Database Management Systems UNIT-II

1. What is Relational Model? It was proposed by E.F. Codd in 1970 to model data in the
form of relations ortables since then it was the most widely used data model and in fact, the
only used database management system today in the world.
It represents how data is stored in Relational Databases. A relational model stores data in the
form of relations (tables). Each relation has columns and rows which are formally called
attributes and tuples respectively. Each tuple in relation is a real-world entity.
Relational Model Diagram
The basic structure of a relational model is tables. So, the tables are alsocalled relations
in the relational model.
The figure below will help you identify the relation, attributes, and tuples in arelational model.
It is an Employee relation and it is having entries of 6 employees (tuples) in it.

Terminology
— Relations / Tables – Relations are saved in the table format. A table has two properties
rows and columns. Rows represent records and columns represent attributes.
— Attribute: A column header is called an attribute. A column of a relation designated by
name. The name associated should be meaningful. Each attributes associates with a
domain.
— Tuple: A single row of a table, which contains a single record for that relation, is called
a tuple.
— Degree: The total number of attributes in a relation.
— Cardinality: Total number of rows present in the Table.
— Domain: The data type describing the types of values that can appear in each column is
called a domain. Set of possible values for an attribute.
— Relation instance: A finite set of tuples in the relational database system represents
relation instance. Relation instances do not have duplicate tuples.
— Relation Schema: This describes the relation name (table name), attributes and their
names. A relation schema denoted by R is a list of attributes (A1, A2, …, An) The
degree of the relation is the number of attributes of its relation schema.
— Relation key: Each row has one or more attributes which can identify the row in the
relation (table) uniquely, is called the relation key.
Characteristics
— Each relation in a database must have a distinct or unique name.
— Each attribute must have a distinct name (no two attributes should have the same
name).
— Duplicate tuples must not be present in a relation.
— Each tuple must have exactly one data value for an attribute.
— No ordering is required for tuples, similarly for attributes also.
Advantages
— Simplicity: This model is simpler as compared to the network and hierarchicalmodel.
— Scalable: This model can be easily scaled as we can add as many rows and columns we
want.
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— Structural Independence: We can make changes in database structure without
changing the way to access the data. When we can make changes to the database
structure without affecting the capability to DBMS to access the data we can say that
structural independence has been achieved.
— Easy to use: This model in DBMS is easy as tables consisting of rows andcolumns
are quite natural and simple to understand.
— Query capability: It makes possible for a high-level query language like SQLto avoid
complex database navigation.
— Data independence: The Structure of Relational database can be changed without
having to change any application.
Disadvantages
— Few relational databases have limits on field lengths which can't be exceeded.
— Relational databases can sometimes become complex as the amount of data grows, and
the relations between pieces of data become more complicated.
— Complex relational database systems may lead to isolated databases where the
information cannot be shared from one system to another.
2. Importance of Null values: IN sql, NULL is used to represent a missing value, but that it
usually has one of three different interpretations—value unknown (exists but is not known),
value not available (exists but is purposely withheld), or value not applicable (the attribute is
undefined for this tuple).
 Consider the following examples to illustrate each of the meanings of NULL.
• Unknown value. A person’s date of birth is not known, so it is represented by NULL in
the database.
• Unavailable or withheld value. A person has a home phone but does not want it to be
listed, so it is withheld and represented as NULL in the database.
• Not applicable attribute. An attribute LastCollegeDegree would be NULL for a person
who has no college degrees because it does not apply to that person.
 It is often not possible to determine which of the meanings is intended; for example, a
NULL for the home phone of a person can have any of the three meanings.
 Hence, SQL does not distinguish between the different meanings of NULL.
 When a NULL is involved in a comparison operation, the result is considered to be
UNKNOWN (it may be TRUE or it may be FALSE).
 Hence, SQL uses a three-valued logic with values TRUE, FALSE, and
 UNKNOWN instead of the standard two-valued (Boolean) logic with values TRUE or
FALSE.
 It is therefore necessary to define the results (or truth values) of three-valued logical
expressions when the logical connectives AND, OR, and NOT are used.
 We usually use IS NULL and IS NOT NULL operators to compare with NULL values.

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Syntax:
• select col_names from tablename where col_name IS NULL;
• select col_names from tablename where col_name IS NOT NULL;
3. Integrity Constraints: They are referred to as conditions that are applied to the
relation/table to ensure the correctness of the data in the database. These constraints are checked
before performing any operation in database. If there is a violation in any of constrains,
operation will fail. Thus, integrity constraint is used to guard against accidental damage to the
database.
There are mostly divided into three main categories are:
a) Domain Constraints
b) Entity Integrity Constraints
c) Referential Integrity Constraints
d) Key Constraints
a. Domain Constraint
— Domain constraint defines the domain or set of possible values for anattribute.
— It specifies that the value taken by the attribute must be from its domain only.
— Example: Consider the following Student table
— Here, value ‘Z’ is not allowed since only positive integer values can be taken by the age
attribute.
Roll_no Name Age

S001 Akshay 20

S013 Krishna 23

S056 Vivek Z

S054 Raghu 21

b. Entity Integrity constraint: Entity integrity constraint ensures that the primary key attribute
in a relation, should not accept a null value. This is because the primary key attribute value
uniquely defines an entity in a relation.
Example: Consider the following Student table
Roll_no Name Age
S001 Akshay 20

S013 Krishna 23

S056 Vivek 20

Raghu 21

Not allowed, as primary key can’t contain a NULL value.

c. Referential Integrity Constraints: A referential integrity constraint is specified between two
tables to establish a relationship/link between them. They are implemented in the name of
foreign keys.
It states that if a foreign key exists in a relation, then either the foreign key value must match a
primary key value of some tuple in its parent relation or its value must be null.
The rules are:
• You can't delete a record from a primary table if matching records exist in a child table.
• You can't change a primary key value in the primary table if that record has child
records.
• You can't enter a value in the foreign key field of the child table that doesn'texist in the
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primary key of the parent table.
• However, you can enter a Null value in the foreign key, specifying that the records
are unrelated.
Example: Consider 2 relations “Dept" and “Emp" where “D_No" is the primary key in
the “Dept" relation and foreign key in the “Emp" relation.
In this, if a foreign key in Emp table refers to the Primary Key of Dept table, then every value
of the Foreign Key in Emp table must be null or be available in Dept Table.

d. Key Constraints: A Key Constraint is a statement that a certain minimal subset of

the fields of arelation is a unique identifier for a tuple.
There are 4 types of key constraints-
• Super Key
• Candidate key.
• Primary key
• Foreign key.
Example: Let us understand the key constraints with the two relations STUDENT and
STUDENT-COURSE.
Relation: STUDENT
STUD_NO NAME AGE Mobile_No
Relation: STUDENT-COURSE
512 Akshara 20 9876723452
STUD_NO COURSE_NO COURSE_NAME
513 Krishna 23 9991165674
512 C1 DBMS
546 Vivek 20 7898756543
546 C2 PYTHON
557 Raghu 21 8987867898
512 C2 PYTHON
595 Krishna 22 9876543210

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• Candidate Key
— The minimal set of attributes which can uniquely identify a tuple isknown as
a candidate key. For example, STUD_NO in STUDENT relation.
— A candidate key can never be NULL or empty and its value should be unique.
— There can be more than one candidate keys for table. For example, STUD_NO, as well
as MOBILE_NO both, are candidate keys for relationSTUDENT.
— The candidate key can be simple or composite. For Example, {STUD_NO,
COURSE_NO} is a composite candidate key for relation STUDENT_COURSE.
• Super Key
— The set of attributes which can uniquely identify a tuple is known as Super Key. For
Example, STUD_NO, (STUD_NO, STUD_NAME), MOBILE_NO, etc.
— Adding zero or more attributes to candidate key generates a super key.
— Super Key is a super set of Candidate key.
— A candidate key is a super key but vice versa is not true.
• Primary Key
— There can be more than one candidate key in a relation out of which one can be
chosen as a primary key.
For Example, STUD_NO as well as MOBILE_NO both are candidate keys for relation
STUDENT but STUD_NO can be chosen as primary key.
• Secondary or Alternative key
— The candidate key other than the primary key is called an alternate key / Secondary
key.
For Example, STUD_NO, as well as MOBILE_NO both, are candidate keys for relation
STUDENT but STUD_PHONE will be alternate key.
• Foreign Key
If an attribute can only take the values which are present as values of some other
attribute, it will be a foreign key to the attribute to which it refers.
The relation which is being referenced is called referenced relation and the
corresponding attribute is called referenced attribute and the relation which refers to the
referenced relation is called referencing relation and the corresponding attribute is called
referencing attribute.
The referenced attribute of the referenced relation should be the primary key for it. For
Example, STUD_NO in STUDENT_COURSE is a foreign key to STUD_NO in STUDENT
relation.
Foreign key can be NULL as well as may contain duplicate tuples i.e., it need not follow
uniqueness constraint.
For Example, STUD_NO in STUDENT_COURSE relation is not unique. It has been repeated
for the first and third tuple. However, the STUD_NO in STUDENT relation is a primary key
and it needs to be always unique and it cannot be null.
4. Operations in Relational Model
Four basic operations performed on relational database model are
— Insert is used to insert data into the relation
— Delete is used to delete tuples from the relation.
— Modify allows you to change the values of some attributes in existing tuples.
— Select allows you to retrieve a specific range of data.
Whenever one of these operations is applied, integrity constraints specified on the relational
database schema must never be violated.

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Relational Algebra
5. What is query language?
Query language which is used to store and retrieve data from the database.
(Or)
It is a specialized language for asking questions, or queries, that involve the data in adatabase.
There are two types of query language:
a) Procedural Query language
b) Non-procedural Query language
Procedural Query language:
— It describes step-by-step procedure for computing the desired answer.
— Queries are specified in an operational manner. Useful for representingexecution plans.
Example: Relational Algebra - conceptual procedural query language used on relational
model.
Non - procedural Query language:
— It describes the desired answer without specifying how the answer is to be computed.
— Non - operational, declarative.
Example: Relational Calculus - conceptual non-procedural query language used on
relational model.
For example – Let’s take a real-world example to understand the procedural language, you are
asking your younger brother to make a cup of tea, if you are just telling him to make a tea and
not telling the process then it is a non-procedural language, however if you are telling the step-
by-step process like switch on the stove, boil the water, add milk etc. then it is a procedural
language.

— Relational algebra and calculus are the theoretical concepts used onrelational model.
— RDBMS is a practical implementation of relational model.
— SQL is a practical implementation of relational algebra and calculus.
6. What is Relational Algebra: Relational algebra is a procedural query language that works
on relational model. The purpose of a query language is to retrieve data from database or
perform various operations such as insert, update, and delete on the data. When I say that
relational algebra is a procedural query language, it means that it tells what data to be
retrieved and how to be retrieved.
Types of operations: Two types of operations in relational algebra, they are:
— Basic Operations
a) Select (σ)
b) Project (∏)
c) Union (𝖴𝖴)
d) Set Difference (-)
e) Cartesian product (X)
f) Rename (ρ)

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— Derived Operations
1. Natural Join (⋈)
2. Left, Right, Full outer join (⟕, ⟖, ⟗)
3. Set Intersection (∩)
4. Division (÷)
Basic Operations
a) Select Operator (σ): It is denoted by sigma (σ), and it is used to find the tuples (or rows) in a
relation (ortable) which satisfy the given condition.
Syntax of Select Operator (σ): σ Condition/Predicate (Relation / Table_name)
Where
— σ indicates selection predicate
— Predicate/Condition is a propositional logic formula which may use relational operators
like and, or, and not.
Query: σ account_type = ‘saving’ (Account)
Output – It selects tuples from relation Account where the account type is ‘saving’.
b) Projection (∏): It is denoted by pi (∏) symbol, and it is used to select desired columns (or
attributes) from a table (or relation). It is like the Select statement in SQL and syntaxis:
∏ column_name1, column_name2... column_nameN (Relation/ Table_name)
Where Column_name1, Column_name2, Column_nameN are attributes of Relation.
Example: We have a relation STUDENT with four columns; we want to fetch only two
columns of the table, which we can do with the help of projection operator ∏.
Query: ∏ std_name, std_city (Student)
Output: It selects attributes std_name and std_city from relation Student.
c) Union (𝖴𝖴): It is used to select all the rows (tuples) from two tables (relations). It is denoted
by symbol 𝖴𝖴. Its syntax is: R1 𝖴𝖴 R2 Where R1 and R2 are the relations.
For example, in r1 𝖴𝖴 r2, the union of two relations r1 and r2 produces an output relation that
contains all the tuples of r1, or r2, or both r1 and r2, duplicate tuples being eliminated.
For a union operation to be valid, the following conditions must hold on to bothrelations
— Both Tables must be union compatible i.e., same set of attributes + domains.
— Duplicate tuples should be automatically removed.
Example 1: Consider the two relations R and S, each with two attributes A and B.

Example 2: To find all customers with either an account or a loan

∏ customer_name (Depositor) 𝖴𝖴 ∏ customer_name (Borrower)
Output: It gives the customer_name from both relation Depositor and Borrower byeliminating
duplication.
d) Set Difference (−): It is denoted by ― symbol. Let us say, we have two relation R and S,
then the set difference operation R – S, produces a relation consisting of the tuples that are in
relation R, but not in S. Both the relations R and S must be union compatible. The syntax is:
Relation_name1 ― Relation_name2
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Example 1: Consider the two relations R and S, each with two attributes A and B.

Example 2: To find only depositors who are not taking any loan.
∏customer-name (Depositor) ― ∏customer-name (Borrower)
Output: It gives the customer_name which are present in relation Depositor but not in relation
Borrower.
e) Cartesian product (X): It is denoted by X symbol. It is also known as Cross product.
Cartesian product of the two relations (R X S) would combine each tuple of first relation R
with every tuple of second relation S and its syntax is: Relation_name1 X Relation_name2
Note: The result set contains attributes of both the relations.
Example 1: Consider the two relations R and S, each with one attribute A and B respectively.
• The cardinality (number of tuples) of Cross Product is m*n where m is number of tuples
in the first relation and n is number of tuples in the second relation.
• The degree (number of attributes) of Cross Product is p+q where p is number of
attributes in the first relation and q is number of attributes in the second relation.

For the below result set, Cardinality = 2*3 =>6Degree = 1+1 => 2
• Generally, we use Cartesian product followed by a Selection operation and comparison
on the operators as shown below:
σ condition (R ✕ S)
The above query gives meaningful results.
Example 2: σ city = ‘Kolkata’ (Depositor Χ Borrower)
Output – It selects all tuples from both relations Depositor and Borrower where cityis Kolkata.
f) Set Intersection (∩): It is denoted by ∩ symbol and it is used to select common rows (tuples)
from two tables (relations).
Let’s say we have two relations R and S both have same columns, and we want to select all
those tuples (rows) that are present in both the relations, then in that case we can apply
intersection operation on these two relations R ∩ S.
Note: Only those rows that are present in both the relations will appear in the resultset.
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Syntax: Relation_name1 ∩ Relation_name2
For an intersection operation to be valid, the following conditions must hold on bothrelations –
• Both Relations must be union compatible i.e., same set of attributes + domains.
Example 1: Consider the two relations R and S, each with two attributes A and B.

Example 2: Display customer names who are depositor as well as borrower.

∏ customer-name (Depositor) Ո ∏ customer-name (Borrower) Output: It
gives the customer_name which are present in both the relations.
g) Rename (ρ): The results of relational algebra operations are always the relations, but they are
without any name. The rename operation allows user to rename the output relation. It is
denoted by using ρ (rho) and its syntax is: ρ x (E)
Where E is the expression with different relational algebra operations and x is the name
given to their result.
Example: Let’s say we have a relation CUSTOMER, we are fetching customer names and we
are renaming the resulted relation to CUST_NAMES.
ρ (CUST_NAMES, ∏ (Customer_Name) (CUSTOMER))
Output – The output relation from the expression, ∏ (Customer_Name) (CUSTOMER) rename
with CUST_NAMES.
h) Division operation (/): Consider two relation instances R and S in which R has (exactly)
two fields x and y and S has just one field y, with the same domain as in R. We define the
division operation R / S as the set of all x values such that for every y value in S, there is a
tuple ‹x, y › in R.
Example that illustrates division operation:

Derived Operations Join (⋈): One of the most useful operations in relational algebra. This is
the most common way to combine information from two or more relations. It defined as a
cartesian product followed by selections and projections. A Join operation combines two
tuples from two different relations, if and only if a given condition is satisfied. Thus, join is a
subset of cartesian product.
There are mainly two types of joins which are further divided as follows:
g) Inner Join
• Natural join.
• Theta join.
• Equi join.
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h) Outer join
• Left Outer Join.
• Right Outer Join.
• Full Outer Join.
Inner Joins
In an inner join, only those tuples that satisfy the matching criteria are included, while the rest
are excluded.
• 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, and its
syntax is: R ⋈ S Where R and S are the two relations joined using natural join.
Example: We have two relations of S (num, square) and C (num, cube). Now, we will perform
natural join on both the relations i.e., ∏ num, square, cube (S⋈C)
Output: The result of natural join is the set of tuples of all combinations in S and C that are
equal on their common attribute names.

• Theta (θ) Join: It is denoted by the symbol θ and it combines those tuples from different
relations which satisfies the condition. It can use any conditions in the selection criteria such
as <, >, >=, <=, etc. Its syntax is R1 ⋈θ R2 Where R1 and R2 are relations such that they
don't have any common attribute. It means R1∩ R2 = Φ.
Example: We have two relations of Student (sid, sname, std) and Course (class, subject).
Now, we will perform theta join on both the relations i.e.,
STUDENT ⋈student.std ≥ course.class COURSE

Output: The result of theta join is the set of tuples of all combinations in Student and Course
that are satisfying the given condition.

• EQUI join: When a theta join uses only equivalence condition, it becomes an equi-join.
STUDENT ⋈student.std = course.class COURSE
Output:

OUTER JOIN:
In outer join, along with tuples that satisfy the matching criteria, we also include some or
all tuples that do not match the criteria.
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• Left Outer Join (⟕): This join returns all the tuples of the left relation and matching tuples
for the right 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. Syntax is: R1 ⟕
R2 where R1 and R2 are relations.

Fig.: Venn diagram for Left join

Example: We have two relations of S (num, square) and C (num, cube). Now, we will perform
left outer join on both the relations i.e., S ⟕ C

Output:

• Right Outer Join (⟖): This join returns all the tuples of the right relation and matching tuples for
the left relation. However, if there is no matching tuple is found in left relation, then the attributes of
left relation in the join result are filled with NULL values. Syntax is: R1 ⟖ R2 where R1 and R2 are
relations.

Fig.: Venn diagram for Right join.

Example: By considering the previous relations, we obtain the following result when we apply
the right outer join on both relations. i.e., S ⟖ C
Output:

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• Full Outer Join (⟗): In a full outer join, all tuples from both relations are included in the result,
irrespective of the matching condition. The rows for which there is no matching, the result-set will
contain NULL. Syntax is: R1 ⟗ R2 Where R1 and R2 are relations.

Fig.: Venn diagram for Full join.

Example: By considering the previous relations, we obtain the following result when we apply
the full join on both relations. i.e., S ⟗ COutput:

7. Relational Calculus: It is a non-procedural query language that tells the system what data to be
retrieved but doesn’t tell how to retrieve it. It only focuses on what to do, and not on how to do it. It
exists in two forms:
a) Tuple Relational Calculus (TRC)
b) Domain Relational Calculus (DRC)
a) Tuple Relational Calculus (TRC): It is used for selecting those tuples that satisfy the
given condition. In Tuple Calculus,a query is expressed as: {t | P (t)}
Where t = resulting tuples
P (t) = known as Predicate or is the condition used to fetch t.
Note: P (t) may have various conditions logically combined with OR (∨), AND (𝖠𝖠),
NOT(¬).
For example: {T.name | Student (T) AND T.address = ‘Guntur’}
Output: This query selects the tuples from the STUDENT relation. It returns a tuple with
'name' from Student whose address is 'guntur'.
b) Domain Relational Calculus (DRC): In domain relational calculus, filtering is done based
on the domain of the attributesand not based on the tuple values. In Domain Calculus, a query
is expressed as: {c1, c2, c3, ..., cn | P (c1, c2, c3, ... ,cn) }
Where c1, c2... etc. represents domain of attributes (columns).
P defines the formula including the condition for fetching the data.

For example: {< name, address > | ∈ Student 𝖠𝖠 address = 'guntur’}

This query selects the tuples from the STUDENT relation. It returns attributes name, address
from Student whose address is 'guntur'.

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Example: Consider the Sailors-Boats-Reserves database described in the text.
Sailors (sid: integer, sname: string, rating: integer, age: real)
Boats (bid: integer, bname: string, color: string)
Reserves (sid: integer, bid: integer, day: date)
Write each of the following queries in Relational Algebra:
• Display the details of sailors who have rating greater than 8.
• Display the details of red color boats.
• Display the name and age of all sailors.
• Find names of sailors who have ratings at least 8.
• Find the names of sailors who have reserved boat 103.
• Find the sids of sailors who have reserved green boat.
• Find the names of sailors who have reserved a red boat.
• Find the colors of boats reserved by Lubber.
• Find the names of boats reserved by Dustin.
Relation: Sailors Relation: Reserves
sid sname rating age sid bid day
22 Dustin 7 45.0 22 101 10/10/98
29 Brutus 1 33.0 22 102 10/10/98
31 Lubber 8 55.5 22 103 10/8/98
32 Andy 8 25.5 22 104 10/7/98
58 Rusty 10 35.0 31 102 11/10/98
64 Horatio 7 35.0 31 103 11/6/98
71 Zobra 10 16.0 31 104 11/12/98
74 Horatio 9 35.0 64 101 9/5/98
85 Art 3 25.5 64 102 9/8/98
95 Bob 3 63.5 74 103 9/8/98
Relation: Boats
bid bname color
101 Interlake blue
102 Interlake red
103 Clipper green
104 Marine red

• Display the details of sailors who have rating greater than 8.

σ rating > 8 (SAILORS)

• Display the details of red color boats.

σ color =’red’ (BOATS)

• Display the name and age of all sailors.

∏ sname, age (SAILORS)

• Find the names of sailors who have ratings at least 8?

∏ sname (σ rating >=8 (SAILORS))

• Find the names of sailors who have reserved boat 103?

∏ sname ((σ bid = 8 (RESERVES) ⋈ SAILORS)

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• Find the sid of sailors who have reserved green boat.

∏ sid ((σ color=’green’ (BOATS) ⋈ RESERVES)

• Find the names of sailors who have reserved a red boat.

∏ sname ((σ color =’red’ (BOATS) ⋈ RESERVES ⋈ SAILORS)

• Find the colors of boats reserved by Lubber.

∏ color ((σ sname =’Lubber’ (SAILORS) ⋈ RESERVES ⋈ BOATS)

• Find the names of boats reserved by Dustin.

∏ bname ((σ sname =’Dustin’ (SAILORS) ⋈ RESERVES ⋈ BOATS)

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