UNIT 3

Relational ALGEBRA
• Structure of Relational Databases

• Relational Algebra

• Tuple Relational Calculus

• Domain Relational Calculus

• Extended Relational-Algebra-Operations

• Modification of the Database

• Views
Example of a Relation
Basic Structure
• Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a subset of
D1 x D2 x … x Dn
Thus a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
each ai  Di
• 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
Attribute Types
• Each attribute of a relation has a name
• 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
• E.g. multivalued attribute values are not atomic
• E.g. composite attribute values are not atomic
• The special value null is a member of every domain
• The null value causes complications in the definition of many
operations
Relation Schema
• A1, A2, …, An are attributes
• R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema
E.g. Customer-schema =
(customer-name, customer-street, customer-city)
• r(R) is a relation on the relation schema R
E.g. customer (Customer-schema)
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

attributes
(or columns)
customer-name customer-street customer-city

Jones Main Harrison

Smith North Rye tuples
Curry North Rye (or rows)
Lindsay Park Pittsfield

customer
 Relations are Unordered
 Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an arbitrary order)
 E.g. account relation with unordered tuples
Database
•A database consists of multiple relations
• Information about an enterprise is broken up into parts, with
each relation storing one part of the information
E.g.: account : stores information about accounts
depositor : stores information about which customer
owns which account
customer : stores information about customers
• Storing all information as a single relation such as
bank(account-number, balance, customer-name, ..)
results in
• repetition of information (e.g. two customers own an account)
• the need for null values (e.g. represent a customer without an
account)
• Normalization theory deals with how to design relational
schemas
The customer Relation
The depositor Relation
E-R Diagram for the Banking
Enterprise
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.
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.
• For many-to-many relationship sets, the union of the primary
keys becomes the relation’s primary key
Schema Diagram for the Banking Enterprise
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.
Relational Algebra
• Procedural language
• Six basic operators
• select
• project
• union
• set difference
• Cartesian product
• rename
• The operators take one or more relations as inputs and give a
new relation as a result.
Select Operation – Example
• Relation r A B C D

  1 7
  5 4
  12 3
  23 10

• A= D > 5 (r)

A B C D

  1 7
  23 10
Select Operation
• Notation:  p(r)
• p is called the selection predicate
• Defined as:
p(r) = {t | t  r and p(t)}
Where p is a formula in propositional calculus consisting
of terms connected by :  (and),  (or),  (not)
Each term is one of:
<attribute> op <attribute> or <constant>
where op is one of: =, , >, . <. 
• Example of selection:
 branch-name=“Perryridge”(account)
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  2
 2
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
• E.g. To eliminate the branch-name attribute of account
account-number, balance (account)
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
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)
• E.g. to find all customers with either an account or a loan
customer-name (depositor)  customer-name (borrower)
Set Difference Operation –
Example
• Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r – s:
A B

 1
 1
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
 Cartesian-Product Operation-
Example
Relations r, s: A B C D E

 1  10 a
 10 a
 2  20 b
r  10 b
s
r x s:
A B C D E
 1  10 a
 1  10 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  10 b
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. (That is,
R  S = ).
• If attributes of r(R) and s(S) are not disjoint, then renaming
must be used.
Composition of Operations
• Can build expressions using multiple operations
• Example: A=C(r x s) A B C D E
• rxs  1  10 a
 1  10 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  10 b

A B C D E
• A=C(r x s)
 1  10 a
 2  20 a
 2  20 b
Rename Operation
• Allows us to name, and therefore to refer to, the results of
relational-algebra expressions.
• Allows us to refer to a relation by more than one name.
Example:
 x (E)
returns the expression E under the name X
If a relational-algebra expression E has arity n, then
x (A1, A2, …, An) (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name X, and with
the
attributes renamed to A1, A2, …., An.
Banking Example
branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)

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

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

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

depositor (customer-name, account-number)

borrower (customer-name, loan-number)

Example Queries
• Find all loans of over $1200

amount > 1200 (loan)

Find the loan number for each loan of an amount greater than

$1200
loan-number (amount > 1200 (loan))
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan, an account, or
both, from the bank

customer-name (borrower)  customer-name (depositor)

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

account at bank.

customer-name (borrower)  customer-name (depositor)

Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the Perryridge
branch.
customer-name (branch-name=“Perryridge”

(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan)))

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch but do not have an account at any branch of
the bank.

customer-name (branch-name = “Perryridge”

(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan))) –

customer-name(depositor)
 Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the Perryridge
branch.
Query 1
customer-name(branch-name = “Perryridge” (
borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan)))

 Query 2

customer-name(loan.loan-number = borrower.loan-number(
(branch-name = “Perryridge”(loan)) x borrower))
Example Queries
Find the largest account balance
• Rename account relation as d
• The query is:

balance(account) - account.balance

(account.balance < d.balance (account x d (account)))

Formal Definition
• A basic expression in the relational algebra consists of either
one of the following:
• A relation in the database
• A constant relation
• Let E1 and E2 be relational-algebra expressions; the following
are all the operations performed in relational-algebra
expressions:
• E1  E2
• E1 - E2
• E1 x E2
• p (E1), P is a predicate on attributes in E1
• s(E1), S is a list consisting of some of the attributes in E1
•  x (E1), x is the new name for the result of E1
Additional Operations
We define additional operations that do not add any power to the
relational algebra, but that simplify common queries.

• Set intersection
• Natural join
• Division
• Assignment
Set-Intersection Operation
• Notation: r  s
• Defined as:
• r  s ={ t | t  r and t  s }
• Assume:
• r, s have the same arity
• attributes of r and s are compatible
• Note: r  s = r - (r - s)
Set-Intersection Operation -
Example A B A B
• Relation r, s:  1  2
 2  3
 1

r s

A B
• rs
 2
Natural-Join Operation
 Notation: r s
• Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively.
Then, r 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
• 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 (r.B = s.B  r.D = s.D (r x s))
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 
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   R-S(r)   u  s ( tu  r ) }
Division Operation – Example
Relations r, s: A B
B

1
2
s
 1
 2

r  s: A r



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.
 Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations

• Generalized Projection
• Outer Join
• Aggregate Functions
Generalized Projection
• Extends the projection operation by allowing arithmetic
functions to be used in the projection list.

 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:
customer-name, limit – credit-balance (credit-info)
 Aggregate Functions and
Operations
• Aggregation function 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
• Aggregate operation in relational algebra
G1, G2, …, Gn g F1( A1), F2( A2),…, Fn( An) (E)
• E is any relational-algebra expression
• G1, G2 …, Gn is a list of attributes on which to group .
• Each Fi is an aggregate function
• Each Ai is an attribute name
Aggregate Operation –
Example
• Relation r:
A B C

  7
  7
  3
  10

sum-C
g sum(c) (r)
27
Aggregate Operation –
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 g sum(balance) (account)

branch-name balance
Perryridge 1300
Brighton 1500
Redwood 700
Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
• Result of aggregation does not have a name
• Can use rename operation to give it a name
• For convenience, we permit renaming as part of aggregate
operation
branch-name g sum(balance) as sum-balance (account)
Outer Join
• An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of
information.
• Computes the join and then adds tuples form one relation that
do 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 (roughly speaking) false by
definition.
• Will study precise meaning of comparisons with nulls later
Outer Join – Example
• Relation loan
loan-number branch-name amount
L-170 Downtown 3000
L-230 Redwood 4000
L-260 Perryridge 1700

 Relation borrower

customer-name loan-number
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155
Outer Join – Example
• Inner Join
loan Borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

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

 Left Outer Join

loan Borrower
loan-number branch-name amount customer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
Outer Join – Example
• Right Outer Join
loan borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes
 Full Outer Join
loan borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
L-155 null null Hayes
Null Values
• It is possible for tuples to have a null value, denoted by null,
for some of their attributes
• null signifies an unknown value or that a value does not exist.
• The result of any arithmetic expression involving null is null.
• Aggregate functions simply ignore null values
• Is an arbitrary decision. Could have returned null as result
instead.
• We follow the semantics of SQL in its handling of null values
• For duplicate elimination and grouping, null is treated like any
other value, and two nulls are assumed to be the same
• Alternative: assume each null is different from each other
• Both are arbitrary decisions, so we simply follow SQL
Null Values
• Comparisons with null values return the special truth value
unknown
• Three-valued logic using the truth value unknown:
• OR: (unknown or true) = true,
(unknown or false) = unknown
(unknown or unknown) = unknown
• AND: (true and unknown) = unknown,
(false and unknown) = false,
(unknown and unknown) = unknown
• NOT: (not unknown) = unknown
• In SQL “P is unknown” evaluates to true if predicate P evaluates to
unknown
• Result of select predicate is treated as false if it evaluates to
unknown
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.
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.
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  loan – amount 0and amount  50 (loan)

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.
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  branch-name, account-number,200 (r1)
depositor  depositor  customer-name, loan-number(r1)
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   F1, F2, …, FI, (r)
• Each Fi 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
Update Examples
• Make interest payments by increasing all balances by 5 percent.

account   AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (account)

where AN, BN and BAL stand for account-number, branch-name

and balance, respectively.
 Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000 6 percent interest

and pay all others 5 percent

account   AN, BN, BAL * 1.06 ( BAL  10000 (account))
 AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (BAL  10000 (account))
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.
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; the
expression is substituted into queries using the view.
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:

customer-name

(branch-name = “Perryridge” (all-customer))

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)}

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 (“L-37”, “Perryridge”, null) into the loan relation
• Some updates through views are impossible to translate into
database relation updates
• create view v as branch-name = “Perryridge” (account))
v  v  (L-99, Downtown, 23)
• Others cannot be translated uniquely
• all-customer  all-customer  {(“Perryridge”, “John”)}
• Have to choose loan or account, and
create a new loan/account number!
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 if either
v1 depends directly to v2 or there is a path of dependencies from
v1 to v2
• A view relation v is said to be recursive if it depends on itself.
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
• A tuple relational calculus is a non procedural query language
which specifies to select the tuples in a relation. It can select
the tuples with range of values or tuples for certain attribute
values etc. The resulting relation can have one or more tuples.
• Notation : {T | P (T)} or {T | Condition (T)} -where T is resulting
tuples and P(T) is a condition used to fetch T.
• Example :
• {T | EMPLOYEE (T) AND T.DEPT_ID = 10} This select all the
tuples of employee name who work for Department 10.
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
Banking Example
• branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)
• customer (customer-name, customer-street, customer-city)
• account (account-number, branch-name, balance)
• loan (loan-number, branch-name, amount)
• depositor (customer-name, account-number)
• borrower (customer-name, loan-number)
Example Queries
• Find the 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 [loan-number] is implicitly defined

by the query
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])

 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])
 u  depositor( t[customer-name] = u[customer-
name])
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers having a loan at the Perryridge
branch
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name]
 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]

 u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]))
 not v  depositor (v[customer-name] =
t[customer-name]) }
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”
 u  borrower (u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]
 t [customer-name] = u[customer-name])
  v  customer (u[customer-name] = v[customer-name]
 t[customer-city] = v[customer-city])))}
Safety of Expressions
• It is possible to write tuple calculus expressions that generate
infinite relations.
• 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
• NOTE: this is more than just a syntax condition.
• E.g. { t | t[A]=5  true } is not safe --- it defines an infinite set with
attribute values that do not appear in any relation or tuples or
constants in P.
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
A domain relational calculus uses list of attribute to be selected
from the relation based on the condition. It is same as TRC,
but differs by selecting the attributes rather than selecting
whole tuples.
• Notation : { a1, a2, a3, ..., an | P (a1, a2, a3, ..., an) } -Where
a1, a2, a3, … an are attributes of the relation and P is the
condition.
• Example :
• { | < EMPLOYEE > DEPT_ID = 10 } select EMP_ID and
EMP_NAME of employees who work for department 10.
Example Queries
• Find the loan-number, branch-name, and amount for loans of
over $1200
{ l, b, a  |  l, b, a   loan  a > 1200}

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan of over $1200

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

b = “Perryridge”))}
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( l, b, a   loan  b = “Perryridge”))
  a( c, a   depositor
  b,n( a, b, n   account  b = “Perryridge”))}


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) (that 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 and only if there is a value of x
in dom(P1) such that P1(x) is true.
3. For every “for all” subformula of the form x (P1 (x)), the
subformula is true if and only if P1(x) is true for all values
x from dom (P1).
Pitfalls in Relational Database
Design
Relational database design requires that we find a “good”
collection of relation schemas. A bad design may lead to
Repetition of Information.
Inability to represent certain information.
Design Goals:
Avoid redundant data
Ensure that relationships among attributes are represented
Facilitate the checking of updates for violation of database
integrity constraints.
Consider the relation schema:
Lending-schema = (branch-name, branch-city, assets,
customer-name, loan-number,
amount)

Redundancy:
Data for branch-name, branch-city, assets are repeated for each loan
that a branch makes
Wastes space
Complicates updating, introducing possibility of inconsistency of
assets value
Null values
Cannot store information about a branch if no loans exist
Can use null values, but they are difficult to handle.
 Decomposition
Decompose the relation schema Lending-schema into:
Branch-schema = (branch-name, branch-city,assets)
Loan-info-schema = (customer-name, loan-number,
branch-name, amount)
All attributes of an original schema (R) must appear in the
decomposition (R1, R2):
R = R1  R2
Lossless-join decomposition.
For all possible relations r on schema R
r = R1 (r) R2 (r)
Example of Non Lossless-Join
Decomposition
Decomposition of R = (A, B)
R1 = (A) R2 = (B)
A B
 1 A
B
 2 
1
 1 
2
Decomposition
A functional decomposition is the process of breaking down
the functions of an organization into progressively greater
(finer and finer) levels of detail.
In decomposition, one function is described in greater detail
by a set of other supporting functions.
The decomposition of a relation scheme R consists of
replacing the relation schema by two or more relation
schemas that each contain a subset of the attributes of R and
together include all attributes in R.
Decomposition helps in eliminating some of the problems of
bad design such as redundancy, inconsistencies and
anomalies.
There are two types of decomposition :
Lossy Decomposition
Lossless Join Decomposition
Lossy Decomposition :
"The decompositio of relation R into R1 and R2 is lossy when the
join of R1 and R2 does not yield the same relation as in R."
One of the disadvantages of decomposition into two or more
relational schemes (or tables) is that some information is lost
during retrieval of original relation or table.
Consider that we have table STUDENT with three attribute
roll_no , sname and department.
STUDENT
ROLL NO S NAME DEPT

111 PARIMAL COMPUTER

222 PARIMAL ELECTRICAL

This relation is decomposed into two relation no_name and
name_dept :1) NO NAME AND 2)NAME DEPT

ROLL NO SNAME SNAME DEPT

111 PARIMAL PARIMAL COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL PARIMAL ELECTRICAL

In lossy decomposition ,spurious tuples are generated when a

natural join is applied to the relations in the decomposition.
STU JOINED

ROLL NO SNAME DEPT

111 PARIMAL COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL ELECTRICAL
111 PARIMAL COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL ELECTRICAL

The above decomposition is a bad decomposition or

Lossy decomposition.
Lossless Join Decomposition :
"The decompositio of relation R into R1 and R2 is lossless when the
join of R1 and R2 yield the same relation as in R."
A relational table is decomposed (or factored) into two or more smaller
tables, in such a way that the designer can capture the precise content
of the original table by joining the decomposed parts. This is called
lossless-join (or non-additive join) decomposition.
This is also refferd as non-additive decomposition.
The lossless-join decomposition is always defined with respect to a
specific set F of dependencies.
Consider that we have table STUDENT with three attribute roll_no ,
sname and department.
STUDENT
ROLL NO S NAME DEPT
111 PARIMAL COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL ELECTRICAL

This relation is decomposed into two relation

1)Stu_name and 2)Stu_dept :

ROLL NO SNAME ROLLNO DEPT

111 PARIMAL 111 COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL 222 ELECTRICAL
Now ,when these two relations are joined on the comman
column 'roll_no' ,the resultant relation will look like
stu_joined.
STU JOINED
ROLL NO SNAME DEPT
111 PARIMAL COMPUTER
222 PARIMAL ELECTRICAL

In lossless decomposition, no any spurious tuples are

generated when a natural joined is applied to the relations in
the decomposition.