Chapter 2: Intro to Relational

Model

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Example of a Relation

attributes
(or columns)

tuples
(or rows)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Module Objectives

 To understand attributes and their types

 To understand the mathematical structure of
relational model-schema, instance and keys
 To familiarize with different types of relational query
language

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Module Outline

 Attribute types
 Relation Schema and Instance
 Keys
 Relational Query Languages

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Attribute Types

 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 - 6th Edition 2.5 ©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)
 For every attribute A i there is a domain(possible value of
A i) D i
 Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a subset of

 The current
D1 x D2 values
x…xD (relation
n
instance) of a relation are
(x represents cartesian product)
specified by a table
Thus, a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
 An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row in a
each ai  Di
table

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.6 ©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 - 6th Edition 2.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys
 Let K  R
 K may have one or multiple values
 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? (answer: anyone)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys
 Super Key: Roll #, {Roll #, DoB}
 Candidate Keys: Roll #, Aadhaar # (note: Aadhaar is similar to NID card number)

 Passport # cannot be a key. Why?(ans: some may not have

Passport; so the attribute supports null value; so it can’t be a Key)
 Primary Key: Roll #
 Secondary/ Alternate Key: Candidate Keys not taken as Primary Key
 Simple Key: Consists of single atribute
 Composite Key: { Roll #, First Name}
 First Name cannot be a key, but { Roll #, First Name} can be a
Key. Why?
 Consists of more than one attribute to uniquely identify an entity
occurrence

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys
 Foreign key constraint: Value in one relation must appear in another
 Referencing relation
 Enrollment: Foreign Keys- Roll #, Course #
 Referenced relation
 Students, Course
 A compound key consists of more than one attribute to uniquely identify
an entity occurrence
 Each attribute, which makes up the key, is a simple key in its own
right
 {Roll #, Course #}
Students
Roll # First Name Last Name DoB Passport Aadhar # Department

Courses
Course # Course Name Credits Department

Enrolment
(which student taking which course)

Roll # Course # Instructor ID

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema Diagram for University
Database

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Query Languages
 Procedural vs .non-procedural, or declarative
 Procedural Language: C, C++, Java
 how to get the output
 Programmer must know an algorithm

 non-procedural or declarative: Relational Query Language

 Programmer must know what relationships hold between different entities

 “Pure” languages:
 Relational algebra
 Tuple relational calculus
 Domain relational calculus
 The above 3 pure languages are equivalent in computing
power
 We will concentrate in this chapter on relational algebra
 Not turning-machine equivalent
 consists of 6 basic operations

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation – selection of a subset
of rows/tuples
 Relation r

 A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation – selection of columns
(Attributes)

 Relation r:

 A,C (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union of two relations(attributes are
same)

 Relations r, s:

 r  s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set difference of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r – s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set intersection of two relations

 Relation r, s:

 rs

Note: r  s = r – (r – s)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 joining two relations -- Cartesian-
product
 Relations r, s:

 r x s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-product – naming issue
 Relations r, s: B

 r x s: r.B s.B

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Renaming a Table
 Allows us to refer to a relation, (say E) by more than one name.
 x (E)

returns the expression E under the name X

 Relations r

 r x  s (r) r.A r.B s.A s.B

α 1 α 1
α 1 β 2
β 2 α 1
β 2 β 2

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Composition of Operations
 Can build expressions using multiple operations
 Example: A=C (r x s)

 rxs

 A=C (r x s)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joining two relations – Natural
Join
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S
respectively.
Then, the “natural join” of relations R and S is a
relation on schema R  S obtained as follows:
 Consider 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, add a tuple t 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 - 6th Edition 2.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Example
 Relations r, s:

 Natural Join
 r s

 A, r.B, C, r.D, E ( r.B = s.B ˄ r.D = s.D (r x s)))

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Notes about Relational Languages
 Each Query input is a table (or set of tables)
 Each query output is a table.
 All data in the output table appears in one of the input
tables
 Relational Algebra is not Turning complete
 Can we compute:
 SUM
 AVG
 MAX
 MIN

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Summary of Relational Algebra
Operators
Symbol (Name) Example of Use
σ
(Selection) σ
salary > = 85000 (instructor)
Return rows of the input relation that satisfy the predicate.
Π
(Projection) Π
ID, salary (instructor)
Output specified attributes from all rows of the input relation. Remove
duplicate tuples from the output.
x
(Cartesian Product) instructor x department
Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.
∪
(Union) Π
name (instructor) ∪ Π
name (student)
Output the union of tuples from the two input relations.
-
(Set Difference) Π
name (instructor) -- Π
name (student)
Output the set difference of tuples from the two input relations.
⋈
(Natural Join) instructor ⋈ department
Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 2

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use