Chapter 2: Intro to Relational

Model

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use
 Example of a Relation

attributes
(or columns)

tuples
(or rows)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Attribute Types

 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
 The special value null is a member of every domain.
Indicated that the value is “unknown”
 The null value causes complications in the
definition of many operations

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relation Schema and Instance
 A1, A2, …, An are attributes

 R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema

Example:
instructor = (ID, name, dept_name, salary)
 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 (a , a , …, an) where
The current values (relation instance)1 of2a relation are
each ai  by
specified Di a table
 An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row in a
table

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relations are Unordered

 Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an

arbitrary order)
 Example: instructor relation with unordered tuples

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys
 Let K  R
 K is a Super key of R if values for K are sufficient to
identify a unique tuple of each possible relation r(R)
 Example: {ID} and {ID,name} are both superkeys of
instructor.
 Super key is a set of one or more attributes that, taken
collectively, allow us to identify uniquely a tuple in the
relation.
 Super key K is a Candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {ID} is a candidate key for Instructor
 One of the candidate keys is selected to be the Primary
key.
 Primary key is a candidate key that is chosen by database
designer as a principal means of identifying tuples within a
relation.
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
  Foreign key constraint: Value in one relation must
appear in another
 Referencing relation
 Referenced relation
 Example – dept_name in instructor is a foreign key
from instructor referencing department

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema Diagram for University
Database

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Relational Query Languages
 Procedural vs .non-procedural, or declarative
 “Pure” languages:
 Relational algebra
 Tuple relational calculus
 Domain relational calculus
 The above 3 pure languages are equivalent in computing
power
 We will concentrate in this chapter on relational algebra
 Not turning-machine equivalent
 consists of 6 basic operations

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation – selection of rows
(tuples)
 Relation r

 A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation – selection of columns
(Attributes)

 Relation r:

 A,C (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r  s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set difference of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r – s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set intersection of two relations

 Relation r, s:

 rs

Note: r  s = r – (r – s)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joining two relations - Cartesian-
product
 Relations r, s:

 r x s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-product – naming issue
 Relations r, s: B

 r x s: r.B s.B

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Renaming a Table
 Allows us to refer to a relation, (say E) by more than one name.
 x (E)

returns the expression E under the name X

 Relations r

 r x  s (r) r.A r.B s.A s.B

α 1 α 1
α 1 β 2
β 2 α 1
β 2 β 2

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Composition of Operations
 Can build expressions using multiple operations
 Example: A=C (r x s)

 rxs

 A=C (r x s)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joining two relations – Natural
Join
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S
respectively.
Then, the “natural join” of relations R and 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

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Example
 Relations r, s:

 Natural Join
 r s

 A, r.B, C, r.D, E ( r.B = s.B ˄ r.D = s.D (r x s)))

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Notes about Relational Languages
 Each Query input is a table (or set of tables)
 Each query output is a table.
 All data in the output table appears in one of the input
tables
 Relational Algebra is not Turning complete
 Can we compute:
 SUM
 AVG
 MAX
 MIN

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Exercise
 employee (person-name, street, city)
 works (person-name, company-name, salary)
 company (company-name, city)
 manages (person-name, manager-name)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Exercise
 Find the names of all employees who work for First
Bank Corporation.
 Find the names and cities of residence of all
employees who work for First Bank Corporation.
 Find the names, street address, and cities of residence
of all employees who work for First Bank Corporation
and earn more than $10,000 per annum.
 Find the names of all employees in this database who
live in the same city as the company for which they
work.
 Find the names of all employees in this database who
do not work for First Bank Corporation.
 Find the names of all employees who earn more than
every employee of Small Bank Corporation.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Summary of Relational Algebra
Operators
Symbol (Name) Example of Use
σ
(Selection) σ
salary > = 85000 (instructor)
Return rows of the input relation that satisfy the predicate.
Π
(Projection) Π
ID, salary (instructor)
Output specified attributes from all rows of the input relation. Remove
duplicate tuples from the output.
x
(Cartesian Product) instructor x department
Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.
∪
(Union) Π
name (instructor) ∪ Π
name (student)
Output the union of tuples from the two input relations.
-
(Set Difference) Π
name (instructor) -- Π
name (student)
Output the set difference of tuples from the two input relations.
⋈
(Natural Join) instructor ⋈ department
Output pairs of rows from the two input relations that have the same value on
all attributes that have the same name.

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 2

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
See www.db-book.com for conditions on re-use