3.

The Relational Model

3.1) Introduction to Relational Model

3.2) Integrity Constraints over Relations

3.3 ) Logical Database Design and View

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 The Relational Model

Objectives

1 To construct the relational model using SQL

2 To determine the keys on relations

3 To recognize integrity constraints ensure that changes

made to the database by authorized users do not
result in a loss of data consistency.

4 To convert the conceptual data model (ER schema) into a

relational database design.

5 To recognize the concepts of view

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 Introduction to Relational Model

Creating and Modifying Relations By Using SQL

 Relation

 data in the relational model

 consists of a relation schema and a relation instance. Table = relation

Row = tuples
 Relation instance
Column = attribute
 is a set of tuples ,also called records

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 Introduction to Relational Model
 Relational database

 a collection of relations with distinct relation names.

 Relation schema

 describes the column heads for the table

 Specifies the relation’s name, field‘s name and

the domain of each field.

 Must have a unique name.

 Every attribute value must be atomic .

 Every row must be unique

 The order of the columns must be irrelevant.

 The order of the rows must be irrelevant

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 Introduction to Relational Model

E.g;

 To create the Students relation,

CREATE TABLE Students ( sid CHAR(20),
name CHAR(30),
login CHAR(20),
age INTEGER,
gpa REAL);
 insert a single tuple into the Students table :
INSERT INTO Students (sid, name, login, age, gpa)
VALUES ( 53688, ‘Smith’, ‘smith@ee’, 18, 3.2);

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 Introduction to Relational Model

 Delete tuples :
DELETE
FROM Student
WHERE name=‘Smith’;
 Modify the column values in an existing row
UPDATE Students S
SET S.age=S.age +1, S.gpa=S.gpa-1
WHERE S.sid= 53688;

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 Introduction to Relational Model

Keys On Relations
 Avoids data entry errors

 one or more attributes that determine

other attributes.

 Each row in a table must be uniquely identifiable.

(1) Candidate Key
(2) Primary Key
(3) Foreign Key
(4) Alternate Key
(5) Composite Key
(6) Super Key
(7) Secondary Key

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 Introduction to Relational Model
Example

 Employee(EmployeeID, FullName, DatofBirth,SSN,

DeptNo)
(1) candidate key:(EmployeeID, SSN)
(2) Primary Key:(EmployeeID)
/* Employee ID is more perfectable choice.*/
(3) Foreign Key:(DeptNo)
(4) Alternate Key:(SSN)
(5)Composite Key :(FullName, Dateof Birth)
(6) Super Key:
EmployeeID (/* Minium Superkey*/)
(EmployeeID, FullName)
(EmployeeID, FullName, DatofBirth)
(EmployeeID, FullName, DatofBirth,SSN)
(EmployeeID, FullName, DatofBirth,SSN,DeptNo)
(7)Secondary Key:
(FullName, DatofBirth,SSN,DeptNo)
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 Introduction to Relational Model

Super Key  Any key that uniquely identifies each row

Candidate
 A super key without unnecessary attributes
Key

 A candidate key selected to uniquely

Primary identify all other attribute values in any
Key given row.
 Cannot contain null entries.
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 Introduction to Relational Model

Composite  Composed of more than one attribute

Key

Foreign key An attribute whose values match primary key

values in the related table

Secondary key Key used strictly for data retrieval purposes

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 3. The Relational Model

3.1) Introduction to Relational Model

3.2) Integrity Constraints over Relations

3.3) Logical Database Design and View

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

Integrity Constraints

 Avoids data entry errors

Primary Key  minimal subset of the fields of a

Constraints relation is a unique identifier for a tuple.
 Cannot contain null entries.

CREATE TABLE Student

( sid CHAR(20)
name CHAR(30),
login CHAR(20),
age INTEGER,
gpa REAL,
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PRIMARY KEY (sid))

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

Candidate  Possibly many candidate keys

Key (specified using UNIQUE), one of
Constraints
which is chosen as the primary key.

CREATE TABLE Student

( sid CHAR(20)
name CHAR(30),
login CHAR(20),
age INTEGER,
gpa REAL,
UNIQUE (name,age),
PRIMARY KEY (sid));

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

Foreign Keys, Referential

Integrity Constraints

CREATE TABLE Enrolled

(sid CHAR(20),
cid CHAR(20),
grade CHAR(2),
PRIMARY KEY (sid,cid),
FOREIGN KEY (sid) REFERENCES Students
FOREIGN KEY (cid) REFERENCES Courses)

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

The impact of foreign key constraints is more complex

when an insert, delete or update command causes a violation

to values that match primary key values in the related tables.
several alternative ways to handle foreign key violations.

4 options on deletes and updates.

1. Default is NO ACTION
 delete/update is rejected
2. CASCADE
 also delete all tuples that refer to deleted tuple
3. SET NULL
 sets foreign key value of referencing tuple

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4. SET DEFAULT
 sets foreign key value of referencing tuple
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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

CREATE TABLE Enrolled

(cid VARCHAR(20),
grade VARCHAR(2),
sid VARCHAR(10),
PRIMARY KEY (sid,cid),
FOREIGN KEY (sid) REFERENCES Students(sid),
FOREIGN KEY (cid) REFERENCES Courses(cid)
ON DELETE CASCADE
ON UPDATE CASCADE);

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations

General Constraints
 very useful in preventing data entry errors.
E.g student ages be within a certain range of
values; given such an IC specification,
 DBMS rejects inserts and updates that violate
the constraint.

illegal instance
legal instance

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 Integrity Constraints over Relations
Transactions and Constraints
 A transaction is any one execution of a user
program in a DBMS.

 can contain queries ,inserts ,updates ,etc.

 A constraint is checked at the end of every SQL

statement that could lead to a violation, the
statement is rejected.

E.g CREATE TABLE Student

( sid CHAR(20)
name CHAR(30),
login CHAR(20),
age INTEGER,
honors CHAR(10)
18 gpa REAL,
PRIMARY KEY (sid),
FOREIGN KEY (honors) REFERENCES Courses(cid))
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 3. The Relational Model

3.1) Introduction to Relational Model

3.2) Integrity Constraints over Relations

3.3) Logical Database Design and View

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 Logical Database Design and View

Entity Sets to Tables

 An entity set is mapped to a relation
 Attribute of entity set becomes an attribute of table.
 Example- Employee entity set with attributes
ssn, name and lot

E.g;

CREATE TABLE Employee

(ssn CHAR(11),
name CHAR(30),
20 lot INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY(ssn));
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 Logical Database Design and View

Relationship Sets to Tables

 A relationship set is mapped to a relation.
 Attribute of relation include:
 The primary key attributes of each participating
entity set, as foreign key fields
 The descriptive attributes of the relationship set
E.g;

CREATE TABLE Works_In

(ssn CHAR(11),
did INTEGER,
since DATE,
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PRIMARY KEY (ssn, did),
FORENGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees
FORENGN KEY (did) REFERENCES Departments); Faculty of Information Science
 Logical Database Design and View
Translating Relationship Sets with Key Constraints:
E.g;

CREATE TABLE Manages

(ssn CHAR (11) ,
did INTEGER,
since DATE,
PRIMARY KEY (did),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees,
FOREIGN KEY (did)REFERENCES Departments));

 each department has at most one manager,

 no two tuples can have the same did value but
22 differ on the ssn value.
 did is itself a key for Manages.
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 Logical Database Design and View

Introduction to View
 A view is a relation whose rows are not explicitly
stored in the database but are computed as needed
from a view definition
 A view is a virtual table based on a SELECT query.
 The tables on which the view is based are called
base tables.
 Syntax: CREATE VIEW View-name
AS <SELECT Query Expression>

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 Logical Database Design and View

E.g; University Database

• Students (sid: string, name: string, login: string,
age: integer, gpa: float)
•Courses(cid: string, cname: string, credits: integer)
•Enrolled (studid: string, cid: string, grade: string)
 Finding the names and student identifiers of students
who got a grade of B in some course, together with the
course identifier.
CREATE VIEW B-Students (name, sid, courseid) AS
SELECT S.name, S.sid, E.cid
FROM Students S, Enrolled E

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WHERE S.sid = E.studid AND E.grade = ‘B’;

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 Logical Database Design and View

Update On View

 Updatable view is a view that can be used to update

attributes in the base tables.

 Not all views are updatable

 GROUP BY expressions or aggregate functions

cannot be used

 Cannot use set operators

 Most restrictions based on use of JOINs

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 Logical Database Design and View
E.g;
 Consider instances of

B-Students (name, sid, courseid) view

 To insert (John, 55000, Reggae203) into B-Students view

may require the following actions
 insert (55000, John, null, null, null) into Students table .
 insert (55000 ,Reggae203, B) into Enrolled table

 Inserting/ updating data to view may violate null values,

duplications of primary key.

 To delete a tuple from the view B-Students, we can delete

the tuple from Enrolled.

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 Logical Database Design and View
E.g;
 Consider the following view:

CREATE VIEW GoodStudents (sid, gpa) AS

SELECT S.sid, S.gpa

FROM Students S

WHERE S.gpa > 3.0

 could update/delete the gpa of a GoodStudents row by modifying

the corresponding row in Students table.

 can insert a GoodStudents row by inserting a row into Students,

using null values in columns of Students that do not appear in

GoodStudents (sname, login, age).

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 No violation happened because the view include a key value for

the underlying table

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 Logical Database Design and View
E.g;
 Consider the following view:

CREATE VIEW GoodStudents (sname, gpa) AS

SELECT S.sname, S.gpa

FROM Students S WHERE S.gpa > 3.0

 view did not include a key for the underlying table,

several rows in the table

 could not insert rows into Students through insertions

to GoodStudents.

 the insertions will be rejected because primary key columns

are not allowed to contain null values

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 The Relational model

Let's summarize what we learned today

Relational model using SQL.

the keys on relations
integrity constraints
conceptual data model (ER schema) into a
relational database design.
The concepts of view

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