Chapter 6

Relational Algebra
Overview of DBMS Relational Algebra And
Relational Calculus.

 Relational algebra is a procedural query language used to

query data stored in a relational database.
 It is used to select data from one or more tables, filter data
based on certain criteria, and perform calculations on the
selected data.
 Relational algebra consists of various operations such as
Projection, Selection, Union, Intersection, Difference, Join,
and Division.
 Overview of DBMS Relational Algebra And
Relational Calculus.
 In contrast, relational calculus is a declarative query language used
to express a query in terms of mathematical logic.
 It is a non-procedural language that specifies what data to retrieve
rather than how to retrieve it.
 There are two types of relational calculus: tuple calculus and
domain calculus.
 Tuple calculus retrieves specific tuples based on certain
conditions, while domain calculus retrieves values that satisfy
certain conditions.
Overview of DBMS Relational Algebra And
Relational Calculus.
 Here are some important points to remember about
relational algebra and calculus:
- Relational algebra is based on set theory, while
relational calculus is based on predicate logic.
- Both relational algebra and calculus are used for
expressing queries in a structured way.
 Overview of DBMS Relational Algebra And
Relational Calculus.
- Relational algebra is a query language that is used for
manipulating relations (tables) in a relational database
system, while relational calculus provides a way to define
queries using mathematical formulas.
- Relational algebra is used for complex data manipulation,
while calculus is used to retrieve specific subsets of data.
- Relational algebra is more procedural, while calculus is
more declarative.
 Relational Query Languages
 Query languages: Allow manipulation and retrieval
of data from a database.
 Relational model supports simple, powerful QLs:
 Strong formal foundation based on logic.
 Allows for much optimization.

 Query Languages != programming languages!

 QLs not expected to be “Turing complete”.
 QLs not intended to be used for complex calculations.
 QLs support easy, efficient access to large data sets.
Formal Relational Query Languages
 Two mathematical Query Languages form the
basis for “real” languages (e.g. SQL), and for
implementation:
 Relational Algebra: More operational(procedural),
very useful for representing execution plans.
 Relational Calculus: Lets users describe what they
want, rather than how to compute it. (Non-
operational, declarative.)
 Preliminaries
 A query is applied to relation instances, and the
result of a query is also a relation instance.
 Schemas of input relations for a query are fixed (but
query will run regardless of instance!)
 The schema for the result of a given query is also
fixed! Determined by definition of query language
constructs.
 Positional vs. named-field notation:
 Positional notation easier for formal definitions,
named-field notation more readable.
 Both used in SQL
 R1 sid bid day
Example Instances 22 101 10/10/96
58 103 11/12/96
 “Sailors” and “Reserves” sid sname rating age
relations for our examples. S1
“bid”= boats. “sid”: sailors 22 dustin 7 45.0
 We’ll use positional or 31 lubber 8 55.5
named field notation, 58 rusty 10 35.0
assume that names of fields
in query results are
S2 sid sname rating age
`inherited’ from names of
28 yuppy 9 35.0
fields in query input
relations. 31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0
 Relational Algebra
 Basic operations:
 
Selection ( ) Selects a subset of rows from relation.


Projection ( ) Deletes unwanted columns from relation.
 Cross-product ( ) Allows us to combine two relations.



Set-difference ( ) Tuples in relation. 1, but not in relation. 2.
Union ( ) Tuples in relation. 1 and in relation 2.
 Additional operations:

 Intersection, join, division, renaming: Not essential, but (very!)
useful.
 Since each operation returns a relation, operations can be
composed! (Algebra is “closed”.)
 Projection
 Deletes attributes that are not in projection list.
 Schema of result contains exactly the fields in the
projection list, with the same names that they had in the
(only) input relation.
 Projection operator has to eliminate duplicates! (Why??,
what are the consequences?)
 Note: real systems typically don’t do duplicate
elimination unless the user explicitly asks for it. (Why
not?)
 Selection
 Selects rows that satisfy
selection condition.
 Schema of result
identical to schema of
(only) input relation.
 Result relation can be
the input for another sname rating
relational algebra yuppy 9
operation! (Operator
rusty 10
composition.)
 sname,rating( rating 8(S2))
 Union, Intersection, Set-Difference

 All of these operations take two input relations, which

must be union-compatible:
 Same number of fields.
 `Corresponding’ fields have the same type.
 What is the schema of result?
 Set Operation: Union
R U S returns relation instance containing all tuples that occur in
either relation instance R or S, or both.
• R and S must be union compatible.
 • Schema of the result is defined to be that of R.
 Set Operation: Intersection
 R ⋂ S: returns a relation instance containing all
tuples that occur in both R and S.
 R and S must be union compatible.
 Schema of the result is that of R.
Set Operation: Set-Difference
 R – S: returns a relation instance containing
all tuples that occur in R but not in S.
 R and S must be union-compatible.
 Scheme of the result is the schema of R.
 Cross-Product
 Each row of S1 is paired with each row of R1.
 Result schema has one field per field of S1 and R1,
with field names `inherited’ if possible.
 Conflict: Both S1 and R1 have a field called sid.
 Renaming
 Name conflict can arise in some situations
 It is convenient to be able to give names to the fields of a relation
instance defined by a relational algebra expression.
 Joins

 Result schema same as that of cross-product.

 Fewer tuples than cross-product. Filters tuples
not satisfying the join condition.
 Sometimes called a theta-join.
 Equi-Join: A special case of condition join where
the condition c contains only equalities.

 Result schema similar to cross-product, but only

one copy of fields for which equality is specified.
 Natural Join: Equijoin on all common fields.
 Division
 Not supported as a primitive operator, but useful for
expressing queries like:
Find sailors who have
reserved all boats.
 Precondition: in A/B, the attributes in B must be
included in the schema for A. Also, the result has
attributes A-B.
 SALES(supId, prodId);
 PRODUCTS(prodId);
 Relations SALES and PRODUCTS must be built using
projections.
 SALES/PRODUCTS: the ids of the suppliers supplying
ALL products.
Examples of Division A/B
sno pno pno pno pno
s1 p1 p2 p2 p1
s1 p2 p4 p2
s1 p3
B1 p4
B2
s1 p4
s2 p1 sno B3
s2 p2 s1
s3 p2 s2 sno
s1
sno
s4 p2 s3
s4 p4 s4 s4 s1
A A/B1 A/B2 A/B3
Example Tables

 Sailers(sid, sname rating, age)

 Boats(bid, bname, color)
 Reserves(sid, bid, day)
 Find names of sailors who’ve reserved boat #103

 Solution 1:  sname(( Reserves)  Sailors)

bid 103

 Solution 2:  (Temp1, Re serves)

bid 103
 ( Temp2, Temp1  Sailors)
 sname (Temp2)

 Solution 3:  sname ( (Re serves  Sailors))

bid 103
Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat
 Information about boat color only available in
Boats; so need an extra join:

 sname (( Boats)  Re serves  Sailors)

color ' red '

 A more efficient solution:

 sname ( ((  Boats)  Re s)  Sailors)
sid bid color ' red '

A query optimizer can find this, given the first solution!

 Find sailors who’ve reserved a red or a green boat
 Can identify all red or green boats, then find
sailors who’ve reserved one of these boats:
 (Tempboats, ( Boats))
color ' red '  color ' green '

 sname(Tempboats   Re serves  Sailors)

 Can also define Tempboats using union! (How?)

 What happens if  is replaced by  in this query?
 Find sailors who’ve reserved a red and a green boat

 Previous approach won’t work! Must identify

sailors who’ve reserved red boats, sailors
who’ve reserved green boats, then find the
intersection (note that sid is a key for Sailors):
 (Tempred,  (( Boats)  Re serves))
sid color ' red '
 (Tempgreen,  (( Boats)  Re serves))
sid color ' green'

 sname((Tempred  Tempgreen)  Sailors)

 Find the names of sailors who’ve reserved all boats

 Uses division; schemas of the input relations

to / must be carefully chosen:

 (Tempsids, ( Re serves) / ( Boats))

sid, bid bid
 sname (Tempsids  Sailors)

 To find sailors who’ve reserved all ‘Interlake’ boats:

..... / ( Boats)
bid bname ' Interlake'
 Summary
 The relational model has rigorously defined query
languages that are simple and powerful.
 Relational algebra is more operational; useful as
internal representation for query evaluation plans.
 Several ways of expressing a given query; a query
optimizer should choose the most efficient version.