CHAPTER 5

The Relational Data Model and

Relational Database Constraints

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Informal Definitions

 Informally, a relation looks like a table of values.

 A relation typically contains a set of rows.

 The data elements in each row represent certain facts

that correspond to a real-world entity or relationship
 In the formal model, rows are called tuples

 Each column has a column header that gives an indication

of the meaning of the data items in that column
 In the formal model, the column header is called an
attribute name (or just attribute)

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Example of a Relation

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Informal Definitions
 Key of a Relation:
 Each row has a value of a data item (or set of items)
that uniquely identifies that row in the table
 Called the key
 In the STUDENT table, SSN is the key

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Formal Definitions - Schema
 The Schema (or description) of a Relation:
 Denoted by R(A1, A2, .....An)
 R is the name of the relation
 The attributes of the relation are A1, A2, ..., An
 Example:
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#)
 CUSTOMER is the relation name
 Defined over the four attributes: Cust-id, Cust-name,
Address, Phone#
 Each attribute has a domain or a set of valid values.
 For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.

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Formal Definitions - Tuple
 A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled
brackets ‘< … >’)
 Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
 A row in the CUSTOMER relation is a 4-tuple and would
consist of four values, for example:
 <632895, "John Smith", "101 Main St. Atlanta, GA 30332",
"(404) 894-2000">
 This is called a 4-tuple as it has 4 values
 A tuple (row) in the CUSTOMER relation.
 A relation is a set of such tuples (rows)

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Definition Summary
Informal Terms Formal Terms
Table Relation
Column Header Attribute
All possible Column Domain
Values
Row Tuple

Table Definition Schema of a Relation

Populated Table State of the Relation
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Example – A relation STUDENT

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Relational Integrity Constraints
 Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid
relation states.
 There are three main types of (explicit schema-based)
constraints that can be expressed in the relational model:
 Key constraints
 Entity integrity constraints
 Referential integrity constraints

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Key Constraints
 If a relation has several candidate keys, one is chosen to
be the primary key.
 The primary key attributes are underlined.
 Example: Consider the CAR relation schema:
 CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year)
 We chose SerialNo as the primary key
 The primary key value is used to uniquely identify each
tuple in a relation
 Provides the tuple identity
 Also used to reference the tuple from another tuple
 General rule: Choose as primary key the smallest of the
candidate keys (in terms of size)
 Not always applicable – choice is sometimes subjective

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CAR table with two candidate keys –
LicenseNumber chosen as Primary Key

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Entity Integrity
 Entity Integrity:
 The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema

R in S cannot have null values in any tuple of r(R).

 This is because primary key values are used to identify the
individual tuples.
 t[PK]  null for any tuple t in r(R)
 If PK has several attributes, null is not allowed in any of these
attributes
 .

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Referential Integrity
 A constraint involving two relations
 The previous constraints involve a single relation.
 Used to specify a relationship among tuples in
two relations:
 The referencing relation and the referenced
relation.

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