Chapter 2: Intro to Relational Model

Database System Concepts, 7th Ed.

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 Example of a Instructor Relation

attributes
(or columns)

tuples
(or rows)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relation Schema and Instance

▪ A1, A2, …, An are attributes

▪ R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema
Example:
instructor = (ID, name, dept_name, salary)
▪ A relation instance r defined over schema R is denoted by r (R).
▪ The current values a relation are specified by a table
▪ An element t of relation r is called a tuple and is represented by
a row in a table

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Attributes

▪ The set of allowed values for each attribute is called the domain of the
attribute
▪ Attribute values are (normally) required to be atomic; that is, indivisible
▪ The special value null is a member of every domain. Indicated that the
value is “unknown”
▪ The null value causes complications in the definition of many operations

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relations are Unordered

▪ Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an arbitrary order)

▪ Example: instructor relation with unordered tuples

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Database Schema

▪ Database schema -- is the logical structure of the database.

▪ Database instance -- is a snapshot of the data in the database at a given
instant in time.
▪ Example:
• schema: instructor (ID, name, dept_name, salary)
• Instance:

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys

▪ Let K  R
▪ K is a superkey of R if values for K are sufficient to identify a unique tuple
of each possible relation r(R)
• Example: {ID} and {ID,name} are both superkeys of instructor.
▪ Superkey K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {ID} is a candidate key for Instructor
▪ One of the candidate keys is selected to be the primary key.
• Which one?
▪ Foreign key constraint: Value in one relation must appear in another
• Referencing relation
• Referenced relation
• Example: dept_name in instructor is a foreign key from instructor
referencing department

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema Diagram for University Database

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Algebra

▪ A procedural language consisting of a set of operations that take one or

two relations as input and produce a new relation as their result.
▪ Six basic operators
• select: 
• project: 
• union: 
• set difference: –
• Cartesian product: x
• rename: 

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation

▪ The select operation selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate.

▪ Notation:  p (r)
▪ p is called the selection predicate
▪ Example: select those tuples of the instructor relation where the
instructor is in the “Physics” department.
• Query
 dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)
• Result

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation (Cont.)

▪ We allow comparisons using

=, , >, . <. 
in the selection predicate.
▪ We can combine several predicates into a larger predicate by using the
connectives:
 (and),  (or),  (not)
▪ Example: Find the instructors in Physics with a salary greater $90,000, we
write:
 dept_name=“Physics”  salary > 90,000 (instructor)

▪ The select predicate may include comparisons between two attributes.

• Example, find all departments whose name is the same as their
building name:
•  dept_name=building (department)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation

▪ A unary operation that returns its argument relation, with certain attributes
left out.
▪ Notation:
 A1,A2,A3 ….Ak (r)
where A1, A2, …, Ak are attribute names and r is a relation name.
▪ The result is defined as the relation of k columns obtained by erasing the
columns that are not listed
▪ Duplicate rows removed from result, since relations are sets

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation Example

▪ Example: eliminate the dept_name attribute of instructor

▪ Query:
ID, name, salary (instructor)
▪ Result:

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Composition of Relational Operations

▪ The result of a relational-algebra operation is relation and therefore of

relational-algebra operations can be composed together into a
relational-algebra expression.
▪ Consider the query -- Find the names of all instructors in the Physics
department.

name( dept_name =“Physics” (instructor))

▪ Instead of giving the name of a relation as the argument of the projection

operation, we give an expression that evaluates to a relation.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-Product Operation

▪ The Cartesian-product operation (denoted by X) allows us to combine

information from any two relations.
▪ Example: the Cartesian product of the relations instructor and teaches is
written as:
instructor X teaches
▪ We construct a tuple of the result out of each possible pair of tuples: one
from the instructor relation and one from the teaches relation (see next
slide)
▪ Since the instructor ID appears in both relations we distinguish between
these attribute by attaching to the attribute the name of the relation from
which the attribute originally came.
• instructor.ID
• teaches.ID

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The instructor X teaches table

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation

▪ The Cartesian-Product
instructor X teaches
associates every tuple of instructor with every tuple of teaches.
• Most of the resulting rows have information about instructors who did
NOT teach a particular course.
▪ To get only those tuples of “instructor X teaches “ that pertain to
instructors and the courses that they taught, we write:
 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches ))

• We get only those tuples of “instructor X teaches” that pertain to

instructors and the courses that they taught.
▪ The result of this expression, shown in the next slide

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation (Cont.)

▪ The table corresponding to:

 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation (Cont.)

▪ The join operation allows us to combine a select operation and a

Cartesian-Product operation into a single operation.
▪ Consider relations r (R) and s (S)
▪ Let “theta” be a predicate on attributes in the schema R “union” S. The
join operation r ⋈𝜃 s is defined as follows:
𝑟 ⋈𝜃 𝑠 = 𝜎𝜃 (𝑟 × 𝑠)

▪ Thus
 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches ))

▪ Can equivalently be written as

instructor ⋈ Instructor.id = teaches.id teaches.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union Operation

▪ The union operation allows us to combine two relations

▪ Notation: r  s
▪ For r  s to be valid.
1. r, s must have the same arity (same number of attributes)
2. The attribute domains must be compatible (example: 2nd
column of r deals with the same type of values as does the
2nd column of s)
▪ Example: to find all courses taught in the Fall 2017 semester, or in the
Spring 2018 semester, or in both
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union Operation (Cont.)

▪ Result of:
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set-Intersection Operation

▪ The set-intersection operation allows us to find tuples that are in both

the input relations.
▪ Notation: r  s
▪ Assume:
• r, s have the same arity
• attributes of r and s are compatible
▪ Example: Find the set of all courses taught in both the Fall 2017 and the
Spring 2018 semesters.
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

• Result

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set Difference Operation

▪ The set-difference operation allows us to find tuples that are in one relation
but are not in another.
▪ Notation r – s
▪ Set differences must be taken between compatible relations.
• r and s must have the same arity
• attribute domains of r and s must be compatible
▪ Example: to find all courses taught in the Fall 2017 semester, but not in the
Spring 2018 semester
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) −
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Assignment Operation

▪ It is convenient at times to write a relational-algebra expression by

assigning parts of it to temporary relation variables.
▪ The assignment operation is denoted by  and works like assignment in
a programming language.
▪ Example: Find all instructor in the “Physics” and Music department.

Physics   dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)

Music   dept_name=“Music” (instructor)
Physics  Music

▪ With the assignment operation, a query can be written as a sequential

program consisting of a series of assignments followed by an expression
whose value is displayed as the result of the query.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Rename Operation

▪ The results of relational-algebra expressions do not have a name that we

can use to refer to them. The rename operator,  , is provided for that
purpose
▪ The expression:
x (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name x
▪ Another form of the rename operation:
x(A1,A2, .. An) (E)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Equivalent Queries

▪ There is more than one way to write a query in relational algebra.

▪ Example: Find information about courses taught by instructors in the
Physics department with salary greater than 90,000
▪ Query 1
 dept_name=“Physics”  salary > 90,000 (instructor)

▪ Query 2
 dept_name=“Physics” ( salary > 90.000 (instructor))

▪ The two queries are not identical; they are, however, equivalent -- they
give the same result on any database.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Equivalent Queries

▪ There is more than one way to write a query in relational algebra.

▪ Example: Find information about courses taught by instructors in the
Physics department
▪ Query 1
dept_name=“Physics” (instructor ⋈ instructor.ID = teaches.ID teaches)

▪ Query 2
(dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)) ⋈ instructor.ID = teaches.ID teaches

▪ The two queries are not identical; they are, however, equivalent -- they
give the same result on any database.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 2

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan