Lecture # 10-13 Relational

Algebra and Relational Calculus

Rashmi Dutta Baruah
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
 Outline

• Relational Algebra
– Unary Relational Operations
– Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
– Binary Relational Operations
– Additional Relational Operations
– Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
• Relational Calculus
– Tuple Relational Calculus
– Domain Relational Calculus

2
 Database State for COMPANY
All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY database shown here.

Chapter 6-3
 Populated Database

Slide 8-4
 Relational Algebra
• The basic set of operations for the relational model is known
as the relational algebra. These operations enable a user to
specify basic retrieval requests.

• The result of a retrieval is a new relation, which may have

been formed from one or more relations. The algebra
operations thus produce new relations, which can be further
manipulated using operations of the same algebra.

• 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 (or
retrieval request).
Chapter 6-5
 Unary Relational Operations
• SELECT Operation
SELECT operation is used to select a subset of the tuples from a relation that
satisfy a selection condition. It is a filter that keeps only those tuples that
satisfy a qualifying condition – those satisfying the condition are selected
while others are discarded.

• In general, the select operation is denoted by  <selection condition>(R) where the

symbol  (sigma) is used to denote the select operator, and the selection
condition is a Boolean expression specified on the attributes of relation R

Example: To select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose (1) department number is

four (2) those whose salary is greater than $30,000 the following notation is
used:
DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
SALARY > 30000 (EMPLOYEE)

Chapter 6-6
 Unary Relational Operations
SELECT Operation Properties

– The SELECT operation  <selection condition>(R) produces a relation S that

has the same schema as R

– The SELECT operation  is commutative; i.e.,

 <condition1>( < condition2> ( R)) =  <condition2> ( < condition1> ( R))

– A cascaded SELECT operation may be applied in any order; i.e.,

 <condition1>( < condition2> ( <condition3> ( R)))
=  <condition2> ( < condition3> ( < condition1> ( R)))

– A cascaded SELECT operation may be replaced by a single selection with

a conjunction of all the conditions; i.e.,
 <condition1>( < condition2> ( <condition3> ( R)) )
=  <condition1> AND < condition2> AND < condition3> ( R)

Chapter 6-7
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)
• PROJECT Operation
This operation selects certain columns from the table and discards the other
columns. The PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning – one with the needed
columns (attributes) containing results of the operation and other containing
the discarded Columns.


The general form of the project operation is <attribute list>(R) where 
(pi) is the symbol used to represent the project operation and <attribute list>
is the desired list of attributes from the attributes of relation R.
The project operation removes any duplicate tuples, so the result of the
project operation is a set of tuples and hence a valid relation.

Example: To list each employee’s first and last name and salary, the following is
used:
 LNAME, FNAME,SALARY (EMPLOYEE)

Chapter 6-8
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)
PROJECT Operation Properties

– The number of tuples in the result of projection  <list> (R)is always less
or equal to the number of tuples in R.

– If the list of attributes includes a key of R, then the number of tuples is

equal to the number of tuples in R.

–  <list1> (
(R) ) =  <list1> (R)
<list2>
as long as <list2> contains the attributes in <list1>

Chapter 6-9
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)

Chapter 6-10
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)
• Rename Operation
We may want to apply several relational algebra operations one after the other.
Either we can write the operations as a single relational algebra expression
by nesting the operations, or we can apply one operation at a time and create
intermediate result relations. In the latter case, we must give names to the
relations that hold the intermediate results.
Example: To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all employees
who work in department number 5, we must apply a select and a project
operation. We can write a single relational algebra expression as follows:

FNAME, LNAME, SALARY( DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))

OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations, giving a name to each
intermediate relation:
DEP5_EMPS   DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
RESULT   FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)

Chapter 6-11
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)
• Rename Operation (cont.)
The rename operator is 

The general Rename operation can be expressed by any of the following

forms:

−  S (B1, B2, …, Bn ) ( R) is a renamed relation S based on R with column names B1, B1,…..Bn

−  S ( R) is a renamed relation S based on R (which does not specify column names).

−  (B1, B2, …, Bn ) ( R) is a renamed relation with column names B1, B1, …..Bn which does not

specify a new relation name.

Chapter 6-12
 Unary Relational Operations (cont.)

Temp  𝜎𝐷𝑛𝑜=5 EMPLOYEE

R(Firstname, Lastname,Salary)  𝜋Fname,Lname,Salary(TEMP)

Chapter 6-13
 Relational Algebra Operations From
Set Theory
• UNION Operation
The result of this operation, denoted by R  S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R or in S or in both R and S. Duplicate tuples are
eliminated.
Example: To retrieve the social security numbers of all employees who either
work in department 5 or directly supervise an employee who works in
department 5, we can use the union operation as follows:
DEP5_EMPS  DNO=5 (EMPLOYEE)
RESULT1   SSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT2(SSN)   SUPERSSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT  RESULT1  RESULT2
The union operation produces the tuples that are in either RESULT1 or
RESULT2 or both. The two operands must be “type compatible”.

Chapter 6-14
 Relational Algebra Operations From
Set Theory
• Type Compatibility
– The operand relations R1(A1, A2, ..., An) and R2(B1, B2, ..., Bn)
must have the same number of attributes, and the domains
of corresponding attributes must be compatible; that is,
dom(Ai)=dom(Bi) for i=1, 2, ..., n.

– The resulting relation for R1R2,R1  R2, or R1-R2 has the

same attribute names as the first operand relation R1 (by
convention).

Chapter 6-15
Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory (cont.)

• INTERSECTION OPERATION

The result of this operation, denoted by R  S, is a relation that includes all

tuples that are in both R and S. The two operands must be "type compatible“

• Set Difference (or MINUS) Operation

The result of this operation, denoted by R - S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are in R but not in S. The two operands must be "type compatible”.

Chapter 6-16
 Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
(cont.)
• Notice that both union and intersection are commutative
operations; that is
R  S = S  R, and R  S = S  R

• Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary operations

applicable to any number of relations as both are associative
operations; that is
R  (S  T) = (R  S)  T, and (R  S)  T = R  (S  T)

• The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in general

R-S≠S–R

Chapter 6-17
Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory (cont.)

• CARTESIAN (or cross product or cross join) Operation

– This operation is used to combine tuples from two relations in a
combinatorial fashion. In general, the result of R(A1, A2, . . ., An) x 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 x S | will have nR * nS tuples.
– The two operands do NOT have to be "type compatible”
Example:
FEMALE_EMPS   SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
EMPNAMES   FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
EMP_DEPENDENTS  EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT

What is the result of this? Is it meaningful?

Chapter 6-18
 Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
(cont.)

Retrieve a list of names of each female

employee’s dependents.

Chapter 6-19
 Binary Relational Operations
• JOIN Operation
– The sequence of cartesian product followed by select is used
quite commonly to identify and select related tuples from two
relations, a special operation, called JOIN. It is denoted by a
– This operation is very important for any relational database
with more than a single relation, because it allows us to
process relationships among relations.
– The general form of a join operation on two relations R(A1, A2,
. . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R <join condition>S
where R and S can be any relations that result from general
relational algebra expressions.

Chapter 6-20
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)
Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the name of the manager of
each department. To get the manager’s name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple whose SSN value
matches the MGRSSN value in the department tuple. We do this by
using the join operation.

DEPT_MGR  DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSN

EMPLOYEE

Chapter 6-21
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)
• EQUIJOIN Operation
The most common use of join involves join conditions with equality comparisons only.
Such a join, where the only comparison operator used is =, is called an EQUIJOIN. In
the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have one or more pairs of attributes (whose
names need not be identical) that have identical values in every tuple.
The JOIN seen in the previous example was EQUIJOIN.

• NATURAL JOIN Operation

Because one of each pair of attributes with identical values is superfluous, a new
operation called natural join—denoted by *—was created to get rid of the second
(superfluous) attribute in an EQUIJOIN condition.
The standard definition of natural join requires that the two join attributes, or each pair
of corresponding join attributes, have the same name in both relations. If this is not the
case, a renaming operation is applied first.

Chapter 6-22
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)
Example: To apply a natural join on the DNUMBER attributes of
DEPARTMENT and DEPT_LOCATIONS, it is sufficient to write:
DEPT_LOCS  DEPARTMENT * DEPT_LOCATIONS

Chapter 6-23
 Complete Set of Relational Operations

• The set of operations including select , project  , union ,

set difference - , and cartesian product X is called a complete
set because any other relational algebra expression can be
expressed by a combination of these five operations.

• For example:
R  S = (R  S ) – ((R − S)  (S − R))
R <join condition>S =  <join condition> (R X S)

Chapter 6-24
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)

• DIVISION Operation
– Example: Retrieve the names of Employees who work on all the projects
that ‘John Smith’ works on

SMITH   Fname = ‘John’ AND Lname = ‘Smith’ (EMPLOYEE)

SMITH_PNOS   Pno (WORKS_ON Essn = ssn SMITH )

SSN_PNOS   Essn, Pno (WORKS_ON)

SSNS(SnN)  SSN_PNOS ÷ SMITH_PNOS

RESSULT   Fname, Lname (SSNS* EMPLOYEE)

Chapter 6-25
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)
SSN_PNOS SMITH_PNOS

Pno
1
2

SSNS
Ssn
123456789
453453453
S T
A B
a1 b1
a2 b4
a3

Chapter 6-26
 Binary Relational Operations (cont.)

• DIVISION Operation
– The division operation is applied to two relations
R(Z)  S(X), where X subset Z. Let Y = Z - X (and hence Z = X
 Y); that is, let Y be the set of attributes of R that are not
attributes of S.

– The result of DIVISION is a relation T(Y) that includes a tuple

t if tuples tR appear in R with tR [Y] = t, and with
tR [X] = ts for every tuple ts in S.

– For a tuple t to appear in the result T of the DIVISION, the

values in t must appear in R in combination with every tuple
in S.
Chapter 6-27
 Recap of Relational Algebra Operations

Chapter 6-28
 Additional Relational Operations

• Aggregate Functions and Grouping

– A type of request that cannot be expressed in the basic relational
algebra is to specify mathematical aggregate functions on collections of
values from the database.

– Examples of such functions include retrieving the average or total salary

of all employees or the total number of employee tuples. These
functions are used in simple statistical queries that summarize
information from the database tuples.

– Common functions applied to collections of numeric values include

SUM, AVERAGE, MAXIMUM, and MINIMUM. The COUNT function is
used for counting tuples or values.

Chapter 6-29
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
Use of the Functional operator ℱ
DNO ℱCOUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (Employee) groups employees by DNO
(department number) and computes the count of employees
and average salary per department.[ Note: count just counts
the number of rows, without removing duplicates]

Chapter 6-30
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
• Recursive Closure Operations
– Another type of operation that, in general, cannot be specified in the
basic original relational algebra is recursive closure. This operation is
applied to a recursive relationship.
– An example of a recursive operation is to retrieve all SUPERVISEES of an
EMPLOYEE e at all levels—that is, all EMPLOYEE e’ directly supervised
by e; all employees e’’ directly supervised by each employee e’; all
employees e’’’ directly supervised by each employee e’’; and so on .
– Although it is possible to retrieve employees at each level and then
take their union, we cannot, in general, specify a query such as
“retrieve the supervisees of ‘James Borg’ at all levels” without utilizing
a looping mechanism.
– The SQL3 standard includes syntax for recursive closure.

Chapter 6-31
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

Chapter 6-32
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
• The OUTER JOIN Operation
– In NATURAL JOIN tuples without a matching (or related) tuple are eliminated
from the join result. Tuples with null in the join attributes are also eliminated.
This amounts to loss of information.
– A set of operations, called outer joins, can be used when we want to keep all
the tuples in R, or all those in S, or all those in both relations in the result of the
join, regardless of whether or not they have matching tuples in the other
relation.
– The left outer join operation keeps every tuple in the first or left relation R in
R S; if no matching tuple is found in S, then the attributes of S in the join
result are filled or “padded” with null values.
– A similar operation, right outer join, keeps every tuple in the second or right
relation S in the result of R S.
– A third operation, full outer join, denoted by keeps all tuples in both
the left and the right relations when no matching tuples are found, padding
them with null values as needed.
Chapter 6-33
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

Chapter 6-34
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
• OUTER UNION Operations
– The outer union operation was developed to take the union of tuples from two
relations if the relations are not union compatible.
– This operation will take the union of tuples in two relations R(X, Y) and S(X, Z)
that are partially compatible, meaning that only some of their attributes, say X,
are union compatible.
– The attributes that are union compatible are represented only once in the result,
and those attributes that are not union compatible from either relation are also
kept in the result relation T(X, Y, Z).
– Example: An outer union can be applied to two relations whose schemas are
STUDENT(Name, SSN, Department, Advisor) and INSTRUCTOR(Name, SSN,
Department, Rank). Tuples from the two relations are matched based on having
the same combination of values of the shared attributes—Name, SSN,
Department. If a student is also an instructor, both Advisor and Rank will have a
value; otherwise, one of these two attributes will be null.
The result relation STUDENT_OR_INSTRUCTOR will have the following attributes:
STUDENT_OR_INSTRUCTOR (Name, SSN, Department, Advisor, Rank)

Chapter 6-35
 Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
⚫ Q1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for
the ‘Research’ department.
RESEARCH_DEPT   DNAME=’Research’ (DEPARTMENT)
RESEARCH_EMPS  (RESEARCH_DEPT DNUMBER=

DNOEMPLOYEEEMPLOYEE)

RESULT   FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS (RESEARCH_EMPS)

⚫ Q6: Retrieve the names of employees who have no dependents.

ALL_EMPS   SSN(EMPLOYEE)

EMPS_WITH_DEPS(SSN)   ESSN(DEPENDENT)
EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS  (ALL_EMPS - EMPS_WITH_DEPS)
RESULT   LNAME, FNAME (EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS * EMPLOYEE)
Chapter 6-36
 Relational Calculus
• A relational calculus expression creates a new relation, which is
specified in terms of variables that range over rows of the stored
database relations (in tuple calculus) or over columns of the
stored relations (in domain calculus).
• In a calculus expression, there is no order of operations to
specify how to retrieve the query result—a calculus expression
specifies only what information the result should contain. This is
the main distinguishing feature between relational algebra and
relational calculus.
• Relational calculus is considered to be a nonprocedural
language. This differs from relational algebra, where we must
write a sequence of operations to specify a retrieval request;
hence relational algebra can be considered as a procedural way
of stating a query.
Chapter 6-37
 Tuple Relational Calculus
• The tuple relational calculus is based on specifying a number of tuple variables. Each
tuple variable usually ranges over a particular database relation, meaning that the
variable may take as its value any individual tuple from that relation.
• A simple tuple relational calculus query is of the form
{t | COND(t)}
where t is a tuple variable and COND (t) is a conditional expression involving t. The
result of such a query is the set of all tuples t that satisfy COND (t).

Example: To find the first and last names of all employees whose salary is above
$50,000, we can write the following tuple calculus expression:

{t.FNAME, t.LNAME | EMPLOYEE(t) AND t.SALARY>50000}

The condition EMPLOYEE(t) specifies that the range relation of tuple variable t is
EMPLOYEE. The first and last name (PROJECTION FNAME, LNAME) of each
EMPLOYEE tuple t that satisfies the condition t.SALARY>50000 (SELECTION
 SALARY >50000) will be retrieved.

Chapter 6-38
 The Existential and Universal Quantifiers

• Two special symbols called quantifiers can appear in formulas; these are the
universal quantifier () and the existential quantifier ().

• Informally, a tuple variable t is bound if it is quantified, meaning that it

appears in an ( t) or ( t) clause; otherwise, it is free.

• If F is a formula, then so is ( t)(F), where t is a tuple variable. The formula

( t)(F) is true if the formula F evaluates to true for some (at least one) tuple
assigned to free occurrences of t in F; otherwise ( t)(F) is false.

• If F is a formula, then so is ( t)(F), where t is a tuple variable. The formula

( t)(F) is true if the formula F evaluates to true for every tuple (in the
universe) assigned to free occurrences of t in F; otherwise ( t)(F) is false.
It is called the universal or “for all” quantifier because every tuple in “the
universe of” tuples must make F true to make the quantified formula true.

Chapter 6-39
 Example Query Using Existential Quantifier
• Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the ‘Research’
department.
Query :
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME, t.ADDRESS | EMPLOYEE(t) and ( d)
(DEPARTMENT(d) and d.DNAME=‘Research’ and d.DNUMBER=t.DNO) }

• The only free tuple variables in a relational calculus expression should be

those that appear to the left of the bar ( | ). In above query, t is the only free
variable; it is then bound successively to each tuple. If a tuple satisfies the
conditions specified in the query, the attributes FNAME, LNAME, and
ADDRESS are retrieved for each such tuple.
• The conditions EMPLOYEE (t) and DEPARTMENT(d) specify the range
relations for t and d. The condition d.DNAME = ‘Research’ is a selection
condition and corresponds to a SELECT operation in the relational algebra,
whereas the condition d.DNUMBER = t.DNO is a JOIN condition.

Chapter 6-40
 Example Query Using Universal Quantifier
• Find the names of employees who work on all the projects controlled by
department number 5.
Query :
{e.LNAME, e.FNAME | EMPLOYEE(e) and ( ( x)(not(PROJECT(x)) or not(x.DNUM=5)
OR ( ( w)(WORKS_ON(w) and w.ESSN=e.SSN and x.PNUMBER=w.PNO) ) ) )}
• Exclude from the universal quantification all tuples that we are not interested in
by making the condition true for all such tuples. The first tuples to exclude (by
making them evaluate automatically to true) are those that are not in the relation R
of interest.
• In query above, using the expression not(PROJECT(x)) inside the universally
quantified formula evaluates to true all tuples x that are not in the PROJECT
relation. Then we exclude the tuples we are not interested in from R itself. The
expression not(x.DNUM=5) evaluates to true all tuples x that are in the project
relation but are not controlled by department 5.
• Finally, we specify a condition that must hold on all the remaining tuples in R.
( ( w)(WORKS_ON(w) and w.ESSN=e.SSN and x.PNUMBER=w.PNO)

Chapter 6-41
 Languages Based on Tuple Relational Calculus
• The language SQL is based on tuple calculus. It uses the basic
SELECT <list of attributes>
FROM <list of relations>
WHERE <conditions>
block structure to express the queries in tuple calculus where the SELECT clause
mentions the attributes being projected, the FROM clause mentions the relations
needed in the query, and the WHERE clause mentions the selection as well as the
join conditions.
SQL syntax is expanded further to accommodate other operations. (See Chapter 8).
• Another language which is based on tuple calculus is QUEL which actually
uses the range variables as in tuple calculus.
Its syntax includes:
RANGE OF <variable name> IS <relation name>
Then it uses
RETRIEVE <list of attributes from range variables>
WHERE <conditions>
This language was proposed in the relational DBMS INGRES.

Chapter 6-42
 The Domain Relational Calculus
• Another variation of relational calculus called the domain relational calculus, or
simply, domain calculus is equivalent to tuple calculus and to relational algebra.
• The language called QBE (Query-By-Example) that is related to domain calculus was
developed almost concurrently to SQL at IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, New York.
Domain calculus was thought of as a way to explain what QBE does.
• Domain calculus differs from tuple calculus in the type of variables used in formulas:
rather than having variables range over tuples, the variables range over single values
from domains of attributes. To form a relation of degree n for a query result, we must
have n of these domain variables—one for each attribute.
• An expression of the domain calculus is of the form
{x1, x2, . . ., xn | COND(x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . ., xn+m)}
where x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . ., xn+m are domain variables that range over
domains (of attributes) and COND is a condition or formula of the domain relational
calculus.

Chapter 6-43
 Example Query Using Domain Calculus
• Retrieve the birthdate and address of the employee whose name is ‘John B.
Smith’.

Query :
{uv | ( q) ( r) ( s) ( t) ( w) ( x) ( y) ( z)
(EMPLOYEE(qrstuvwxyz) and q=’John’ and r=’B’ and s=’Smith’)}

• Ten variables for the employee relation are needed, one to range over the
domain of each attribute in order. Of the ten variables q, r, s, . . ., z, only u and
v are free.
• Specify the requested attributes, BDATE and ADDRESS, by the free domain
variables u for BDATE and v for ADDRESS.
• Specify the condition for selecting a tuple following the bar ( | )—namely, that
the sequence of values assigned to the variables qrstuvwxyz be a tuple of the
employee relation and that the values for q (FNAME), r (MINIT), and s
(LNAME) be ‘John’, ‘B’, and ‘Smith’, respectively.

Chapter 6-44
 Summary
• Two formal languages for relational model are discussed
which are used to manipulate relations and produce new
relations as answers to queries.
• We discussed the relational algebra and its operations, which
are used to specify a sequence of operations to specify a
query.
– unary, binary and aggregation operators
• Tuple relational calculus(TRC) and Domain relational calculus
(DRC) are introduced.
– TRC uses tuple variables that range over tuples (rows) of relations
– DRC uses domain variables that range over domains (columns of
relations)

45