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The Relational Data Model

The Relational Data Model is based on the concept of a Relation, which is a mathematical representation of data organized in tables of rows and columns. Each row, or tuple, represents a unique fact about a real-world entity, while columns, or attributes, define the properties of these entities. The model was proposed by Dr. E.F. Codd in 1970 and emphasizes the formal foundation provided by the theory of relations.

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2 views

The Relational Data Model

The Relational Data Model is based on the concept of a Relation, which is a mathematical representation of data organized in tables of rows and columns. Each row, or tuple, represents a unique fact about a real-world entity, while columns, or attributes, define the properties of these entities. The model was proposed by Dr. E.F. Codd in 1970 and emphasizes the formal foundation provided by the theory of relations.

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sushilmalik07info
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Relational Data Model

Relational Model Concepts


 The relational Model of Data is based on the concept of a Relation.
 A Relation is a mathematical concept based on the ideas of sets.
 The strength of the relational approach to data management comes from the formal
foundation provided by the theory of relations.

The model was first proposed by Dr. E.F. Codd of IBM in 1970 in the following paper:
"A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks," Communications of the ACM, June 1970.

RELATION: A table of values


– A relation may be thought of as a set of rows.
– A relation may alternately be though of as a set of columns.
– Each row represents a fact that corresponds to a real-world entity or relationship.
– Each row has a value of an item or set of items that uniquely identifies that row in
the table.
– Sometimes row-ids or sequential numbers are assigned to identify the rows in the
table.
– Each column typically is called by its column name or column header or attribute
name.

FORMAL DEFINITIONS
 A Relation may be defined in multiple ways.
 The Schema of a Relation: R (A1, A2, .....An)
Relation schema R is defined over attributes A1, A2, .....An
For Example -
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#)

Here, CUSTOMER is a relation defined over the four attributes Cust-id, Cust-name, Address,
Phone#, each of which has a domain or a set of valid values.
For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.
Tuple
 A tuple is an ordered set of values
 Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
 Each row in the CUSTOMER table may be referred to as a tuple in the table and would
consist of four values.
 <632895, "John Smith", "101 Main St. Atlanta, GA 30332", "(404) 894-2000">
is a tuple belonging to the CUSTOMER relation.
 A relation may be regarded as a set of tuples (rows).
 Columns in a table are also called attributes of the relation.

Domain
 A domain has a logical definition: e.g.,
“USA_phone_numbers” are the set of 10 digit phone numbers valid in the U.S.
 A domain may have a data-type or a format defined for it. The USA_phone_numbers
may have a format: (ddd)-ddd-dddd where each d is a decimal digit. E.g., Dates have
various formats such as monthname, date, year or yyyy-mm-dd, or dd mm,yyyy etc.
 An attribute designates the role played by the domain. E.g., the domain Date may be used
to define attributes “Invoice-date” and “Payment-date”.
In Relation
 The relation is formed over the cartesian product of the sets; each set has values from a
domain; that domain is used in a specific role which is conveyed by the attribute name.
 For example, attribute Cust-name is defined over the domain of strings of 26 characters.
The role these strings play in the CUSTOMER relation is that of the name of customers.
 Formally,
Given R(A1 , A2, .........., An)
r(R)  dom (A1) X dom (A2) X ....X dom(An)
 R: schema of the relation
 r of R: a specific "value" or population of R.
 R is also called the intension of a relation
 r is also called the extension of a relation
 Let S1 = {0,1}
 Let S2 = {a,b,c}
 Let R  S1 X S2
 Then for example: r(R) = {<0,a> , <0,b> , <1,c> }
is one possible “state” or “population” or “extension” r of the relation R, defined over
domains S1 and S2. It has three tuples.

Informal Terms Formal Terms

Table Relation

Column Attribute/Domain

Row Tuple

Values in a column Domain

Table Definition Schema of a Relation

Populated Table Extension

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