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Module 2: The Relational Data Model

Relational Model Concepts

The principles of the relational model were first outlined by Dr. E.F. Codd in 1970 in a classic
paper called “A relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks”. In this paper, Dr. Codd
proposed the relational model for the database.

The more popular models used at the time were hierarchical and network, or even
simple flat file data structures. Relational database management systems soon became very
popular especially for their ease of use and flexibility in structure. In addition, a number of
innovative vendors, such as Oracle, supplemented the RDBMS with a suite of powerful
application development and user products, providing a total solution.

Components of the Relational Model

• Collections of objects or relations that store the data
• A set of operators that can act on the relations to produce other relations
• Data integrity for accuracy and consistency
Definition of a Relational Database
• A relational database is a collection of relations or two-dimensional tables.

Database

EMP DEPT
EMPNO ENAME DEPTNO DEPTNO DNAME LOC
7839 King 10 10 Accounting New York
7698 Blake 30 20 Research Dallas
7782 Clark 10 30 Sales Chicago
40 Operations Boston
7566 Jones 20

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A relational database is a collection of relations or two-dimensional tables to store information.
For Example, you might want to store information about all the employees in your company. In a
relational database, you create several tables to store different pieces of information about your
employees, such as an employee table, a department table and a salary table
Informal Definitions

 Informally, a relation looks like a table of values.

 A relation typically contains a set of rows.
 The data elements in each row represent certain facts that correspond to a real-world
entity or relationship.
 In the formal model, rows are called tuples
 Each column has a column header that gives an indication of the meaning of the data
items in that column.
 In the formal model, the column header is called an attribute name (or just
attribute).

Example of a Relation

 The data type describing the types of values that can appear in each columns is called a
domain.


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 Key of a Relation:
 Each row has a value of a data item (or set of items) that uniquely identifies that
row in the table called the key
Eg:- In the STUDENT table, SSN is the key.

 Sometimes row-ids or sequential numbers are assigned as keys to identify the

rows in a table called artificial key or surrogate key
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
 The degree of the relation is n (the number of its attributes).
 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.
 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
 The degree of the relation is n (the number of its attributes).
 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.
 A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled brackets ‘< … >’).
 Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.

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 A row in the CUSTOMER relation is a 4-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 4-tuple as it has 4 values.
 A tuple (row) in the CUSTOMER relation.
 A relation is a set of such tuples (rows).
 A domain has a logical definition:
Example: “University_Seat_Number” is the set of 10 characters valid in VTU
university.
“Academic_Dept_Code” is a set of academic department codes such as ‘CS’,
‘IS’, ‘EC’, etc,.
 A domain also has a data-type or a format defined for it.
 Dates have various formats such as year, month, day formatted as yyyy-mm-dd,
or as dd-mmm-yyyy etc.
 The attribute name designates the role played by a domain in a relation:
 Example: The domain Date may be used to define two attributes named “Invoice-
date” and “Payment-date” with different meanings.
Characteristics of Relations
 Ordering of tuples in a relation r(R):
 Tuples ordering is not part of a relation definition because it is defined as a set of
tuples.
 Many logical orders can be specified on the relation.
 There is no preference for one logical ordering over another.
 When a relation is implemented as a file, a physical ordering may be specified on
the records of the file.

 Ordering of values within each tuple:

 The tuple is an ordered list, so the ordering of values in a tuple is important.
 At a logical level, the order is not important as long as the correspondence
between the attribute and its value is mentioned.

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 Values and NULLs in the tuple:

 All values are considered atomic (indivisible).
 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 inapplicable
to certain tuples.
 Interpretation (Meaning) of a Relation:
- The relational schema can be interpreted as a declaration or type of assertion.

- For example, schema of the STUDENT relation interprets that, a student entity has
Name,

USN, Home_phone, Address, Office_phone, Age, Gpa.

- Alternative interpretation of a relation schema is as a predicate, that values in

each tuple are interpreted as values that satisfy the predicate.

Relational Model Notation

 R(A1, A2, …., An) denotes a relation schema R of degree n (n attributes).

 r(R) is a relation state of relation schema R.
 t[Ai] and t.Ai refer to the value vi in t for attribute Ai.
 The letters Q, R, S denote relation names.
 The letters q, r, s denote relation states.

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 The letters t, u, v denote tuples.
 The dot notation R.A can be used to identify the attributes (e.g. Student.Name or
Student.Age).
Relational model constraints
 Constraints on databases can generally be divided into three main categories:
- Inherent model-based or Implicit constraints:- Constraints that are inherent in the data
model.

- Schema-based or explicit constraints:- Constraints that can be directly expressed in

schema of the data model using DDL.

- Application-based or semantic constraints or business rules:- Constraints expressed and

enforced using application programs.

Schema-based constraints

 Schema based constraints in the relational model are:

 Domain constraints
 Key constraints and constraints on NULL values
 Entity integrity constraints
 Referential integrity constraints
 Domain constraint
 Every value in a tuple must be from the domain of its attribute and must be
atomic (or it could be null, if allowed for that attribute).
 Key Constraints
 As a relation is defined as a set of tuple, thus no two tuples can have the same
combination of values for all their attributes.
 Usually, there are other subset of attributes (superkey SK) with this constraint:
ti[SK] ≠ tj[SK]  i, j
 It is called uniqueness constraint that no two distinct tuples in r can have the same
values for SK.
 A superkey can have redundant attributes.

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 A key K of R is a superkey of R with the additional property that removing any
attribute A from K leaves a set of attributes K’ that is not a superkey of R.
 A key satisfies two constraints:
 - Two distinct tuples in any state of the relation cannot have identical values for
(all) attributes in the key.
 - It is a minimal superkey – that is , a superkey from which we cannot remove
any attributes and still have the uniqueness property in condition 1 hold.
 Key is determined from the meaning of the attributes, and the property is time-
invariant.
 It must continue to hold when we insert new tuples in the relation
 Example:
 The attribute {SSN} in the Student relation is a key.
 Any set includes {SSN} is a superkey of the relation student. Eg:- {SSN, Name,
Age}
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.
 A relation schema may have more than one key.
 Such keys are called the candidate keys.
 The primary key is one of the candidate keys which is selected to identify tuples
in the relation.
 The attributes that form the primary key are underlined in the schema.
 The primary key value is used to uniquely identify each tuple in a relation.
 Null Constraint:
 Not Null constraint specifies that an attribute must have a valid value (e.g.
Student name).
Relational Database Schema

 A relational database schema S is a set of relation schemas that belong to the same
database.
 S is the name of the whole database schema.

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 S = {R1, R2, …, Rm} and a set of integrity constraints IC.
 R1, R2, …, Rm are the names of the individual relation schemas within the
database S.
 The integrity constraints are specified on a DB schema and are expected to hold on every
DB state.
 Example: Company Database

Entity Integrity Constraints

 The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema R in S cannot have null values in
any tuple of r(R).
 This is because primary key values are used to identify the individual tuples.
 t[PK]  null for any tuple t in r(R).
 If PK has several attributes, null is not allowed in any of these attributes.
 Note: Other attributes of R may be constrained to disallow null values, even though they
are not members of the primary key.

Referential Integrity Constraints

 A constraint involving two relations
 The previous constraints involve a single relation.
 Used to specify a relationship among tuples in two relations:
 The referencing relation and the referenced relation.

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 Tuples in the referencing relation R1 have attributes FK (called foreign key attributes)
that reference the primary key attributes PK of the referenced relation R2.
 A referential integrity constraint can be displayed in a relational database schema as a
directed arc from R1.FK to R2.PK.
 Referential integrity constraint is based on foreign key (FK) concept
 A set of attributes FK in relation schema R1 is a foreign key of R1 that references relation
R2 if it satisfies the following two rules:
 The attributes in FK have the same domain(s) as the primary key attribute PK of
R2 .
 A value of FK in a tuple t1 of the current state r1(R1) either occurs as a value of
PK for some tuple t2 in the current state r2(R2) (t1[FK]=t2[PK]) or is null.
 A foreign key can refer to its own relation.
 Referential integrity constraints typically arise from the relationship among the entities.
Other Types of Constraints

 State constraints
- define the constraints that a valid state of the database must satisfy.

Ex: Domain constraints, Key Constraints, Entity Integrity constraints, Referential

Integrity constraints

Transition constraints

- defined to deal with state changes in the database.

Ex: the salary of an employee can only increase. Such constraints typically
enforced by the application programs or specified using active rules and triggers.

Update Operations on Relations

 The basic update operations of the relational model are:

 Insert
 Delete
 Update (or Modify)
 All integrity constraints specified on the database schema should not be violated by the
update operations.

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 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.
 The basic update operations of the relational model are:
 Insert
 Delete
 Update (or Modify)
 All integrity constraints specified on the database schema 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.

The Insert Operation

 INSERT may violate any of the four types of constraints:

 Domain constraint:
 if one of the attribute values provided for the new tuple is not of the
specified attribute domain.
 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.
 Example:-
 Operation
Insert <‘Vinod’, ’S’, ‘Joseph’, NULL, ‘1986-04-05’, ‘#123, Bangalore’, F,
28000, NULL, 4> into EMPLOYEE
Result: Violates Entity IC , so it is rejected.

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 Operation
Insert <‘Alice’, ’J’, ‘Zelaya’, ‘999887777’, ‘1986-04-05’, ‘#334, Bangalore’, F,
28000, ‘98764321’, 4> into EMPLOYEE
Result: Violates Key IC , so it is rejected.
 Operation
Insert <‘Cecilia’, ’F’, ‘Kolonsky’, ‘677678989’, ‘1986-04-05’, ‘#454, Bangalore’,
F, 28000, ‘99876436’, 7> into EMPLOYEE
Result: Violates Referential IC , so it is rejected

The Delete 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
 RESTRICT option: reject the deletion.
 CASCADE option: propagate deletion by deleting tuples that
reference the tuple that is deleted.
 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.
 Example:
 Operation
Delete the WORKS_ON tuple with ESSN-’999887777’ and Pno=10.
Result: Acceptable. Deletes exactly one tuple
 Operation
Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN= ‘999887777’.

Result: Not Acceptable. Violates Referential IC.

 Operation
Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN= ‘333445555’.
Result: Not Acceptable. Violates Referential IC.

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The Update 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.
 Updating an ordinary attribute (neither PK nor FK):
 Can only violate domain constraints.
Operation

 Update the salary of an EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN =‘999887777’

to 28000.

Result: Acceptable

Operation

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

Result: Violates Referential IC

 Operation
Update the SSN of the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN=‘999887777’ to
‘987654321’.

Result: Violates Primary key constraints

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Relational Algebra
The two formal languages for the relational model: the relational algebra and the relational
calculus. Historically, the relational algebra and calculus were developed before the SQL
language. SQL is primarily based on concepts from relational calculus and has been extended to
incorporate some concepts from relational algebra as well. Most relational DBMSs use SQL as
their language.

o The basic set of operations for the formal relational model is the relational algebra.
o These operations enable a user to specify basic retrieval requests as relational algebra
expressions.
o A sequence of relational algebra operations forms a relational algebra expression, whose
result will also be a relation that represents the result of a database query.
o It provides a formal foundation for relational model operations.
o It is used as a basis for implementing and optimizing queries in the query processing and
optimization modules that are integral parts of relational database management systems
(RDBMSs)
o Some of its concepts are incorporated into the SQL standard query language for
RDBMSs.
o The relational calculus provides a higher-level declarative language for specifying
relational queries.
o In a relational calculus expression, there is no order of operations to specify how to
retrieve the query result—only what information the result should contain. This is the main
distinguishing feature between relational algebra and relational calculus.

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT and PROJECT

The SELECT Operation

o The SELECT operation is used to choose a subset of the tuples from a relation that
satisfies a selectioncondition.
o The SELECT operation acts as a filter that keeps only those tuples that satisfy a qualifying

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condition.
o 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 thecondition and are filtered out.
o The SELECT operator is unary; that is, it is applied to a single relation.
The relation resulting from the SELECT operation has the same attributes as R that is degree of
therelation resulting is the same as the degree of R

In General

▪ the symbol σ (sigma) is used to denote the SELECT operator

▪ selection condition is a Boolean expression (condition) specified on the attributes
of relation R,which can be of the form
<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

Example: 1. To select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department is 4.

Example 2: 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:

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The PROJECT Operation

o The PROJECT operation selects certain columns from the table and discards the other
columns.
o If only certain attributes of a relation are needed then the PROJECT operation is used
to project therelation over these attributes only.
o It can be visualized as a vertical partition of the relation into two relations: one has the
needed columns and contains the result of the operation, and the other contains the
discarded columns.
o The resulting relation has only the attributes specified in <attribute list> in the same
order as they appear in the list. Hence, its degree is equal to the number of attributes in
<attribute list>.
o The general form of the PROJECT operation is

▪ π (pi) is the symbol used to represent the PROJECT operation

▪ <attribute list> is the desired sublist of attributes from the attributes of relation R

Example: To list each employee’s first and last name and salary:

NOTE:
o The PROJECT operation removes any duplicate tuples, so the result of the PROJECT
operation is a set of distinct tuples, and hence a valid relation. This is known as duplicate
elimination.
o The number of tuples in a relation resulting from a PROJECT operation is always less
than or equal tothe number of tuples in R.
o Relational algebra expression can be written as an in-line expression, as follows:

o Alternatively, explicitly show the sequence of operations, giving a name to each

intermediate relation, and using the assignment operation, denoted by ← (left arrow), as
follows:

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The RENAME Operation

RENAME operation can rename either the relation name or the attribute names, or both—as
a unary operator. Thegeneral is denoted by any of the following three forms:

▪ where the symbol ρ (rho) is used to denote the RENAME operator

▪ S is the new relation name
▪ B1, B2, … , Bn are the new attribute names.
▪ The first expression renames both the relation and its attributes, the second renames
the relation only, and the third renames the attributes only. If the attributes of R are
(A1, A2, … , An) in that order, then each Ai is renamed as Bi.

Example:

Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory

o Relational algebra operations based on the standard mathematical operations on sets:
UNION, INTERSECTION, and SET DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or EXCEPT) are
binary operations; that is, each is applied to two sets (of tuples).
o The two relations on which any of these three operations are applied must have the same
type of tuples; this condition has been called union compatibility or type compatibility.

o Two relations R(A1, A2, … , An) and S(B1, B2, … , Bn) are said to be union compatible
(or type compatible) if they have the same degree n and if dom(Ai) = dom(Bi) for 1 ≤ i ≤
n. This means that the two relations have the same number of attributes and each
corresponding pair of attributes has the same domain.
The three operations UNION, INTERSECTION, and SET DIFFERENCE are defined on
two union-compatiblerelations R and S as follows:

UNION: The result of union operation, denoted by R 𝖴 S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R orin S or in both R and S. Duplicate tuples are eliminated.

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INTERSECTION: The result of this operation, denoted by R ∩ S, is a relation that includes
all tuples that are inboth 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.

Note:

o Both UNION and INTERSECTION are commutative operations; R 𝖴 S = S 𝖴 R and R ∩ S

=S∩R
o Both UNION and INTERSECTION can be treated as n-ary operations applicable to any
number of relations because both are also associative operations; R 𝖴 (S 𝖴 T ) = (R 𝖴 S)
𝖴 T and (R ∩ S) ∩ T = R
∩ (S ∩ T)

o The MINUS operation is not commutative; that is, in general, R − S ≠ S − R

o Note that INTERSECTION can be expressed in terms of union and set difference as
follows:
R ∩ S = ((R 𝖴 S) − (R − S)) − (S − R)

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The CARTESIAN PRODUCT (CROSS PRODUCT) Operation

o CARTESIAN PRODUCT operation—also known as CROSS PRODUCT or CROSS

JOIN—which is denoted by ×. This is also a binary set operation, but the relations on
which it is applied do not haveto be union compatible.
o In its binary form, this set operation produces a new element by combining every member
(tuple) from one relation (set) with every member (tuple) from the other relation (set). In
general, the result of R(A1, A2, … , An) × S(B1, B2, … , Bm) is a relation Q with degree n
+ m attributes Q(A1, A2, … , An, B1, B2, … , Bm), in that order.The resulting relation Q
has one tuple for each combination of tuples— one from R and one from S. Hence, if R
has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR), and S has nS tuples, then R
× S will have nR * nS tuples.

Binary Relational Operations: JOIN and DIVISIONThe JOIN Operation

The JOIN operation is very important for any relational database with more than a one
relation because it allows us to process relationships among relations.
The JOIN operation, denoted by , on two relations R(A1, A2, … , An) and S(B1, B2, … ,
Bm) combines related tuples from two relations into single “longer” tuples that satisfy the join

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condition. The general form
The result of the JOIN is a relation Q with n + m attributes Q(A1, A2, … , An, B1, B2, … , Bm)
in that order; Q has one tuple for each combination of tuples—one from R and one from S—
whenever the combination satisfies the join condition

o A general join condition: <condition> AND <condition> AND … AND <condition>

where each <condition> is of the form Ai θ Bj, Ai is an attribute of R, Bj is an attribute of
S, Ai and Bj
have the same domain, and θ (theta) is one of the comparison operators {=, <, ≤, >, ≥, ≠}.
o A JOIN operation with such a general join condition is called a THETA JOIN.
o Tuples whose join attributes are NULL or for which the join condition is FALSE do not
appear in theresult.

Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the name of the manager of each department.

To get the manager’s name, combine each department tuple with the employee tuple whose
Ssn value matches the Mgr_ssn value in the department tuple.
The EQUIJOIN

EQUIJOIN involves join conditions with equality comparisons only. Such a JOIN, where the
onlycomparison operator used is =, is called an EQUIJOIN.

Example: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the ‘Research’
department.

Notice that in the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have one or more pairs of attributes that
have identical values in every tuple. For example, the values of the attributes Dnumber and

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Dno are identical in every tuple of RESEARCH_EMP because the equality join condition
specified on these two attributes requires the values to be identical in every tuple in the result.

NATURAL JOIN

NATURAL JOIN—denoted by *, requires that the two join attributes (or each pair of join
attributes) have the same name in both relations. If this is not the case, a renaming operation is
applied first. NATURAL JOIN was created to get rid of the second (superfluous) attribute in
an EQUIJOIN condition.

Example 1, to apply a natural join on the Dnumber attributes of DEPARTMENT and

DEPT_LOCATIONS,
DEPT_LOCS ← DEPARTMENT * DEPT_LOCATIONS
Example 2: Suppose we want to combine each PROJECT tuple with the DEPARTMENT
tuple that controls the project.First rename the Dnumber attribute of DEPARTMENT to
Dnum—so that it has the same name as the Dnum attribute in PROJECT—and then we apply
NATURAL JOIN:

PROJ_DEPT ← PROJECT * ρ(Dname, Dnum, Mgr_ssn,

Mgr_start_date)(DEPARTMENT)

The attribute Dnum is called the join attribute for the NATURAL JOIN operation, because it
is the only attribute with the same name in both relations. The resulting relation is only one
join attribute value is kept.

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ER-to-Relational Mapping
Step 1
» For each regular entity type E in the ER schema, create a relation R that includes all the
simple attributes of E

» For composite attributes, use the simple component attributes.

» Choose one of the key attributes of E as the primary key for R.

» If the chosen key was a composite, the set of simple attributes that form it will together be the
primary key of R.

Step 2

» For each weak entity type W in the ER schema with owner entity type E, create a relation R
that includes all simple attributes (or simple components of composites) of W.

» Include as foreign key attributes of R the primary key attribute of the relation that corresponds
to the owner entity type E.

» The primary key of R is the combination of the primary key of the owner and the partial key
of the weak entity type, if any.

Step 3

» For each binary 1:1 relationship type R in the ER schema, identify the relations S and T that
correspond to the entity types participating in R.

» Choose one of the relations (say S). Include as a foreign key in S the primary key of T.

» It is better to choose an entity type with total participation in R for the role of S.

» Include the simple attributes of R as attributes of S.

Step 4

» For each binary 1:N relationship type R, identify the relation S that represents the entity type
participating at the N-side of the relationship

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» Include as a foreign key in S the primary key of the relation T that represents the other entity
type participating in R.

» Include the simple attributes of R as attributes of S.

Step 5

» For each binary M:N relationship type R, create a new relation S to represent R.

» Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys of the participating entity types.

» Their combination will form the primary key.

» Include any attributes of R as attributes of S.

Step 6

» For each multi-valued attribute A, create a new relation R.

» R will include an attribute corresponding to A, plus the primary key attribute K of the relation
that has A as an attribute.

» The primary key of R is the combination of A and K.

Step 7

» For each n-ary relationship type R, where n>2, create a new relation S.

» Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys of the relations that represent the
participating entity types

» Include any attributes of R.

» The primary key of S is usually a combination of all the foreign keys in S.

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SQL
The SQL language may be considered one of the major reasons for the commercial success of relational
databases. The name SQL is presently expanded as Structured Query Language. Originally, SQL was
called SEQUEL (Structured English QUEry Language) and was designed and implemented at IBM
Research as the interface for an experimental relational database system called SYSTEM R. SQL is now
the standard language for commercial relational DBMSs.

SQL is a comprehensive database language: It has statements for data definitions, queries, and updates.
Hence, it is both a DDL and a DML. It also has rules for embedding SQL statements into a general-
purpose programming language such as Java,COBOL,or C/C++.

4.1 SQL Data Definition and Data Types

SQL uses the terms table, row, and column for the formal relational model terms
relation,tuple,andattribute,respectively.We will use the corresponding terms interchangeably. The main
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).

4.1.1 Schema and Catalog Concepts in SQL

The concept of an SQL schema was incorporated starting with SQL2 in order 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. Alternatively, 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 ‘Jsmith’.Note that each statement in SQL
ends with a semicolon.

CREATE SCHEMA COMPANY AUTHORIZATION ‘Jsmith’;

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.

4.1.2 The CREATE TABLE Command in SQL

The CREATE TABLE command is used to specify a new relation 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

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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.

For example,by writing

CREATE TABLE COMPANY.EMPLOYEE ...

rather than

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE ...

we can explicitly (rather than implicitly) make the EMPLOYEEtable part of the COMPANY schema.

The relations declared through CREATE TABLE statements are called base tables (or base relations);
this means that the relation and its tuples are actually created and stored as a file by the DBMS.Base
relations are distinguished from virtual relations, created through the CREATE VIEWstatement which
may or may not correspond to an actual physical file.

Example:

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE ( Fname VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL, Minit CHAR, Lname
VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL, Ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL, Bdate DATE, Address VARCHAR(30), Sex
CHAR, Salary DECIMAL(10,2), Super_ssn CHAR(9), Dno INT NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (Ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (Super_ssn) REFERENCES EMPLOYEE(Ssn), FOREIGN KEY (Dno) REFERENCES
DEPARTMENT(Dnumber)) ;

CREATE TABLE DEPARTMENT ( Dname VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL, Dnumber INT NOT NULL,
Mgr_ssn CHAR(9) NOT NULL, Mgr_start_date DATE, PRIMARY KEY (Dnumber), UNIQUE
(Dname), FOREIGN KEY (Mgr_ssn) REFERENCES EMPLOYEE(Ssn));

4.1.3 Attribute Data Types and Domains in SQL

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

■Numeric data types include integer numbers of various sizes (INTEGER or INT, and SMALLINT) and
floating-point (real) numbers of various precision (FLOAT or REAL, and DOUBLE PRECISION).
Formatted numbers 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.

■Character-string data types are either fixed length—CHAR(n) or CHARACTER(n), where n is the
number of characters—or varying length— VARCHAR(n) or CHAR VARYING(n) or CHARACTER
VARYING(n),where nis 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).3 For fixedlength 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.

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■Bit-string data types are either of fixed length n—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 distinguishthem from
character strings;

for example,B‘10101’

■A Boolean data type has the traditional values of TRUE or FALSE. In SQL, 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.

■ 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.

■ A timestamp data type (TIMESTAMP) includes the DATE and TIME fields, plus a minimum of six
positions for decimal fractions of seconds and an optional WITH TIME ZONE qualifier.Literal values are
represented by singlequoted strings preceded by the keyword TIMESTAMP, with a blank space between
data and time;

for example, TIMESTAMP ‘2008-09-27 09:12:47.648302’.

■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.

It is possible to specify the data type of each attribute directly,as in Figure 4.1;alternatively, a domain can
be declared, and the domain name used with the attribute specification. This makes it easier to change the
data type for a domain that is used by numerous attributes in a schema,and improves schema
readability.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 the above create table for the attributes Ssn and
Super_ssn of EMPLOYEE, Mgr_ssn of DEPARTMENT, Essn of WORKS_ON, and Essn of
DEPENDENT.

4.2 Specifying Constraints in SQL

Now will describe the basic constraints that can be specified in SQL as part of table creation. These
include key and referential integrity constraints, restrictions on attribute domains and NULLs,and
constraints on individual tuples within a relation.

4.2.1 Specifying Attribute Constraints and Attribute Defaults

Because SQL allows NULLs as attribute values,a constraint NOT NULLmay be specified if NULLis not
permitted for a particular attribute.This is always implicitly specified for the attributes that are part of the

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primary key of each relation,but it can be specified for any other attributes whose values are required not
to be NULL.

It is also possible to define a default value for an attribute by appending the clause DEFAULT<value> to
an attribute definition.

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 to the following:
Dnumber INT NOT NULL CHECK (Dnumber> 0 AND Dnumber< 21);

Ex:

CREATE TABLE EMPLOYEE ( Dno INT NOT NULL DEFAULT 1, CONSTRAINT EMPPK
PRIMARY KEY (Ssn), CONSTRAINT EMPDEPTFK FOREIGN KEY(Dno) REFERENCES
DEPARTMENT(Dnumber) ON DELETE SET DEFAULT ON UPDATE CASCADE);

TheCHECKclause can also be used in conjunction with the CREATE DOMAINstatement.

For example,we can write the following statement:

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

We can then use the created domain D_NUM as the attribute type for all attributes that refer to
department numbers In create table , such as Dnumber of DEPARTMENT, Dnum of PROJECT,Dno of
EMPLOYEE,and so on.

4.2.2 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.

Ex: Dnumber INT PRIMARY KEY;

The UNIQUE clause specifies alternate (secondary) keys, as illustrated in the DEPARTMENT and
PROJECT table declarations.

Ex: DnameVARCHAR(15) UNIQUE;

Referential integrity is specified via the FOREIGN KEY clause. A referential integrity constraint can be
violated when tuples 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, which is known as the RESTRICT option. However, the schema designer can
specify an alternative action to be taken 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. We illustrate this with the examples shown in create
table Here, the database designer chooses ON DELETE SET NULL and ON UPDATE CASCADE for
the foreign key Super_ssn of EMPLOYEE. This means that if the tuple for a supervising employee is

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deleted, the value of Super_ssnis automatically set to NULLfor all employee tuples that were referencing
the deleted employee tuple.On the other hand,if the Ssnvalue for a supervising employee is updated
(say,because it was entered incorrectly),the new value is cascaded to Super_ssn for all employee tuples
referencing the updated employee tuple.8

4.2.3 Giving Names to Constraints

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.

Ex: CONSTRAINT EMPPK PRIMARY KEY (Ssn).

4.2.4 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.Forexample,suppose that the DEPARTMENTtable
in Figure 4.1 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 later than the department creation
date.

CHECK (Dept_create_date<= Mgr_start_date);

4.3 Basic Retrieval Queries in SQL

SQL allows a table (relation) to have two or more tuples that are identical in all their attribute
values.Hence,in general, an SQL table is not a set of tuples, because a set does not allow two identical
members; rather,it is a multiset (sometimes called a bag) of tuples.

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4.3.1 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,
isformed 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 <>(not equal operator).

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Query 1.

Ex:Retrieve the birth date and address of the employee(s) whose name is ‘John B.Smith’.

SELECTBdate, Address FROM EMPLOYEE WHEREFname=‘John’ AND Minit=‘B’ AND

Lname=‘Smith’;

Query 1.a.

Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the ‘Research’department.

SELECT Fname, Lname, Address FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT WHERE Dname=‘Research’

AND Dnumber=Dno;

In the WHERE clause of query, the condition Dname = ‘Research’is a selection condition that chooses
the particular tuple of interest in the DEPARTMENT table,becauseDname is an attribute of
DEPARTMENT. The condition Dnumber = Dno is called a join condition, because it combines two
tuples: one from DEPARTMENT and one from EMPLOYEE, whenever the value of Dnumber in
DEPARTMENT is equal to the value of Dno in EMPLOYEE.

A query that involves only selection and join conditions plus projection attributes is known as a select-
project-join query. The next example is a select-project-join query with two join conditions.

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.

SELECT Pnumber, Dnum, Lname, Address, Bdate FROM PROJECT, DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE
WHERE Dnum=Dnumber AND Mgr_ssn=Ssn AND Plocation=‘Stafford’;

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The join condition Dnum = Dnumber relates a project tuple to its controlling department tuple,whereas
the join condition Mgr_ssn=Ssnrelates the controlling department tuple to the employee tuple who
manages that department.

4.3.2 Ambiguous Attribute Names, Aliasing, Renaming, 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 a multitable 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.

SELECT Fname, EMPLOYEE.Name, Address FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT WHERE

DEPARTMENT.Name=‘Research’ AND DEPARTMENT.Dnumber=EMPLOYEE.Dnumber;

We can also create an alias for each table name to avoid repeated typing of long table names.

For each employee, retrieve the employee’s first and last name and the first and last name of his or
her immediate supervisor.

SELECT E.Fname, E.Lname, S.Fname, S.Lname

FROM EMPLOYEE AS E, EMPLOYEE AS S WHERE E.Super_ssn=S.Ssn;

In this case, we are required 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 Query,or it can
directly follow the relation name—for example, by writing EMPLOYEE E, EMPLOYEE S in the FROM
clause of Query.

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, Bd, Addr, Sex, Sal, Sssn, Dno) in the
FROMclause,Fn becomes an alias for Fname,Mi for Minit,Ln for Lname,and so on.

In Query,we can think of E and S as two different copies of the EMPLOYEErelation;the first, E,
represents employees in the role of supervisees or subordinates; the second, S, represents employees in
the role of supervisors.

4.3.3 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

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specified in the FROM clause and there is no WHERE clause, then the CROSS PRODUCT—all possible
tuple combinations—of these relations is selected.

Queries 9 and 10.

Select all EMPLOYEE Ssns (Q9) and all combinations of EMPLOYEE Ssn and DEPARTMENT Dname
(Q10) in the database.

Q9: SELECT Ssn FROM EMPLOYEE;

Q10: SELECT Ssn, Dname FROM EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT;

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

4.3.4 Tables as Sets in SQL

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.

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.

Query 11. Retrieve the salary of every employee (Q11) and all distinct salary values

(Q11A).

Q11: SELECT ALL Salary FROM EMPLOYEE;

Q11A: SELECT DISTINCT Salary FROM EMPLOYEE;

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

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SQL has directly incorporated some of the set operations from mathematical set theory,which are also
part of relational algebra (see Chapter 6).There are set union (UNION), set difference (EXCEPT) and set
intersection (INTERSECT) operations. The relations resulting from these set operations are sets of
tuples; that is, duplicate tuples are eliminated from the result. These set operations apply only to union-
compatible relations, so 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 next example
illustrates the use of UNION.

Query 4. Make a list of all 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.

(SELECT DISTINCT Pnumber FROM PROJECT, DEPARTMENT, EMPLOYEE WHERE

Dnum=Dnumber AND Mgr_ssn=Ssn AND Lname=‘Smith’)

UNION

( SELECT DISTINCT Pnumber FROM PROJECT, WORKS_ON, EMPLOYEE WHERE Pnumber=Pno

AND Essn=Ssn AND Lname=‘Smith’);

4.3.5 Substring Pattern Matching and Arithmetic Operators

In this section we discuss several more features of SQL.The first feature 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.Forexample,consider the
following query.

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Query 12.Retrieve all employees whose address is in Houston,Texas.

SELECT Fname, Lname FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Address LIKE ‘%Houston,TX%’;

Query 12A.Find all employees who were born during the 1950s.

SELECT Fname, Lname FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Bdate LIKE ‘_ _ 5 _ _ _ _ _ _ _’;

Another feature allows the use of arithmetic in queries. The standard arithmetic operators for addition (+),
subtraction (–), multiplication (*), and division (/) can be applied to numeric values or attributes with
numeric domains.

Query 13.Show the resulting salaries if every employee working on the ‘ProductX’project is given a
10 percent raise.

SELECT E.Fname, E.Lname, 1.1 * E.Salary AS Increased_sal FROM EMPLOYEE AS E, WORKS_ON

AS W, PROJECT AS P WHERE E.Ssn=W.Essn AND W.Pno=P.Pnumber AND P.Pname=‘ProductX’;

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

Query 14.Retrieve all employees in department 5 whose salary is between $30,000 and $40,000.

SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE (Salary BETWEEN 30000 AND 40000) AND Dno = 5;

The condition (Salary BETWEEN30000AND40000) in Q14is equivalent to the condition

((Salary >= 30000) AND (Salary <= 40000)).

4.3.6 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 of the
attributes that appear in the query result, by using the ORDER BY clause.

Ex: SELECT Salary FROM EMPLOYEE ORDER BY Salary ;

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.The keyword ASCcan be used to specify ascending order explicitly.

4.3.7 Discussion and Summary of Basic SQL Retrieval Queries

A simple retrieval query in SQL can consist of up to four clauses, but only the first two—SELECT and
FROM—are mandatory. The clauses are specified in the following order,with the clauses between square
brackets [ ... ] being optional:

SELECT <attribute list> FROM <table list>[ WHERE<condition> ] [ ORDER BY <attribute list> ];

The SELECTclause lists the attributes to be retrieved,and the FROMclause specifies all relations (tables)
needed in the simple query. The WHERE clause identifies the conditions for selecting the tuples from
these relations, including join conditions if needed.ORDERBYspecifiesan order for displaying the results
of a query.

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4.4 INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE Statements in SQL

4.4.1 The INSERT Command

In its simplest form,INSERTis 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.

Ex: INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE VALUES ( ‘Richard’,‘K’,‘Marini’,‘653298653’,‘1962-12-30’,‘98

Oak Forest, Katy, TX’,‘M’, 37000,‘653298653’, 4 );

A second form of the INSERT statement allows the user to specify explicit attribute names that
correspond to the values provided in the INSERTcommand.This is useful if a relation has many attributes
but only a few of those attributes are assigned values in the new tuple.

INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE (Fname, Lname, Dno, Ssn) VALUES (‘Richard’,‘Marini’,

4,‘653298653’);

Attributes not specified in the above query are set to their DEFAULT or to NULL, and the values are
listed in the same order as the attributes are listed in the INSERTcommand itself.

A variation of the INSERT command inserts multiple tuples into a relation in conjunction with creating
the relation and loading it with the result of a query.

CREATE TABLE WORKS_ON_INFO (Emp_nameVARCHAR(15), Proj_name VARCHAR(15),

Hours_per_week DECIMAL(3,1) );

INSERT INTO WORKS_ON_INFO ( Emp_name, Proj_name, Hours_per_week )

SELECT E.Lname, P.Pname, W.Hours FROM PROJECT P, WORKS_ON W, EMPLOYEE E
WHERE P.Pnumber=W.Pno AND W.Essn=E.Ssn;

4.4.2 The DELETE Command

The DELETE command removes tuples from a relation.It includes a WHERE clause, similar to that used
in an SQL query, 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.

Ex: DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Lname=‘Brown’;

DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Ssn=‘123456789’;

DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Dno=5;

DELETE FROM EMPLOYEE;

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The above DELETE commands if applied independently to the database in Figure 3.6,will delete
zero,one,four,and all tuples,respectively,from the EMPLOYEErelation:

4.4.3 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 the below query

UPDATE PROJECT SET Plocation = ‘Bellaire’,Dnum =5 WHERE Pnumber=10;

Several tuples can be modified with a single UPDATE command. An example is to give all employees in
the ‘Research’department a 10 percent raise in salary.

UPDATE EMPLOYEE SET Salary = Salary * 1.1 WHERE Dno = 5;

It is also possible to specify NULLor DEFAULTas the new attribute value.

4.5 Additional Features of SQL

SQL has a number of additional features .These are as follows:

SQL has various techniques for specifying complex retrieval queries, including nested queries, aggregate
functions, grouping, joined tables,outerjoins,and recursive queries; SQL views,triggers,and assertions;
and commands for schema modification.

■ SQL has various techniques for writing programs in various programming languages that include SQL
statements to access one or more databases. These include embedded (and dynamic) SQL, SQL/CLI (Call
Level Interface) and its predecessor ODBC (Open Data Base Connectivity), and SQL/PSM (Persistent
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.

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

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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.

■ SQL has incorporated many features from object-oriented models to have more powerful
capabilities,leading to enhanced relational systems known as object-relational.

■ SQL and relational databases can interact with new technologies such as XML .

SUNIL G L Asst. Professor, Dept of CSE(DS), RNSIT . Page 37