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Database Systems - Lecture 7

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12 views

Database Systems - Lecture 7

Uploaded by

Meregulwa Allan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RELATIONAL ALGEBRA AND RELATIONAL CALCULUS

RELATIONAL ALGEBRA
Relational Algebra is a procedural query language which defines a set of operations that take one or
two relations as input and produce a new relation as output.
In Relational Algebra, each operation specifies a sequence of steps to perform or retrieve the desired
result.

RELATIONAL ALGEBRA OPERATIONS FROM THE MATHEMATICAL SET THEORY

These are applicable because each relation is defined to be a set of tuples in the formal relational model
and they include:

• UNION
• INTERSECTION
• SET DIFFERENCE/ MINUS/EXCEPT, and
• CARTESIAN PRODUCT (CROSS PRODUCT).

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UNION OPERATOR (∪)

Let R and S be two relations.

Then-
• R ∪ S is the set of all tuples belonging to either R or S or both.
• In R ∪ S, duplicates are automatically removed.
• Union operation is both commutative and associative.

EXAMPLE-

Consider the following two relations R and S

Then, R ∪ S is

Relation RUS

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INTERSECTION OPERATOR (∩)-
Let R and S be two relations.
Then-
• R ∩ S is the set of all tuples belonging to both R and S.
• In R ∩ S, duplicates are automatically removed.
• Intersection operation is both commutative and associative.

EXAMPLE

Consider the following two relations R and S

Then, R ∩ S is

DIFFERENCE OPERATOR (-)


Let R and S be two relations.
Then-
 R – S is the set of all tuples belonging to R and not to S.
 In R – S, duplicates are automatically removed.

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 Difference operation is associative but not commutative.

EXAMPLE
Consider the following two relations R and S

Then, R – S is

CARTESIAN PRODUCT OPERATION (X)


• It combines two relations, R1 and R2 without any condition.
• It is denoted by X. E.g. R1 X R2.
• Degree of R1 X R2 = degree of R1 + degree of R2
Where {degree = total no of columns}

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EXAMPLE
Consider: Table R1 –

Find R1 X R2

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RELATIONAL ALGEBRA OPERATIONS DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY FOR
RELATIONAL DATABASES
These include:
• SELECT
• PROJECT and
• JOIN, among others.

UNARY RELATIONAL OPERATIONS

• SELECT (symbol: σ)
• PROJECT (symbol: π)
• RENAME (symbol: ρ)

BINARY RELATIONAL OPERATIONS


• JOIN
• DIVISION

SELECT (σ)

• It is used to project required column data from a relation.


• The projection eliminates all attributes of the input relation but displays those mentioned in
the projection list.
• The projection method defines a relation that contains a vertical subset of Relation.
• This helps to extract the values of specified attributes to eliminate duplicate values.

EXAMPLE 1

Consider the following table:


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EXAMPLE 2
Consider the following relation. Suppose we want columns B and C from Relation R.

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𝜋(𝐴, 𝐵) gives

EXERCISE

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