Chapter 6

The
Relational
Algebra and
Relational
Calculus
‫ شرائح العرض‬: ‫تنبيه‬
‫) هي وسيلة‬Slides(
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‫حيث المرجع االساسي‬

‫للمادة هي الكتاب المعتمد‬
‫في وصف المقرر‬

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Chapter Outline
 Relational Algebra
 Unary Relational Operations
 Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
 Binary Relational Operations
 Additional Relational Operations
 Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 2

The Relational Algebra and
Relational Calculus
 Relational algebra
 Basic set of operations for the relational model
 Relational algebra expression
 Sequence of relational algebra operations
 The result of an operation is a new relation, which
may have been formed from one or more input
relations
 Relational calculus
 Higher-level declarative language for specifying
relational queries

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 3

Relational Algebra Overview (continued)
 The algebra operations thus produce new
relations
 These can be further manipulated using
operations of the same algebra

 A sequence of relational algebra operations forms

a relational algebra expression
 The result of a relational algebra expression is also a
relation that represents the result of a database
query (or retrieval request)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 4

Brief History of Origins of Algebra
 Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote a book titled al-
jabr about arithmetic of variables

Book was translated into Latin.

Its title (al-jabr) gave Algebra its name.

 Al-Khwarizmi called variables “shay”


“Shay” is Arabic for “thing”.

Spanish transliterated “shay” as “xay” (“x” was “sh” in Spain).

In time this word was abbreviated as x.

 Where does the word Algorithm come from?


Algorithm originates from “al-Khwarizmi"

Reference: (http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/innoalgebra.html)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 5

Relational Algebra Overview
 Relational Algebra consists of several groups of operations

Unary Relational Operations

SELECT (symbol:  (sigma))

PROJECT (symbol:  (pi))

RENAME (symbol:  (rho))

Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory

UNION (  ), INTERSECTION (  ), DIFFERENCE (or MINUS, – )

CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )

Binary Relational Operations

JOIN (several variations of JOIN exist)

DIVISION

Additional Relational Operations

OUTER JOINS, OUTER UNION

AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (These compute summary of information:
for example, SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 6

Database State for COMPANY
 All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY database
shown here.

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The following query results refer to this
database state

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 8

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT

The SELECT operation (denoted by  (sigma)) is used to select a
subset of the tuples from a relation based on a selection condition.
 The selection condition acts as a filter
 Keeps only those tuples that satisfy the qualifying condition
 Tuples satisfying the condition are selected whereas the
other tuples are discarded (filtered out)
 Examples:
 Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department number is 4:

 DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
 Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater than $30,000:
 SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 9

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
 In general, the select operation is denoted by
 <selection condition>(R) where

the symbol  (sigma) is used to denote the select
operator

the selection condition is a Boolean (conditional)
expression specified on the attributes of relation R

tuples that make the condition true are selected
 appear in the result of the operation

tuples that make the condition false are filtered out
 discarded from the result of the operation

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 10

Unary Relational Operations

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6-11

Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
 PROJECT Operation is denoted by  (pi)
 This operation keeps certain columns (attributes)
from a relation and discards the other columns.
 PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning

The list of specified columns (attributes) is kept in
each tuple

The other attributes in each tuple are discarded
 Example: To list each employee’s first and last
name and salary, the following is used:
LNAME, FNAME,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 12

Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
(cont.)

 The general form of the project operation is:

<attribute list>(R)

 (pi) is the symbol used to represent the project
operation

<attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from
relation R.
 The project operation removes any duplicate
tuples

This is because the result of the project operation
must be a set of tuples

Mathematical sets do not allow duplicate elements.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 13

Unary Relational Operations

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6-14

Unary Relational Operations

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Relational Algebra Expressions
 We may want to apply several relational algebra
operations one after the other
 Either we can write the operations as a single
relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations, or
 We can apply one operation at a time and create
intermediate result relations.
 In the latter case, we must give names to the
relations that hold the intermediate results.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 16

Single expression versus sequence of
relational operations (Example)
 To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all
employees who work in department number 5, we must
apply a select and a project operation
 We can write a single relational algebra expression as
follows:
 
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY( DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))
 OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations,
giving a name to each intermediate relation:
 DEP5_EMPS  
DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
 RESULT   FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 17

Sequences of Operations and the
RENAME Operation
 In-line expression:

 Sequence of operations:

 Rename attributes in intermediate results

 RENAME operation

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Unary Relational Operations

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-19

Unary Relational Operations

DEP5_EMPS

Result

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-20

Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
 UNION Operation
 Binary operation, denoted by 
 The result of R  S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R or in S or in both R and
S
 Duplicate tuples are eliminated
 The two operand relations R and S must be “type
compatible” (or UNION compatible)

R and S must have same number of attributes

Each pair of corresponding attributes must be type
compatible (have same or compatible domains)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 21

Example of the result of a UNION
operation
 UNION Example1

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-22

Example of the result of a UNION
operation
 UNION Example1

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-23

Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
 Example2:

To retrieve the social security numbers of all employees who
either work in department 5 or directly supervise an employee
who works in department 5


We can use the UNION operation as follows:
DEP5_EMPS  DNO=5 (EMPLOYEE)
RESULT1   SSN(DEP5_EMPS)
 Result1 has the SSN of all employees who work in
department 5
RESULT2(SSN)  SUPERSSN(DEP5_EMPS)
 Result 2 has the SSN of all employees who directly
supervise an employee who works in department 5
RESULT  RESULT1  RESULT2
 The union operation produces the tuples that are in either
RESULT1 or RESULT2 or both
Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 24
Example of the result of a UNION
operation
 UNION Example

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 25

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: INTERSECTION
 INTERSECTION is denoted by 
 The result of the operation R  S, is a
relation that includes all tuples that are in
both R and S
 The attribute names in the result will be the
same as the attribute names in R
 The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 26

Relational Algebra Operations
From Set Theory
INTERSECTION Operation Example

 The result of the intersection operation includes only

those who are both students and instructors.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-27

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: SET DIFFERENCE (cont.)
 SET DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or
EXCEPT) is denoted by –
 The result of R – S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are in R but not in S
 The attribute names in the result will be the
same as the attribute names in R
 The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 28

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: SET DIFFERENCE (Example)
 List the names of students who are not instructors, and
the names of instructors who are not students.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-29

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: SET DIFFERENCE (Example)

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-30

Some properties of UNION, INTERSECT,
and DIFFERENCE
 Notice that both union and intersection are commutative
operations; that is
 R  S = S  R, and R  S = S  R
 Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary
operations applicable to any number of relations as both
are associative operations; that is
 R  (S  T) = (R  S)  T
 (R  S)  T = R  (S  T)
 The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in
general
 R–S≠S–R

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 31

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
 CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT Operation
 This operation is used to combine tuples from two
relations in a combinatorial fashion.
 Denoted by R(A1, A2, . . ., An) x S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
 Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:

Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order.
 The resulting relation state has one tuple for each
combination of tuples—one from R and one from S.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 32

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
 Hence, if R has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR ),
and S has nS tuples, then
| R x S | will have nR * nS tuples.
 The two operands do NOT have to be "type
compatible”

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-33

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)
 Generally, CROSS PRODUCT is not a
meaningful operation
 Can become meaningful when followed by other
operations
 Example (not meaningful): Retrieve list of names
of each female employee’s dependants

FEMALE_EMPS   SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)

EMPNAMES   FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
 EMP_DEPENDENTS  EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
 EMP_DEPENDENTS will contain every combination of
EMPNAMES and DEPENDENT
 whether or not they are actually related

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 34

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)

FEMALE_EMPS

EMPNAMES

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-35

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)

EMP_DEPENDENTS

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-36

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)
 To keep only combinations where the
DEPENDENT is related to the EMPLOYEE, we
add a SELECT operation as follows
 Example (meaningful):

FEMALE_EMPS   SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)

EMPNAMES   FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
 EMP_DEPENDENTS  EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT

ACTUAL_DEPS   SSN=ESSN(EMP_DEPENDENTS)

RESULT   FNAME, LNAME, DEPENDENT_NAME (ACTUAL_DEPS)
 RESULT will now contain the name of female employees
and their dependents

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 37

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)

Chapt
er 6-38
Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe
Example of applying CARTESIAN
PRODUCT

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
 JOIN Operation (denoted by )

The sequence of CARTESIAN PRODECT followed by
SELECT is used quite commonly to identify and select
related tuples from two relations

A special operation, called JOIN combines this sequence
into a single operation

This operation is very important for any relational database
with more than a single relation, because it allows us
combine related tuples from various relations

The general form of a join operation on two relations R(A1,
A2, . . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R <join condition>S

where R and S can be any relations that result from general
relational algebra expressions.

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 40

Binary Relational Operations
JOIN Operation Example

R A B S C D
a 1 1 x
b 2 1 y
3 z

R S
B=C

Q A B C D
a 1 1 x
a 1 1 y
Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Chapter 6-41
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN (cont.)
 Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the name of the
manager of each department.

To get the manager’s name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple whose SSN
value matches the MGRSSN value in the department tuple.

We do this by using the join operation.


DEPT_MGR  DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSN EMPLOYEE
 MGRSSN=SSN is the join condition

Combines each department record with the employee who
manages the department

The join condition can also be specified as
DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN= EMPLOYEE.SSN

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 42

Example of applying the JOIN operation

DNAME FNAME LNAME

Researcher Franklin Wong
Administration Jennifer Wallace
Headquarters James Borg

Copyright © 2011 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 43