Relational Algebra

 A procedural language consisting of a set of operations that take one or

two relations as input and produce a new relation as their result.
 Six basic operators
 select: 
 project: 
 union: 
 set difference: –
 Cartesian product: x
 rename: 

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.1 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation

 The select operation selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate.

 Notation:  p (r)
 p is called the selection predicate
 Example: select those tuples of the instructor relation where the instructor
is in the “Physics” department.
 Query

 dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)
 Result

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation (Cont.)

 We allow comparisons using

=, , >, . <. 
in the selection predicate.
 We can combine several predicates into a larger predicate by using the
connectives:
 (and),  (or),  (not)
 Example: Find the instructors in Physics with a salary greater $90,000, we
write:

 dept_name=“Physics”  salary > 90,000 (instructor)

 The select predicate may include comparisons between two attributes.
 Example, find all departments whose name is the same as their
building name:
  (department)
dept_name=building

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation

 A unary operation that returns its argument relation, with certain attributes
left out.
 Notation:

 A1,A2,A3 ….Ak (r)

where A1, A2, …, Ak 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

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation Example
 Example: eliminate the dept_name attribute of instructor
 Query:
ID, name, salary (instructor)
 Result:

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Composition of Relational Operations

 The result of a relational-algebra operation is relation and therefore of

relational-algebra operations can be composed together into a
relational-algebra expression.
 Consider the query -- Find the names of all instructors in the Physics
department.

name( dept_name =“Physics” (instructor))

 Instead of giving the name of a relation as the argument of the projection

operation, we give an expression that evaluates to a relation.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-Product Operation
 The Cartesian-product operation (denoted by X) allows us to combine
information from any two relations.
 Example: the Cartesian product of the relations instructor and teaches is
written as:
instructor X teaches
 We construct a tuple of the result out of each possible pair of tuples: one
from the instructor relation and one from the teaches relation (see next
slide)
 Since the instructor ID appears in both relations we distinguish between
these attribute by attaching to the attribute the name of the relation from
which the attribute originally came.
 instructor.ID
 teaches.ID

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The instructor X teaches table

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation

 The Cartesian-Product
instructor X teaches
associates every tuple of instructor with every tuple of teaches.
 Most of the resulting rows have information about instructors who did
NOT teach a particular course.
 To get only those tuples of “instructor X teaches “ that pertain to
instructors and the courses that they taught, we write:
 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches ))

 We get only those tuples of “instructor X teaches” that pertain to

instructors and the courses that they taught.
 The result of this expression, shown in the next slide

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation (Cont.)
 The table corresponding to:
 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Join Operation (Cont.)

 The join operation allows us to combine a select operation and a

Cartesian-Product operation into a single operation.
 Consider relations r (R) and s (S)
 Let “theta” be a predicate on attributes in the schema R “union” S. The
join operation r s is defined as follows:

 Thus
 instructor.id = teaches.id (instructor x teaches ))

 Can equivalently be written as

instructor Instructor.id = teaches.id teaches.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union Operation

 The union operation allows us to combine two relations

 Notation: r  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 (example: 2nd
column of r deals with the same type of values as does the
2nd column of s)
 Example: to find all courses taught in the Fall 2017 semester, or in the
Spring 2018 semester, or in both
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union Operation (Cont.)

 Result of:
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set-Intersection Operation
 The set-intersection operation allows us to find tuples that are in both
the input relations.
 Notation: r  s
 Assume:
 r, s have the same arity
 attributes of r and s are compatible
 Example: Find the set of all courses taught in both the Fall 2017 and the
Spring 2018 semesters.
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) 
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

 Result

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set Difference Operation
 The set-difference operation allows us to find tuples that are in one relation
but are not in another.
 Notation r – 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

 Example: to find all courses taught in the Fall 2017 semester, but not in the
Spring 2018 semester
course_id ( semester=“Fall” Λ year=2017 (section)) −
course_id ( semester=“Spring” Λ year=2018 (section))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Assignment Operation
 It is convenient at times to write a relational-algebra expression by
assigning parts of it to temporary relation variables.
 The assignment operation is denoted by  and works like assignment in
a programming language.
 Example: Find all instructor in the “Physics” and Music department.

Physics   dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)

Music   dept_name=“Music” (instructor)
Physics  Music

 With the assignment operation, a query can be written as a sequential

program consisting of a series of assignments followed by an expression
whose value is displayed as the result of the query.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The Rename Operation
 The results of relational-algebra expressions do not have a name that we
can use to refer to them. The rename operator,  , is provided for that
purpose
 The expression:
x (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name x
 Another form of the rename operation:
x(A1,A2, .. An) (E)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Equivalent Queries

 There is more than one way to write a query in relational algebra.

 Example: Find information about courses taught by instructors in the
Physics department with salary greater than 90,000
 Query 1
 dept_name=“Physics”  salary > 90,000 (instructor)

 Query 2
 dept_name=“Physics” ( salary > 90.000 (instructor))

 The two queries are not identical; they are, however, equivalent -- they
give the same result on any database.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Equivalent Queries

 There is more than one way to write a query in relational algebra.

 Example: Find information about courses taught by instructors in the
Physics department
 Query 1
dept_name=“Physics” (instructor instructor.ID = teaches.ID teaches)

 Query 2
(dept_name=“Physics” (instructor)) instructor.ID = teaches.ID teaches

 The two queries are not identical; they are, however, equivalent -- they
give the same result on any database.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 2.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan