouped together.
• Updates may propagate to cause other updates automatically. This
may be necessary to maintain integrity constraints.
• Note: whenever we apply the above operations to the relational
table, the constrains should not get violated
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Update Operations on Relations (Tables)
• In case of integrity violation, several actions can be taken:
• Cancel the operation that causes the violation (RESTRICT or REJECT option)
• Perform the operation but inform the user of the violation
• Trigger additional updates so the violation is corrected (CASCADE option, SET
NULL option)
• Execute a user-specified error-correction routine

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Possible violations for each operation
• INSERT may violate any of the constraints:
• Domain constraint:
• if one of the attribute values provided for the new tuple is not of the specified attribute
domain (e,g., we insert value 15 for employee’s age attribute which should not be less
than 16)
• Key constraint:
• if the value of a key attribute in the new tuple already exists in another tuple in the
relation
• Referential integrity:
• if a foreign key value in the new tuple references a primary key value that does not exist
in the referenced relation
• Entity integrity:
• if the primary key value is null in the new tuple

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Examples INSERT operation violated
• Operation 1:
• Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, NULL, ‘2000-04-05’, ‘Linnea gatan 1, 355 63 Växjö’>
• Result: this insertion violates the entity integrity constrain (NULL for the personal number), so it is rejected.
• Operation 2:
• Insert <‘’Alicia’, ‘J’, ‘Zelaya’, ‘123456789’, ‘Linnea gatan 1, 355 63 Växjö’>
• Result: This insertion violates the key constrain because another tuple (row) with the same personal number
value already exists in the EMPLOYEE table, so it is rejected
• Operation 3
• Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, NULL, ‘2000-04-05’, ‘Linnea gatan 1, 355 63 Växjö’, 7>
• Result: This insertion violates the referential integrity constrain specified on Dno in EMPLOYEE because no
corresponding referenced tuple exists in DEPARTMENT with Dnumber = 7. So it is rejected
• Operation 4:
• Insert <‘Cecilia’, ‘F’, ‘Kolonsky’, ‘20000334-2389’, ‘2000-04-05’, ‘Linnea gatan 1, 355 63 Växjö’>
• Result: This insertion violates the domain constrain on personal number because the birth day 34 can not be
specified in personal number format ‘’yyyymmdd-dddd’

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Company Database
Example

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Possible violations for each operation
• DELETE may violate only referential integrity:
• If the primary key value of the tuple being deleted is referenced from other tuples in
the database
• Can be remedied by several actions: RESTRICT, CASCADE, SET NULL (see Chapter 6 for
more details)
• RESTRICT option: reject the deletion
• CASCADE option: propagate the new primary key value into the foreign keys of the
referencing tuples
• SET NULL option: set the foreign keys of the referencing tuples to NULL
• One of the above options must be specified during database design for each foreign
key constraint

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Examples DELETE Violations
• Operation 1:
• Delete the WORKS_ON tuple with Esnn = ‘999887777’ and Pno=10
• Result: This deletion is acceptable and deletes exactly one tuple
• Operation 2:
• 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. Solution: use CASCADE option
• Operation 3:
• Delete the EMLOYEE tuple with Ssn=‘333445555’
• Result: This deletion will result in even worse referential integrity violations, because
the tuple involved in referenced by tuples from the EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT,
WORKS_ON, and DEPENDENT relations. Solution: use CASCADE option

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Possible violations for each operation
• UPDATE may violate domain constraint and NOT NULL constraint on an attribute
being modified
• Any of the other constraints may also be violated, depending on the attribute
being updated:
• Updating the primary key (PK):
• Similar to a DELETE followed by an INSERT
• Need to specify similar options to DELETE
• Updating a foreign key (FK):
• May violate referential integrity. Solution: use CASCADE option on UPDATE
• Updating an ordinary attribute (neither PK nor FK):
• Can only violate domain constraints.

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Summary
• Presented Relational Model Concepts
• Definitions
• Characteristics of relations
• Discussed Relational Model Constraints and Relational Database Schemas
• Domain constraints
• Key constraints
• Entity integrity
• Referential integrity
• Described the Relational Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint
Violations

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Additional Video Tutorials
• Relation Data Model (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
CuY5ADwn24 )
• Relational Database Concepts
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvrpuBAMddw )

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Lecture 3 Key Terms/Concepts for the Exam
• Constraints determine which values are permissible and which are not in the database.
• NULL value: a special value, independent of data type, which means either unknown or inapplicable; it does
not mean zero or blank
• A domain is a set of acceptable values that an attribute is allowed to contain
• integrity constraints: logical statements that state what data values are or are not allowed and which format
is suitable for an attribute
• referential integrity: requires that a foreign key must have a matching primary key or it must be null
• Schema-based constrains: constrains that can be directly expressed in the schemas of the data model. They
are domain constraints, key constrains, constrains on NULL, integrity and referential integrity constraints
• Application-based constrains: Constraints that cannot be directly expressed in the schemas of the data
model, and hence must be expressed and enforced by the application programs

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Lecture 3 Key Terms/Concepts for the Exam

• A Superkey is a single key or a group of multiple keys that can uniquely identify tuples in a table.
Super keys can contain redundant attributes that might not be important for identifying tuples
• A key: an attribute or group of attributes whose values can be used to uniquely identify an
individual entity in an entity set
• A composite key: composed of two or more attributes, but it must be minimal
• A foreign key (FK): an attribute in a table that references the primary key in another table OR it
can be null
• A primary key is a minimal set of attribute (or set of attributes) that is used to uniquely identifies
all attributes in a relation
• Possible violations for UPDATE operation: key constrains, domain constrains
• Possible violations for INSERT operation: domain, key, integrity, and referential integrity
• Possible violations for DELETE operation: key constrains

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