0% found this document useful (0 votes)
116 views37 pages

Lecture 2 Relational Algebra

This document discusses relational algebra, which is a formal language used to form queries in the relational model of databases. It describes several relational algebra operations including selection, projection, union, set difference, intersection, cartesian product, joins, outer joins, semijoins, division, and aggregate operations. These operations allow querying and restructuring of relations without changing the original relations. The key operations and their uses are illustrated through examples.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
116 views37 pages

Lecture 2 Relational Algebra

This document discusses relational algebra, which is a formal language used to form queries in the relational model of databases. It describes several relational algebra operations including selection, projection, union, set difference, intersection, cartesian product, joins, outer joins, semijoins, division, and aggregate operations. These operations allow querying and restructuring of relations without changing the original relations. The key operations and their uses are illustrated through examples.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 37

Relational Algebra

Relational Model
Objectives
 Meaning of the term relational completeness.
 How to form queries in relational algebra.
 How to form queries in tuple relational calculus.
 How to form queries in domain relational
calculus.
 Categories of relational DML.

2
Introduction
 Relational algebra and relational calculus are
formal languages associated with the relational
model.
 Informally, relational algebra is a (high-level)
procedural language and relational calculus a
non-procedural language.
 However, formally both are equivalent to one
another.
 A language that produces a relation that can be
derived using relational calculus is relationally
complete.
3
Relational Algebra
 Relational algebra operations work on one or
more relations to define another relation
without changing the original relations.

 Both operands and results are relations, so


output from one operation can become input to
another operation.

 Allows expressions to be nested, just as in


arithmetic. This property is called closure.

4
Relational Algebra
 Five basic operations in relational algebra:
Selection, Projection, Cartesian product,
Union, and Set Difference.

 These perform most of the data retrieval


operations needed.

 Also have Join, Intersection, and Division


operations, which can be expressed in terms of
5 basic operations.

5
Relational Algebra Operations

6
Relational Algebra Operations

7
Selection (or Restriction)
 predicate (R)
– Works on a single relation R and defines a
relation that contains only those tuples (rows) of
R that satisfy the specified condition (predicate).

8
Example - Selection (or Restriction)
 List all staff with a salary greater than £10,000.

salary > 10000 (Staff)

9
Projection
 col1, . . . , coln(R)
– Works on a single relation R and defines a
relation that contains a vertical subset of R,
extracting the values of specified attributes and
eliminating duplicates.

10
Example - Projection
 Produce a list of salaries for all staff, showing only
staffNo, fName, lName, and salary details.

staffNo, fName, lName, salary(Staff)

11
Union
 RS
– Union of two relations R and S defines a relation
that contains all the tuples of R, or S, or both R
and S, duplicate tuples being eliminated.
– R and S must be union-compatible.

 If R and S have I and J tuples, respectively, union


is obtained by concatenating them into one relation
with a maximum of (I + J) tuples.

12
Example - Union
 List all cities where there is either a branch office
or a property for rent.

city(Branch)  city(PropertyForRent)

13
Set Difference
 R–S
– Defines a relation consisting of the tuples that
are in relation R, but not in S.
– R and S must be union-compatible.

14
Example - Set Difference
 List all cities where there is a branch office but no
properties for rent.

city(Branch) – city(PropertyForRent)

15
Intersection
 RS
– Defines a relation consisting of the set of all
tuples that are in both R and S.
– R and S must be union-compatible.

 Expressed using basic operations:


R  S = R – (R – S)

16
Example - Intersection
 List all cities where there is both a branch office
and at least one property for rent.

city(Branch)  city(PropertyForRent)

17
Cartesian product
 RXS
– Defines a relation that is the concatenation of
every tuple of relation R with every tuple of
relation S.

18
Example - Cartesian product
 List the names and comments of all clients who have
viewed a property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) X (clientNo, propertyNo, comment
(Viewing))

19
Example - Cartesian product and Selection
 Use selection operation to extract those tuples where
Client.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo.
sClient.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo((ÕclientNo, fName, lName(Client))  (ÕclientNo,
propertyNo, comment(Viewing)))

 Cartesian product and Selection can be reduced to a single


operation called a Join.
20
Join Operations
 Join is a derivative of Cartesian product.

 Equivalent to performing a Selection, using join


predicate as selection formula, over Cartesian
product of the two operand relations.

 One of the most difficult operations to implement


efficiently in an RDBMS and one reason why
RDBMSs have intrinsic performance problems.

21
Join Operations
 Various forms of join operation
– Theta join
– Equijoin (a particular type of Theta join)
– Natural join
– Outer join
– Semijoin

22
Theta join (-join)
 R FS
– Defines a relation that contains tuples
satisfying the predicate F from the Cartesian
product of R and S.
– The predicate F is of the form R.ai  S.bi
where  may be one of the comparison
operators (<, , >, , =, ).

23
Theta join (-join)
 Can rewrite Theta join using basic Selection and
Cartesian product operations.

R F S = F(R  S)

 Degree of a Theta join is sum of degrees of the


operand relations R and S. If predicate F contains
only equality (=), the term Equijoin is used.

24
Example - Equijoin
 List the names and comments of all clients who
have viewed a property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) Client.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo
(clientNo, propertyNo, comment(Viewing))

25
Natural join
 R S
– An Equijoin of the two relations R and S over all
common attributes x. One occurrence of each
common attribute is eliminated from the result.

26
Example - Natural join
 List the names and comments of all clients who
have viewed a property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client))
(clientNo, propertyNo, comment(Viewing))

27
Outer join
 To display rows in the result that do not have
matching values in the join column, use Outer
join.

 R S
– (Left) outer join is join in which tuples from
R that do not have matching values in
common columns of S are also included in
result relation.

28
Example - Left Outer join
 Produce a status report on property viewings.

propertyNo, street, city(PropertyForRent)


Viewing

29
Semijoin
 R FS
– Defines a relation that contains the tuples of R that
participate in the join of R with S.

 Can rewrite Semijoin using Projection and Join:

R F S = A(R F S)

30
Example - Semijoin
 List complete details of all staff who work at the
branch in Glasgow.

Staff (city=‘Glasgow’(Branch))
Staff.branchNo=Branch.branchNo

31
Division
 RS
– Defines a relation over the attributes C that consists of
set of tuples from R that match combination of every
tuple in S.

 Expressed using basic operations:


T1  C(R)
T2  C((S X T1) – R)
T  T1 – T2

32
Example - Division
 Identify all clients who have viewed all properties
with three rooms.

(clientNo, propertyNo(Viewing)) 
(propertyNo(rooms = 3 (PropertyForRent)))

33
Aggregate Operations
 AL(R)
– Applies aggregate function list, AL, to R to
define a relation over the aggregate list.
– AL contains one or more
(<aggregate_function>, <attribute>) pairs .
 Main aggregate functions are: COUNT, SUM,
AVG, MIN, and MAX.

34
Example – Aggregate Operations
 How many properties cost more than £350 per month
to rent?

R(myCount) COUNT propertyNo (σrent > 350


(PropertyForRent))

35
Grouping Operation
 AL(R)
GA
– Groups tuples of R by grouping attributes, GA,
and then applies aggregate function list, AL, to
define a new relation.
– AL contains one or more
(<aggregate_function>, <attribute>) pairs.
– Resulting relation contains the grouping
attributes, GA, along with results of each of the
aggregate functions.

36
Example – Grouping Operation
 Find the number of staff working in each branch and
the sum of their salaries.

R(branchNo, myCount, mySum)


branchNo  COUNT staffNo, SUM salary (Staff)

37

You might also like