Chapter 3: Relational Model

 Structure of Relational Databases

 Relational Algebra
 Tuple Relational Calculus
 Domain Relational Calculus
 Extended Relational-Algebra-Operations
 Modification of the Database
 Views

Database System Concepts 3.1 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Basic Structure
 Given sets A1, A2, …. An a relation r is a subset of
A1 x A2 x … x An
Thus a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
ai  Ai
 Example: if

customer-name = {Jones, Smith, Curry, Lindsay}

customer-street = {Main, North, Park}
customer-city = {Harrison, Rye, Pittsfield}

Then r = {(Jones, Main, Harrison), (Smith, North, Rye), (Curry,

North, Rye), (Lindsay, Park, Pittsfield)} is a relation over
customer-name x customer-street x customer-city

Database System Concepts 3.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relation Schema
 A1, A2, …, An are attributes
 R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema

Customer-schema - (customer-name, customer-street,

customer-city)
 r(R) is a relation on the relation schema R

customer (Customer-schema)

Database System Concepts 3.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relation Instance

 The current values (relation instance) of a relation are

specified by a table
 An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row in a table

customer-name customer-street customer-city

Jones Main Harrison

Smith North Rye
Curry North Rye
Lindsay Park Pittsfield

customer

Database System Concepts 3.4 ©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) by “possible r” we
mean a relation r that could exist in the enterprise we are
modeling.
Example: {customer-name, customer-street} and
{customer-name} are both superkeys of Customer, if no two
customers can possibly have the same name.
 K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {customer-name} is a candidate key for Customer,
since it is a superkey {assuming no two customers can possibly
have the same name), and no subset of it is a superkey.

Database System Concepts 3.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Determining Keys from E-R Sets
 Strong entity set. The primary key of the entity set becomes
the primary key of the relation.
 Weak entity set. The primary key of the relation consists of the
union of the primary key of the strong entity set and the
discriminator of the weak entity set.
 Relationship set. The union of the primary keys of the related
entity sets becomes a super key of the relation.
For binary many-to-one relationship sets, the primary key of the
“many” entity set becomes the relation’s primary key.
For one-to-one relationship sets, the relation’s primary key can
be that of either entity set.

Database System Concepts 3.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Query Languages
 Language in which user requests information from the database.
 Categories of languages
 procedural
 non-procedural
 “Pure” languages:
 Relational Algebra
 Tuple Relational Calculus
 Domain Relational Calculus
 Pure languages form underlying basis of query languages that
people use.

Database System Concepts 3.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relational Algebra
 Procedural language
 Six basic operators
 select
 project
 union
 set difference
 Cartesian product
 rename
 The operators take two or more relations as inputs and give a
new relation as a result.

Database System Concepts 3.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Select Operation

 Notation:  p(r)
 Defined as:

p(r) = {t | t  r and p(t)}

Where P is a formula in propositional calculus, dealing with terms of
the form:
<attribute> = <attribute> or <constant>

>

<

“connected by” :  (and),  (or),  (not)

Database System Concepts 3.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Select Operation – Example

• Relation r A B C D

  1 7
  5 7
  12 3
  23 10

 A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

A B C D

  1 7
  23 10

Database System Concepts 3.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Project Operation
 Notation:

A1, A2, …, Ak (r)

where A1, A2 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 3.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Project Operation – Example

 Relation r: A B C

 10 1
 20 1
 30 1
 40 2

  A C (r ) A C A C
1

 1  1
 1 =  1
 1  2
 2

Database System Concepts 3.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Union Operation
 Notation: r  s
 Defined as:

r  s = {t | t  r or t  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 (e.g., 2nd column
of r deals with the same type of values as does the 2nd
column of s)

Database System Concepts 3.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Union Operation – Example

 Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r  s:
A B

 1
 2
 1
 3

Database System Concepts 3.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Difference Operation
 Notation r – s
 Defined as:

r – s = {t | t  r and t  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

Database System Concepts 3.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Difference Operation – Example

 Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r – s:
A B

 1
 1

Database System Concepts 3.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Cartesian-Product Operation
 Notation r x s
 Defined as:

r x s = {t q| t  r and q  s}
 Assume that attributes of r(R) and s(S) are disjoint. (This is,
R  S = ).
 If attributes of r(R) and s(S) are not disjoint, then renaming must
be used.

Database System Concepts 3.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Cartesian-Product Operation –
Example
Relations r, s: A B C D E

 1  10 +
 10 +
 2  20 –
r  10 –
s
r x s:

A B C D E
 1  10 +
 1  19 +
 1  20 –
 1  10 –
 2  10 +
 2  10 +
 2  20 –
 2  10 –

Database System Concepts 3.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Composition of Operations
 Can build expressions using multiple operations
 Example: A=C(r x s)
 rxs
 Notation: r s
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively. The
result is a relation on schema R  S which is obtained by
considering each pair of tuples tr from r and ts from s.
 If tr and ts have the same value on each of the attributes in R  S, a
tuple t is added to the result, where
 t has the same value as tr on r
 t has the same value as ts on s

Database System Concepts 3.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Composition of Operations (Cont.)
Example:

R = (A, B, C, D)
S = (E, B, D)
 Result schema – (A, B, C, D, E)
 r s is defined as:

r,A,r,B,r,C,r,D,s,E(c B=s,B^r,D=s,D(r x s))

Database System Concepts 3.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Natural Join Operation – Example
 Relations r, s:

A B C D B D E

 1  a 1 a 
 2  a 3 a 
 4  b 1 a 
 1  a 2 b 
 2  b 3 b 
r s

r s A B C D E
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 2  b 

Database System Concepts 3.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation

rs
 Suited to queries that include the phrase “for all”.
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively
where
 R = (A1, …, Am, B1, …, Bn)
 S = (B1, …, Bn)
The result of r  s is a relation on schema
R – S = (A1, …, Am)

r  s = {t | t  P r-s(r)   u  s(tu  r)}

Database System Concepts 3.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation (Cont.)

 Property
 Let q – r  s
 Then q is the largest relation satisfying q x s  r
 Definition in terms of the basic algebra operation
Let r(R) and s(S) be relations, and let S  R

r  s = r-s (r) –r-s ( ( -s (r) x s) – r-s,s(r))

To see why
 r-s,s(r) simply reorders attributes of r
 r-s(r-s (r) x s) – r-s,s(r)) gives those tuples t in
r-s (r) such that for some tuple u  s, tu  r.

Database System Concepts 3.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation – Example

Relations r, s: A B B
1
 1
2

3 2

1 s

1

1

3

4

6

1

2
r  s: A r




Database System Concepts 3.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Another Division Example

Relations r, s:
A B C D E D E

 a  a 1 a 1
 a  a 1 b 1
 a  b 1 s
 a  a 1
 a  b 3
 a  a 1
 a  b 1
 a  b 1
r

r  s: A B C

 a 
 a 

Database System Concepts 3.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Assignment Operation
 The assignment operation () provides a convenient way to
express complex queries, write query as a sequential program
consisting of a series of assignments followed by an expression
whose value is displayed as a result of the query.
 Assignment must always be made to a temporary relation variable.
 Example: Write r  s as

temp1  r-s (r)

temp2  r-s ((temp1 x s) – r-s,s (r))
result = temp1 – temp2
 The result to the right of the  is assigned to the relation variable on
the left of the .
 May use variable in subsequent expressions.

Database System Concepts 3.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find all customers who have an account from at least the
“Downtown” and the Uptown” branches.
 Query 1
CN(BN=“Downtown”(depositor account)) 
CN(BN=“Uptown”(depositor account))
where CN denotes customer-name and BN denotes
branch-name.
 Query 2
customer-name, branch-name (depositor account)
 temp)branch-name) ({(“Downtown”), (“Uptown”)})

Database System Concepts 3.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find all customers who have an account at all branches located
in Brooklyn.

customer-name, branch-name (depositor account)

 branch-name (branch-only = “Brooklyn” (branch))

Database System Concepts 3.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Tuple Relational Calculus
 A nonprocedural query language, where each query is of the form

{t | P (t) }
 It is the set of all tuples t such that predicate P is true for t
 t is a tuple variable, t[A] denotes the value of tuple t on attribute A
 t  r denotes that tuple t is in relation r
 P is a formula similar to that of the predicate calculus

Database System Concepts 3.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Predicate Calculus Formula
1. Set of attributes and constants
2. Set of comparison operators: (e.g., , , , , , )
3. Set of connectives: and (), or (v)‚ not ()
4. Implication () x  y, if x if true, then y is true
x  y x v y
5. Set of quantifiers:
t r (Q(t)) ”there exists” a tuple in t in relation r
such that predicate Q(t) is true
t r (Q(t)) Q is true “for all” tuples t
in relation r

Database System Concepts 3.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Banking Example

branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)

customer (customer-name, customer-street, customer-only)

account (branch-name, account-number, balance)

loan (branch-name, loan-number, amount)

depositor (customer-name, account-number)

borrower (customer-name, loan-number)

Database System Concepts 3.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the branch-name, loan-number, and amount for loans of
over $1200
{t | t  loan  t [amount]  1200}

 Find the loan number for each loan of an amount greater than
$1200
{t |  s loan (t[loan-number] = s[loan-number]
 s [amount]  1200}

Notice that a relation on schema [customer-name] is implicitly

defined by the query

Database System Concepts 3.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan, an account, or
both at the bank
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
v u  depositor(t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan and an

account at the bank

{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
v u  depositor(t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])

Database System Concepts 3.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan at the Perryridge
branch
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
v u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]))}

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the

Perryridge branch, but no account at any branch of the bank
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
v u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number])

v u  depositor (v[customer-name] = “t[customer-name])}

Database System Concepts 3.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan from the
Perryridge branch and the cities they live in

{t | s  loan(s[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
v u  borrower (u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]
 t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])
v  v  customer (u[customer-name] = v[customer-name]
 t[customer-city] = v[customer-city])))}

Database System Concepts 3.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers who have an account at all
branches located in Brooklyn

{t |  s  branch(s[branch-city] = “Brooklyn” 
 u  account (s[branch-name] = u[branch-name]
v  s  depositor (t[customer-name] = s[customer-name]
 s[account-number] = u[account-number])))}

Database System Concepts 3.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Safety of Expressions
 It is possible to write tuple calculus expressions that generate
infinite relations.
 For example, {t |  t r} results in an infinite relation if the
domain of any attribute of relation r is infinite
 To guard against the problem, we restrict the set of allowable
expressions to safe expressions.
 An expression {t | P(t)} in the tuple relational calculus is safe if
every component of t appears in one of the relations, tuples, or
constants that appear in P

Database System Concepts 3.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Domain Relational Calculus
 A nonprocedural query language equivalent in power to the tuple
relational calculus
 Each query is an expression of the form:

{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

 x1, x2, …, xn represent domain variables

 P represents a formula similar to that of the predicate calculus

Database System Concepts 3.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the branch-name, loan-number, and amount for loans of
over $1200

{ b, l, a  |  b, l, a   loan  a  1200}
 Find the names of all customers who have a loan of over $1200

{ c  |  b, l, a (c, l   borrower   b, l, a   loan  a  1200)}

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan from the
Perryridge branch and the loan amount:

{ c, a  |  l ( c, l   borrower

Database System Concepts 3.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan, an account, or
both at the Perryridge branch:
{ c  |  l({ c, l   borrower
  b,a( b, l, a   loan  b = “Perryridge”))
  a( c, a   depositor
  b,n( b, a, n   account  b = “Perryridge”))}

 Find the names of all customers who have an account at all

branches located in Brooklyn:
{ c  |  x,y,z( x, y, z   branch  y = “Brooklyn”) 
 a,b( x, y, z   account   c,a   depositor)}

Database System Concepts 3.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Safety of Expressions
{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

is safe if all of the following hold:

1.All values that appear in tuples of the expression are values
from dom(P) (this is, the values appear either in P or in a tuple
of a relation mentioned in P).
2.For every “there exists” subformula of the form  x (P1(x)), the
subformula is true if an only if P1(x) is true for all values x from
dom(P1).

Database System Concepts 3.41 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations

 Generalized Projection
 Outer Join
 Aggregate Functions

Database System Concepts 3.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Generalized Projection
 Extends the projection operation by allowing arithmetic functions
to be used in the projection list.

P F1, F2, …, Fn(E)

 E is any relational-algebra expression
 Each of F1, F2, …, Fn are are arithmetic expressions involving
constants and attributes in the schema of E.
 Given relation credit-info(customer-name, limit, credit-balance),
find how much more each person can spend:
P customer-name, limit – balance (credit-info)

Database System Concepts 3.43 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join
 An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of information.
 Computes the join and then adds tuples form one relation that
does not match tuples in the other relation to the result of the
join.
 Uses null values:
 null signifies that the value is unknown or does not exist
 All comparisons involving null are false by definition.

Database System Concepts 3.44 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example

 Relation loan

branch-name loan-number amount

Downtown L-170 3000
Redwood L-230 4000
Perryridge L-260 1700

 Relation borrower

customer-name loan-number
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155

Database System Concepts 3.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example

 loan borrower

branch-name loan-number amount customer-name

Downtown L-170 3000 Jones
Redwood L-230 4000 Smith

loan  borrower

branch-name loan-number amount customer-name loan-number

Downtown L-170 3000 Jones L-170
Redwood L-230 4000 Smith L-230
Perryridge L-260 1700 null null

Database System Concepts 3.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example

 loan  borrower

branch-name loan-number amount customer-name

Downtown L-170 3000 Jones
Redwood L-230 4000 Smith
null L-155 null Hayes

loan   borrower

branch-name loan-number amount customer-name

Downtown L-170 3000 Jones
Redwood L-230 4000 Smith
Perryridge L-260 1700 null
null L-155 null Hayes

Database System Concepts 3.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions
 Aggregation operator  takes a collection of values and returns a
single value as a result.
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values
G1, G2, …, Gn  F , A , F , A , …, F , A (E)
1 1 2 2 n n

 E is any relational-algebra expression

 G1, G2 …, Gn is a list of attributes on which to group
 Fi is an aggregate function
 Ai is an attribute name

Database System Concepts 3.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Function – Example
 Relation r:
A B C

  7
  7
  3
  10

sum-C
sumc(r)
27

Database System Concepts 3.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Function – Example

 Relation account grouped by branch-name:

branch-name account-number balance

Perryridge A-102 400
Perryridge A-201 900
Brighton A-217 750
Brighton A-215 750
Redwood A-222 700

branch-name  sum balance (account)

branch-name balance
Perryridge 1300
Brighton 750
Redwood 700

Database System Concepts 3.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Modification of the Database
 The content of the database may be modified using the following
operations:
 Deletion
 Insertion
 Updating
 All these operations are expressed using the assignment
operator.

Database System Concepts 3.51 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Deletion
 A delete request is expressed similarly to a query, except
instead of displaying tuples to the user, the selected tuples are
removed from the database.
 Can delete only whole tuples; cannot delete values on only
particular attributes
 A deletion is expressed in relational algebra by:

rr–E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra query.

Database System Concepts 3.52 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Deletion Examples

 Delete all account records in the Perryridge branch.

account 
account – branch-name = “Perryridge” (account)
 Delete all loan records with amount in the range of 0 to 50

loan  – amount and amount  50 (loan)

 Delete all accounts at branches located in Needham.

r1  branch-city = “Needham” (account |x| branch)

r2  P branch-name, account-number, balance (r1)
r3  P customer-name, account-number (r2 |x| depositor)
account  account – r2
depositor  depositor – r3

Database System Concepts 3.53 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Insertion
 To insert data into a relation, we either:
 specify a tuple to be inserted
 write a query whose result is a set of tuples to be inserted
 in relational algebra, an insertion is expressed by:

r r  E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra expression.
 The insertion of a single tuple is expressed by letting E be a
constant relation containing one tuple.

Database System Concepts 3.54 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Insertion Examples
 Insert information in the database specifying that Smith has
$1200 in account A-973 at the Perryridge branch.
account  account  {(“Perryridge”, A-973, 1200)}
depositor  depositor  {(“Smith”, A-973)}

 Provide as a gift for all loan customers in the Perryridge branch,

a $200 savings account. Let the loan number serve as the
account number for the new savings account.
r1  (branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower loan))
account  account  P branch-name, account-number, (r1)
depositor  depositor  P customer-name, loan-number, (r1)

Database System Concepts 3.55 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updating
 A mechanism to change a value in a tuple without charging all
values in the tuple
 Use the generalized projection operator to do this task

r  P F1, F2, …, FI, (r)

 Each F, is either the ith attribute of r, if the ith attribute is not
updated, or, if the attribute is to be updated
 Fi is an expression, involving only constants and the attributes of
r, which gives the new value for the attribute

Database System Concepts 3.56 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Update Examples
 Make interest payments by increasing all balances by 5 percent.

account  P BN,AN, BAL – BAL * 1.05 (account)

where BAL, BN and AN stand for balance, branch-name and
account-number, respectively.
 Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000
6 percent interest and pay all others 5 percent

account  P BN,AN, BAL – BAL * 1.06 ( BAL  10000 (account))

 BN,AN,BAL – BAL * 1.05 (BAL  10000(account))

Database System Concepts 3.57 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Views
 In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see the entire
logical model (i.e., all the actual relations stored in the
database.)
 Consider a person who needs to know a customer’s loan
number but has no need to see the loan amount. This person
should see a relation described, in the relational algebra, by
CUSTOMER-NAME, LOAN-NUMBER (borrower loan)
 Any relation that is not of the conceptual model but is made
visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is called a view.

Database System Concepts 3.58 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Definition
 A view is defined using the create view statement which has the
form

create view v as <query expression

where <query expression> is any legal relational algebra query

expression. The view name is represented by v.
 Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to refer to
the virtual relation that the view generates.
 View definition is not the same as creating a new relation by
evaluating the query expression Rather, a view definition
causes the saving of an expression to be substituted into queries
using the view.

Database System Concepts 3.59 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Examples
 Consider the view (named all-customer) consisting of branches
and their customers.
create view all-customer as
BRANCH-NAME, CUSTOMER-NAME (depositor account)
 BRANCH-NAME, CUSTOMER-NAME (borrower loan)

 We can find all customers of the Perryridge branch by writing:

BRANCH-NAME
(BRANCH-NAME = “Perryridge” (all-customer))

Database System Concepts 3.60 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updates Through View
 Database modifications expressed as views must be translated
to modifications of the actual relations in the database.
 Consider the person who needs to see all loan data in the loan
relation except amount. The view given to the person, branch-
loan, is defined as:
create view branch-loan as
BRANCH-NAME, LOAN-NUMBER (loan)
 Since we allow a view name to appear wherever a relation name
is allowed, the person may write:

branch-loan  branch-loan  {(“Perryridge”, L-37)}

Database System Concepts 3.61 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updates Through Views (Cont.)
 The previous insertion must be represented by an insertion into
the actual relation loan from which the view branch-loan is
constructed.
 An insertion into loan requires a value for amount. The insertion
can be dealt with by either.
 rejecting the insertion and returning an error message to the user.
 inserting a tuple (“Perryridge”, L-37, null) into the loan relation

Database System Concepts 3.62 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Views Defined Using Other Views
 One view may be used in the expression defining another view
 A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a view relation v2
if v2 is used in the expression defining v1
 A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation v2 to v1 .
 A view relation v is said to be recursive if it depends on itself.

Database System Concepts 3.63 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Expansion
 A way to define the meaning of views defined in terms of other
views.
 Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may itself contain
uses of view relations.
 View expansion of an expression repeats the following
replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the expression defining vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
 As long as the view definitions are not recursive, this loop will
terminate

Database System Concepts 3.64 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan