Strong Entity Set Weak Entity Set

Strong entity set always has a It does not have enough attributes
primary key. to build a primary key.
It is represented by a rectangle It is represented by a double
symbol. rectangle symbol.
It contains a Primary key It contains a Partial Key which is
represented by the underline represented by a dashed underline
symbol. symbol.
The member of a strong entity set is The member of a weak entity set
called as dominant entity set. called as a subordinate entity set.
In a weak entity set, it is a
Primary Key is one of its attributes
combination of primary key and
which helps to identify its member.
partial key of the strong entity set.
The relationship between one
In the ER diagram the relationship
strong and a weak entity set shown
between two strong entity set
by using the double diamond
shown by using a diamond symbol.
symbol.
The connecting line of the strong The line connecting the weak entity
entity set with the relationship is set for identifying relationship is
single. double.
 ER Diagram Template for Student Enrollment System (Click on the template to edit it online)

Unary Relational Operations

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

Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory

 UNION (υ)
 INTERSECTION ( ),
 DIFFERENCE (-)
 CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )

Binary Relational Operations

 JOIN
 DIVISION

Let’s study them in detail with solutions:

SELECT (σ)
The SELECT operation is used for selecting a subset of the tuples
according to a given selection condition. Sigma(σ)Symbol denotes it. It
is used as an expression to choose tuples which meet the selection
condition. Select operator selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate.
σp(r)

σ is the predicate

r stands for relation which is the name of the table

p is prepositional logic

Example 1

σ topic = "Database" (Tutorials)

Output – Selects tuples from Tutorials where topic = ‘Database’.

Example 2

σ topic = "Database" and author = "guru99" ( Tutorials)

Output – Selects tuples from Tutorials where the topic is ‘Database’ and
‘author’ is guru99.

Example 3

σ sales > 50000 (Customers)

Output – Selects tuples from Customers where sales is greater than
50000

Projection(π)
The projection eliminates all attributes of the input relation but 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 eliminates

duplicate values. (pi) symbol is used to choose attributes from a
relation. This operator helps you to keep specific columns from a
relation and discards the other columns.

Example of Projection:

Consider the following table

CustomerID CustomerName Status

1 Google Active
2 Amazon Active
3 Apple Inactive
4 Alibaba Active
Here, the projection of CustomerName and status will give

Π CustomerName, Status (Customers)

CustomerName Status
Google Active
Amazon Active
Apple Inactive
Alibaba Active
Rename (ρ)
Rename is a unary operation used for renaming attributes of a relation.

ρ (a/b)R will rename the attribute ‘b’ of relation by ‘a’.

Union operation (υ)

UNION is symbolized by ∪ symbol. It includes all tuples that are in
tables A or in B. It also eliminates duplicate tuples. So, set A UNION set B
would be expressed as:

The result <- A ∪ B

For a union operation to be valid, the following conditions must hold –

 R and S must be the same number of attributes.

 Attribute domains need to be compatible.
 Duplicate tuples should be automatically removed.

Example

Consider the following tables.

Table A Table B
column 1 column 2 column 1 column 2
1 1 1 1

A ∪ B gives
1 2 1 3

Table A ∪ B
column 1 column 2
1 1
 Table A ∪ B
1 2
1 3
ADVERTISING

Set Difference (-)

– Symbol denotes it. The result of A – B, is a relation which includes all
tuples that are in A but not in B.

 The attribute name of A has to match with the attribute name in B.

 The two-operand relations A and B should be either compatible or
Union compatible.
 It should be defined relation consisting of the tuples that are in
relation A, but not in B.

Example
A-B
Table A – B
column 1 column 2
1 2
Intersection
An intersection is defined by the symbol ∩

A∩B

Defines a relation consisting of a set of all tuple that are in both A and B.
However, A and B must be union-compatible.

Visual
Definition of Intersection
Example:
A ∩ B
Table A ∩ B
column 1 column 2
1 1
Cartesian Product(X) in DBMS
Cartesian Product in DBMS is an operation used to merge columns
from two relations. Generally, a cartesian product is never a meaningful
operation when it performs alone. However, it becomes meaningful
when it is followed by other operations. It is also called Cross Product or
Cross Join.
Example – Cartesian product

σ column 2 = ‘1’ (A X B)
Output – The above example shows all rows from relation A and B
whose column 2 has value 1

σ column 2 = ‘1’ (A X B)
column 1 column 2
1 1
1 1
Join Operations
Join operation is essentially a cartesian product followed by a selection
criterion.

Join operation denoted by ⋈.

JOIN operation also allows joining variously related tuples from

different relations.

Types of JOIN:

Various forms of join operation are:

Inner Joins:
  Theta join
 EQUI join
 Natural join

Outer join:

 Left Outer Join

 Right Outer Join
 Full Outer Join

Inner Join
In an inner join, only those tuples that satisfy the matching criteria are
included, while the rest are excluded. Let’s study various types of Inner
Joins:

Theta Join
The general case of JOIN operation is called a Theta join. It is denoted
by symbol θ

Example

A ⋈θ B
Theta join can use any conditions in the selection criteria.

⋈
For example:

A (B)
A ⋈ A.column 2 > B.column 2 (B)
A.column 2 > B.column 2

column 1 column 2
1 2
EQUI join
When a theta join uses only equivalence condition, it becomes a equi
join.

For example:
 ⋈
A ⋈ A.column 2 = B.column 2 (B)
A A.column 2 = B.column 2 (B)

column 1 column 2
1 1
EQUI join is the most difficult operations to implement efficiently using
SQL in an RDBMS and one reason why RDBMS have essential
performance problems.

NATURAL JOIN (⋈)

Natural join can only be performed if there is a common attribute
(column) between the relations. The name and type of the attribute
must be same.

Example

Consider the following two tables

C
Num Square
2 4
3 9
D
Num Cube
2 8
3 27
C ⋈ D
C⋈D
Num Square Cube
2 4 8
3 9 27
OUTER JOIN
In an outer join, along with tuples that satisfy the matching criteria, we
also include some or all tuples that do not match the criteria.
Left Outer Join(A ⟕ B)
In the left outer join, operation allows keeping all tuple in the left
relation. However, if there is no matching tuple is found in right relation,
then the attributes of right relation in the join result are filled with null
values.

Consider the following 2 Tables

A
Num Square
2 4
3 9
4 16
B
Num Cube
2 8
3 18
5 75

A⋈B
A B

Num Square Cube

2 4 8
3 9 18

Right Outer Join ( A ⟖ B )

4 16 –

In the right outer join, operation allows keeping all tuple in the right
relation. However, if there is no matching tuple is found in the left
relation, then the attributes of the left relation in the join result are filled
with null values.

A⋈B
A B

Num Cube Square

2 8 4
3 18 9

Full Outer Join ( A ⟗ B)

5 75 –

In a full outer join, all tuples from both relations are included in the
result, irrespective of the matching condition.

A⋈B
A B

Num Cube Square

2 4 8
3 9 18
4 16 –
5 – 75