UNIT TWO

Relational Data Model

Relational Model (RM) represents the database as a collection of relations.

A relation is nothing but a table of values.
Every row in the table represents a collection of related data values.
These rows in the table denote a real-world entity or relationship.

Terminologies
 Tables=relation  Relationship(association)
 Degree of relation(number of entity types)
 Entities
 Cardinality of a relation(number of instances/tuples that can be
 Attribute
associated)
 Column=field  Constraints(rule)

 Tuple=row
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ENTITIES: The entities (persons, places, things etc.) which the organization has to deal with.

 The name given to an entity should always be a singular noun descriptive of each item to

be stored in it.

E.g.: student, NOT students.

ATTRIBUTES - The items of information which characterize and describe these entities.

 Attributes are pieces of information about entities.

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Types of Attributes
 Simple (atomic) Vs Composite attributes
 Simple: These are atomic values which cannot be divided into sub parts.
E.g. Age, gender, salary etc.

 Composite: Divided into sub parts (composed of other attributes).

E.g. Name, address etc.
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 Single-valued Vs multi-valued attributes

 Single-valued: Have only single value (the value may change but has only one value at one time).
E.g. Age, Sex, S-id. No, color_of_eyes, etc.

 Multi-Valued: Have more than one value.

E.g. Address, Mobile-number, Person may have several college degrees, etc.
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 Derived Vs Stored Attributes
 Derived: The value may be derived (computed) from the values of other attributes. The attribute do not exist in the
physical database.
E.g. Age (current year – date of birth).
Length of employment (current date- start date).
Profit (earning-cost).
G.P.A (grade point/credit hours).
 Stored: not possible to derive or compute.
E.g. Date of Birth.
Null Values
 NULL applies to attributes which are not applicable or which do not have values.
 You may enter the value NA (meaning not applicable).
 Value of a key attribute cannot be null.
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RELATIONSHIPS: The relationships between entities which exist and must be taken into account when processing

information.

 The number of entities and the number of tuples participating in the association. These two concepts are

called degree and cardinality of a relationship respectively.

Degree of a Relationship: The number of entities participating in a relationship.

• Unary/recursive relationship: Tuples/records of a Single entity are related with each other.
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• Binary relationships: Tuples/records of two entities are associated in a relationship.

• Ternary relationship: Tuples/records of three different entities are associated.

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• n-ary relationship: Tuples from arbitrary number of entity sets are participating in a relationship.
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Cardinality of a Relationship: is the number of instances/tuples that can be associated with a single instance from one
entity in a single relationship.
 The number of instances participating or associated with a single instance from an entity in a relationship is called the
cardinality of the relationship.
The major cardinalities of a relationship are:
 One-to-one: one tuple is associated with only one other tuple.
o E.g. Building -to- Location
 One-to-many: one tuple can be associated with many other tuples, but not the reverse.
o E.g. Department-to-Student
• Many-to-one: many tuples are associated with one tuple but not the reverse.
o E.g. Employee–to-Department
 Many-to-many: one tuple is associated with many other tuples and from the other side, with a different role name one
tuple will be associated with many tuples.
o E.g. Student–to-Course
 Relational Constraints
A constraint is a rule that is used for optimization purposes.
Constraints can be categorized:

 A NOT NULL constraint is a rule that prevents null values from being entered into one or more columns within a table.

 The DEFAULT constraint is used to set a default value for a column. The default value will be added to all new
records, if no other value is specified.
 A unique constraint (also referred to as a unique key constraint) is a rule that forbids duplicate values in one or more
columns within a table. we can save a null value, but, only one NULL value is supported.

 A primary key constraint is a column or combination of columns that has the same properties as a unique constraint. In the
case of a primary key, we cannot save NULL values.

 A foreign key constraint (also referred to as a referential constraint or a referential integrity constraint) is a logical rule
about values in one or more columns in one or more tables.

 A table check constraint (also called a check constraint) sets restrictions on data that is added to a specific table.
 Relational Integrity

Types of Relational Integrity:

 Domain integrity: No value of the attribute should be beyond the allowable limits.

 Entity integrity: In a base relation, no attribute of a Primary Key can assume a value of NULL.

 Referential integrity: If a Foreign Key exists in a relation, either the Foreign Key value must match a

Candidate Key value in its home relation or the Foreign Key value must be NULL.

 Enterprise integrity: Additional rules specified by the users or database administrators of a database are

incorporated.
 Key Constraints

 A key refers to an attribute/a set of attributes that help us identify a row (or tuple) uniquely in a table (or relation).

 A key is also used to establish relationship between the different columns and tables of a relational database.

Types of Keys:
A super key: A super key also known as super set is then a set of one or more attributes that in group (collectively) can identify an
entity uniquely from the entity set.
Example: “EMPLOYEES” entity set (“EmpId”, “EmpId, Name”, “NationalId”, “NationalId, BDate”)
Candidate Key: an attribute or set of attributes that uniquely identifies individual occurrences of an entity type or tuple within a
relation.
A candidate key has two properties:
• Uniqueness
• Irreducibility

Alternate key: is a candidate key that are not selected as primary key are called Alternate key.

Primary key: the candidate key that is selected to identify tuples uniquely within the relation.

Foreign key: an attribute, or set of attributes, within one relation that matches the candidate key of some relation
Referential Constraint
 Relational language and Views

 Relations are perceived as a table from the users’ perspective.

 The two categories or types of relations are Base (Named) and View (Unnamed) Relations.

Base (Named Relation): A named relation corresponding to an entity in the conceptual schema, whose tuples

are physically stored in the database.

View (Unnamed Relation): A View is the dynamic result of one or more relational operations operating on the

base relations to produce another virtual relation that does not actually exist as presented.
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Purpose of a view

 Hides unnecessary information from users

 Provide powerful flexibility and security

 Provide customized view of the database for users

 A view of one base relation can be updated.

 Update on views derived from various relations is not allowed since it may violate the integrity of the

database.

 Update on view with aggregation and summary is not allowed.