Relational Algebra

Chapter 4
What is it?
• Theoretical Foundations of Queries
• Questions to the Database regarding Data

• Queries in Relational Algebra are formulated using a collection of

operators
• Examples

2
 Introduction and Schemas

• Assumptions

Sailors Reserves Boats

Sid Sname Rating Age Bid Bname color

22 Dustin 7 45 Sid Bid Day 101 Interlake Blue

31 Lubber 8 55 22 101 10/10/96 102 Interlake red

58 Rusty 10 35 58 103 11/12/96 103 Clipper Green

32 Andy 8 25 104 Marine red

3
Relational Algebra

• Foundations of Queries
• Fundamental Properties
• Every operator accepts a relations (one or two) as input
• Every operator returns a relation as output
• This property allows formation of complex queries.
• Operators

• Set operators:

4
Select Operator

• Formal notation

• Works on the horizontal dimension (tuples)

Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25

17 Popeye 10 40

5
Examples on Selection

Sid Sname Rating Age Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45 22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55 31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25

6
Examples on Selection (2)

Sid Sname Rating Age Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45 31 Lubber 8 55

31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25
• Can apply multiple conditions: AND OR ()
• Can apply multiple selections instead

7
Alias Operator ()

• Alias for relation names and/or column names

• Examples

• Returns a relation S with the same data as Sailors. Now we can use S instead of Sailors

• Returns a relation S with the same data as Sailors, with same columns, except sid is now
sid1 and rating is now rate.

8
Project Operator ()

• Formal notation

• Works on the vertical dimension (attributes)

• Will only show unique values.

Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25

9
 Sid Sname Rating Age
Examples on Projection 22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25

Sname Age

Dustin 45

Lubber 55

Rusty 35

Andy 25

10
 Sid Sname Rating Age
Examples on Projection(2)
22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55

58 Rusty 10 35

32 Andy 8 25

• Remember: Unique values only!

Rating

10

11
Mixing Operators

• More useful when mixing selections and projections

• Example
• Get sailor names whose age is greater than 40.

• ------------------ R’ only sname

• Can we do this?!!
• Correct result:

12
Set Operations: Union

13
Set Operations: Intersection and Set
Difference

14
Examples on Set Operators
Sid Sname Rating Age
Sid Sname Rating Age
28 yuppy 9 35
22 Dustin 7 45
31 Lubber 8 55
31 Lubber 8 55
44 guppy 5 35
58 Rusty 10 35
58 Rusty 10 35

Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45

28 yuppy 9 35

¿ 31

44

58
Lubber

guppy

Rusty
8

10
55

35

35

15
Examples on Set Operators (2)
Sid Sname Rating Age
Sid Sname Rating Age
28 yuppy 9 35
22 Dustin 7 45
31 Lubber 8 55
31 Lubber 8 55
44 guppy 5 35
58 Rusty 10 35
58 Rusty 10 35

Sid Sname Rating Age

¿ 31

58
Lubber

Rusty
8

10
55

35

16
Examples on Set Operators (3)
Sid Sname Rating Age
Sid Sname Rating Age
28 yuppy 9 35
22 Dustin 7 45

31 Lubber 8 55
− 31 Lubber 8 55

44 guppy 5 35
58 Rusty 10 35
58 Rusty 10 35

¿
Sid Sname Rating Age

22 Dustin 7 45

17
 Introduction and Schemas

• Assumptions

Sailors Reserves Boats

Sid Sname Rating Age Bid Bname color

22 Dustin 7 45 Sid Bid Day 101 Interlake Blue

31 Lubber 8 55 22 101 10/10/96 102 Interlake red

58 Rusty 10 35 58 103 11/12/96 103 Clipper Green

32 Andy 8 25 104 Marine red

18
Cross Product:

19
 Example:
Sid Sname Rating Age Sid Bid Day

22 Dustin 7 45 22 101 10/10/96

31 Lubber 8 55 × 58 103 11/12/96

58 Rusty 10 35

20
 Condition Join

• The most general version of the join operation accepts a join condition c
and a pair of relation instances as arguments, and returns a relation
instance

21
Condition Join Example

22
Equijoin

• A common special case of the join operation R S is when the join

condition consists solely of equalities of the form R.name1 =
S.name2, that is, equalities between two fields in R and S.
• The schema of the result of an equijoin contains the fields of R (with
the same names and domains as in R) followed by the fields of
S that do not appear in the join conditions.

23
 Natural Join

• A further special case of the join operation R S is an equijoin in which

equalities are specified on all fields having the same name in R and S.
• In this case, we can simply omit the join condition.

24
Examples

• Find the names of Sailors who have reserved boat id = 103

• Find the names of Sailors who reserved a red boat

• Find the color of boats reserved by Rusty

25
Examples (2)
• Find the names of sailors who have reserved at least one boat

• Find the names of Sailors who reserved a red boat or a green boat

• Find the names of Sailors who reserved a red AND a green boat

26
Examples (3)

• Find the sids of sailors with age over 20 who have not reserved a red
boat

27
 Sid Bid Day

22 101 10/10/96

Examples (4) 58 103 11/12/96

22 107 1/2/98

• Find the sids of sailors who reserved at least two different boats

Sid Bid Day Sid’ Bid’ Day’

22 101 10/10/96 22 101 10/10/96

22 101 10/10/96 58 103 11/12/96

22 101 10/10/96 22 107 1/2/98

58 103 11/12/96 22 101 10/10/96

58 103 11/12/96 58 103 11/12/96

58 103 11/12/96 22 107 1/2/98

22 107 1/2/98 22 101 10/10/96

22 107 1/2/98 58 103 11/12/96

22 107 1/2/98 22 107 1/2/98

28