Chapter 8

Relations
 Objectives
 8.1-Relations and their Properties.
 8.2-N-ary Relations and their Applications.
 8.3-Representing relations.
 8.5-Equivalence Relations.
 8.1 Relations and Their Applications

 Introduction
 Functions as Relations
 Relations on a Set
 Properties of Relations
 Combining Relations
 Introduction
 Relations can be used to solve problems such as
determining which pairs of cities are linked by
airline flights in a network, finding a viable order
for the different phases of a complicated project, or
producing a useful way to store information in
computer databases.
 8.1- Relations… : Introduction
Definition 1:
Let A and B be sets. A binary relation from A to B is a subset of A🗴B.

Notations
a R b : ( a, b)  R
a R b : ( a, b)  R
Example 1: A: set of students , B: set of courses
A🗴B = { (Hellen, Math1), (Jacob, C Language), ……. }
Example 2: A: set of cities , B: set of states of USA
A🗴B = { (Boulder, Colorado), (Bangore, Maine), ……. }

Example 3:
A = { 0, 1, 2 }
B = { a, b }
R = { (0, a) , (0, b) ,
(1, a), (2, b) } Figure: Displaying the ordered pairs
in the relation R from Example 3.
 8.1- Relations… : Functions as Relations
Function: f : A → B
Graph of f : G = { (a, b) | a  A, b  B }
 G  A🗴B
 G is a relation
 Relations are a generalization of functions.
But a relation may not be a function.
 Example:
(R is not a function) 
 8.1- Relations… : Relations on a Set
Definition 2:
A relation on a set A is a relation from A to A.
In other words, a relation on a set A is a subset of A × A
EXAMPLE 4 Let A be the set {1, 2, 3, 4}. Which ordered pairs are in the
relation R = {(a, b) ∣ a divides b}?
Solution: Because (a, b) is in R if and only if a and b are positive integers not
exceeding 4 such that a divides b, we see that
R = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (2, 4), (3, 3), (4, 4)}.

In-class Examples:
Example 5, page 521
Example 6: page 522
8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations

 Reflexive / Irreflexive
 Symmetric/ Asymmetric / Antisymmetric
 Transitive
 Inverse relations
 Complementary relations
 8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations
Definition 3:
A relation R on a set A is called reflexive if (a, a) ∈ R for every
element a ∈ A.

R is reflexive  a A, (a, a)  R

Example 7: page 522
Example 9: page 523
Reflexive
R is irreflexive  a A, (a,a)  R and
A= {0,1}. Irreflexive
Some irreflexive relations: properties are
{}, {(0,1)}, {(1,0)}, {(0,1), (1,0)}
Some non-irreflexive relations
boundaries.
{(0,0)}, {(0,1), (1,1)}, {(0,0), (0,1),
(1,0)}
 8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations
Example 16/p.525.
How many reflexive relations are there on a set with n elements?

 Solution. (a, b) belongs to

 Let A be {a1, a2, …, an}. R or not
 A relation on A is a subset of AA, which has (a1, a1)
nn elements. (a2, a2)
 Every relation R on A is reflexive if and only if …
R is a subset of AA and R contains all n (a, b) (an, an)
ordered pairs (ai, ai) for i = 1, 2, …, n. R may (a  b)
have (a, b) or not (where a b).
 There are nn – n ordered pairs (a, b) where
a  b.
 So, there are 2 nn – n reflexive relation on A reflexive
(using product rule to count). relation R
 8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations
Definition 4:
A relation R on a set A is called symmetric if (b, a) ∈ R whenever (a, b) ∈
R, for all a, b ∈ A.
A relation R on a set A such that for all a, b ∈ A, if (a, b) ∈ R and (b, a) ∈
R, then a = b is called antisymmetric.

R is symmetric  (a,b) R  (b,a)  R

Example 10: page 523
Example 12: page 524

R is asymmetric  (a,b) R (b,a)  R

A = { 0,1}
{(0,1)} and {(1,0)} are asymmetric.

R is antisymmetric  a,b A  (a,b)  R ^ (b,a)  R  a=b

A= {0,1}
{}, {(0,1)}, { (0,0), (1,0), (1,1)} are antisymmetric.
{(0,0), (0,1), (1,0), (1,1)} is not antisymmetric ( 0 1).
 8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations

Definition 5:
A relation R on a set A is called transitive if whenever (a, b) ∈ R
and (b, c) ∈ R, then (a, c) ∈ R, for all a, b, c ∈ A.

Example 13: page 524

Example 15: page 524
 8.1- Relations… : Properties of Relations

Inverse Relations:
R is a relation from the set A to the set B
Inverse relation R-1 of R is a relation from B to A and
(a,b) R  (b, a) R-1.

Complementary Relations:
R is a relation from the set A to the set B.
Complementary relation ~R of R is a relation from A
to B and and ~R contains ordered pairs { (a, b) | (a, b)
 R }.
 Properties of Relations
Consider the set A = {1, 2, 3, 4} and some relations.

R1 1 2 3 4 R2 1 2 3 4 R3 1 2 3 4
1 X X 1 X X 1 X X X
2 X X 2 X X 2 X X X
3 X X 3 X X 3 X X
4 x X 4 X X 4

Reflexive Transitive
Symmetric (1,2) (2,1)  (1,1)
Main diagonal
(1,3) (3,2)  (1,2)
(2,1) (1,2)  (2,2)
(2,1) (1,3)  (2,3)
(2,3) (3,2)  (2,2)
(3,2) (2,3)  (3,3)
 8.1- Relations… : Combining Relations
Unions, Intersections and Differences of two relations:

EXAMPLE 17:
Let A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {1, 2, 3, 4}. The relations R1 = {(1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3)}
and R2 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4)} can be combined to obtain

R1 ∪ R2 = {(1, 1), (1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4), (2, 2), (3, 3)},
R1 ∩ R2 = {(1, 1)},
R1 - R2 = {(2, 2), (3, 3)},
R2 - R1 = {(1, 2), (1, 3), (1, 4)}.
 8.1- Relations… : Combining Relations
Definition 6:
Let R be a relation from a set A to a set B and S a relation from B
to a set C. The composite of R and S is the relation consisting of
ordered pairs (a, c), where a ∈ A, c ∈ C, and for which there exists
an element b ∈ B such that (a, b) ∈ R and (b, c) ∈ S. We denote
the composite of R and S by S ◦ R.

R S S◦R
Example 20:
R is the relation from {1, 2, 3} to {1, 2, 3, 4} (1,1) (1,0) (1,0)
R = {(1, 1), (1, 4), (2, 3), (3, 1), (3, 4)}
S is the relation from {1, 2, 3, 4} to {0, 1, 2} (1,4) (4,1) (1,1)
S = {(1, 0), (2, 0), (3, 1), (3, 2), (4, 1)} (3,1) (2,1)
⇰ S ◦ R = {(1, 0), (1, 1), (2, 1), (2, 2), (3, 0), (3, 1)}. (2,3)
(3,2) (2,2)
(3,1) (1,0) (3,0)
(3,4) (4,1) (3,1)
 8.1- Relations… : Combining Relations
Definition 7:
Let R be a relation on the set A. The powers n , n = 1, 2, 3, …, are
defined recursively by
R1 = R and Rn+1 = Rn ◦ R.
The definition shows that R2 = R ◦ R, R3 = R2 ◦ R = (R ◦ R)◦ R, and so on.

EXAMPLE 22:
Let R = {(1, 1), (2, 1), (3, 2), (4, 3)}. Find the powers Rn, n = 2, 3, 4, ….
Solution: Because R2 = R ◦ R, we find that
R2 = {(1, 1), (2, 1), (3, 1), (4, 2)}.
R3 = {(1, 1), (2, 1), (3, 1), (4, 1)}.
R4 = {(1, 1), (2, 1), (3, 1), (4, 1)}
………
 8.1- Relations… : Combining Relations
THEOREM 1.
The relation R on a set A is transitive if and only if Rn ⊆ R for n = 1, 2, 3, ….

Proof: Page 527

 8.2- n-ary Relations and Their Applications
 Theory of Relational Databases
Definition 1:
Let A1, A2, …, An be sets. An n-ary relation on these sets is a subset of A1×A2×⋯×An.
The sets A1, A2, …, An are called the domains of the relation, and n is called its degree.

Primary key
column
Degree of
Primary
4
domain

Extension: collection
of current records.
Record
Intension: current
( n-tuple )
records.
 N-ary Relations ….

Which domains are primary keys? Suppose that no record can

be added.
 Student_name or ID_number because these columns
contain different values.
 Student_name x ID_number may be used as primary
domain ( composite key ).
8.2- n-ary Relations…: Operations
 Selection
 Projection
 Join
 8.2…. Selection Operation

SMajor=‘Computer Science’ PStudent_name,GPA

8.2…: Projection Operation

P1,4
8.2… : Projection
 8.2… : Join Operation

J2 , 2 common columns
 Result table haves 3+4-2=5 columns
 8.3- Representing Relations

 Using matrices
 Using Directed Graphs (Digraphs)
8.3…. : Representing Relations Using Matrices
8.3… : Matrices of Special Relations
8.3…. Matrices for Unions, Intersections
 8.3- ……Matrix for SoR

(1.0)+(0.0)+(1.1)=1
(1.1)+(0.0)+(1.0)=1
(1^0)+(0.1)+(1.1)=1
8.3…. : Representing Relations Using Digraphs
8.3…. Digraphs
 8.3….. Digraphs

- It is reflexive (loops)
- It is not symmetric -It is not reflexive (no loop)
- It is symmetric
(a,b)  R but (b,a)  R
-It is not antisymmetric: -It is not antisymmetric:
(b,c), (c,b)  R but b  c (a,c), (c,a)  R but a  c
-It is not transitive
- It is not transitive:
(a,b), (b,c)  R but (a,c)  R (c,a), (a,b)  R but (c,b)  R
 8.5- Equivalence Relations

Steps to show that a relation is a equivalence:

Step 1: Show that it is reflexive : aRa
Step 2: Show that it is symmetric : aRb  bRa
Step 3: Show that it is transitive: aRb, bRc  aRc
Equivalence Relations….
Page 556, 557
Equivalence Classes
 Equivalence Classes and Partitions
Proof: page 560

Consider the relation on the set N:

R = { (a,b) | a = b (mod 4) }

Equivalence classes:
a mod (4)=0
{ 4,8,12,16,20,24,28,32,…}
{ 1,5,9,13,17, …}
{ 2,6,10,14,18,…}
{ 3,7,11,15,19,…. }
 N is partitioned into 4 different parts
Figure 1: A Partition of a Set
Equivalence Classes and Partitions
 Summary
 8.1-Relations and their Properties
 8.2-N-ary Relations and their Applications
 8.3-Representing relations
 8.5-Equivalence Relations
Thanks