Course Name: Database Management System

Course Code: BCS403

Module 2
 Chapter 5
The Relational Data Model and
Relational Database Constraints
 Chapter Outline
◼ Relational Model Concepts
◼ Relational Model Constraints and Relational
Database Schemas
◼ Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint
Violations

Slide 5- 3
 Relational Model Concepts
◼ A Relation is a mathematical concept based on
the ideas of sets
◼ The model was first proposed by Dr. E.F. Codd of
IBM Research in 1970 in the following paper:
◼ "A Relational Model for Large Shared Data
Banks," Communications of the ACM, June 1970
◼ The above paper caused a major revolution in the
field of database management and earned Dr.
Codd the coveted ACM Turing Award

Slide 5- 4
 Relational Model Concepts
◼ The relational Model of Data is based on the concept of a
Relation
◼ theory of relations
◼ Note: the formal model V/s the practical model
◼ The relational model represents the database as a
collection of relations.

Slide 5- 5
 Informal Definitions

◼ Informally, a relation looks like a table of values.

◼ A relation typically contains a set of rows.

◼ The data elements in each row represent certain facts that

correspond to a real-world entity or relationship
◼ In the formal model, rows are called tuples

◼ Each column has a column header that gives an indication

of the meaning of the data items in that column
◼ In the formal model, the column header is called an attribute
name (or just attribute)

Slide 5- 6
Example of a Relation

Slide 5- 7
 Informal Definitions
◼ Key of a Relation:
◼ Each row has a value of a data item (or set of items)
that uniquely identifies that row in the table
◼ Called the key
◼ In the STUDENT table, SSN is the key

◼ Sometimes row-ids or sequential numbers are

assigned as keys to identify the rows in a table
◼ Called artificial key or surrogate key

Slide 5- 8
 Formal Definitions - Schema
◼ The Schema (or description) of a Relation:
◼ Denoted by R(A1, A2, .....An)
◼ R is the name of the relation
◼ The attributes of the relation are A1, A2, ..., An
◼ Example:
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#)
◼ CUSTOMER is the relation name
◼ Defined over the four attributes: Cust-id, Cust-name,
Address, Phone#
◼ Each attribute has a domain or a set of valid values.
◼ For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.

Slide 5- 9
 Formal Definitions - Tuple
◼ A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled
brackets ‘< … >’)
◼ Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
◼ A row in the CUSTOMER relation is a 4-tuple and would
consist of four values, for example:
◼ <632895, "John Smith", "101 Main St. Atlanta, GA 30332",
"(404) 894-2000">
◼ This is called a 4-tuple as it has 4 values
◼ A tuple (row) in the CUSTOMER relation.
◼ A relation is a set of such tuples (rows)

Slide 5- 10
 Formal Definitions - Domain
◼ A domain has a logical definition:
◼ Example: “USA_phone_numbers” are the set of 10 digit phone
numbers valid in the U.S.
◼ A domain also has a data-type or a format defined for it.
◼ The USA_phone_numbers may have a format: (ddd)ddd-dddd where
each d is a decimal digit.
◼ Dates - yyyy-mm-dd, or as dd mm,yyyy etc.

◼ The attribute name designates the role played by a domain in a

relation:
◼ Used to interpret the meaning of the data elements corresponding
to that attribute
◼ Example: The domain Date may be used to define two attributes
named “Invoice-date” and “Payment-date” with different meanings

Slide 5- 11
 Formal Definitions - State
◼ The relation state is a subset of the Cartesian
product of the domains of its attributes
◼ each domain contains the set of all possible values
the attribute can take.
◼ Example: attribute Cust-name is defined over the
domain of character strings of maximum length
25
◼ dom(Cust-name) is varchar(25)
◼ The role these strings play in the CUSTOMER
relation is that of the name of a customer.

Slide 5- 12
 Formal Definitions - Summary
◼ Formally,
◼ Given R(A1, A2, .........., An)
◼ r(R)  dom (A1) X dom (A2) X ....X dom(An)
◼ R(A1, A2, …, An) is the schema of the relation
◼ R is the name of the relation
◼ A1, A2, …, An are the attributes of the relation
◼ r(R): a specific state (or "value" or “population”) of
relation R – this is a set of tuples (rows)
◼ r(R) = {t1, t2, …, tn} where each ti is an n-tuple
◼ ti = <v1, v2, …, vn> where each vj element-of dom(Aj)

Slide 5- 13
 Formal Definitions - Example
◼ Let R(A1, A2) be a relation schema:
◼ Let dom(A1) = {0,1}
◼ Let dom(A2) = {a,b,c}
◼ Then: dom(A1) X dom(A2) is all possible combinations:
{<0,a> , <0,b> , <0,c>, <1,a>, <1,b>, <1,c> }

◼ The relation state r(R)  dom(A1) X dom(A2)

◼ For example: r(R) could be {<0,a> , <0,b> , <1,c> }
◼ this is one possible state (or “population” or “extension”) r of
the relation R, defined over A1 and A2.
◼ It has three 2-tuples: <0,a> , <0,b> , <1,c>

Slide 5- 14
 Definition Summary
Informal Terms Formal Terms
Table Relation
Column Header Attribute
All possible Column Domain
Values
Row Tuple

Table Definition Schema of a Relation

Populated Table State of the Relation
Slide 5- 15
Example – A relation STUDENT

Slide 5- 16
 Characteristics Of Relations
◼ Ordering of tuples in a relation r(R):
◼ The tuples are not considered to be ordered,
even though they appear to be in the tabular
form.
◼ The definition of a relation does not specify any
order
◼ Ordering of attributes in a relation schema R (and
of values within each tuple):
◼ We will consider the attributes in R(A1, A2, ...,
An) and the values in t=<v1, v2, ..., vn> to be
ordered .
Slide 5- 17
Same state as previous Figure (but
with different order of tuples)

Slide 5- 18
 Characteristics Of Relations
◼ Values in a tuple:
◼ All values are considered atomic (indivisible).
◼ Each value in a tuple must be from the domain of
the attribute for that column
◼ If tuple t = <v1, v2, …, vn> is a tuple (row) in the
relation state r of R(A1, A2, …, An)
◼ Then each vi must be a value from dom(Ai)

◼ A special null value is used to represent values

that are unknown or inapplicable to certain tuples.

Slide 5- 19
 Characteristics Of Relations
◼ Notation:
◼ We refer to component values of a tuple t by:
◼ t[Ai] or t.Ai
◼ This is the value vi of attribute Ai for tuple t
◼ Similarly, t[Au, Av, ..., Aw] refers to the subtuple of
t containing the values of attributes Au, Av, ..., Aw,
respectively in t

Slide 5- 20
 Relational Integrity Constraints
◼ Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid
relation states.
◼ There are three main types of constraints in the relational
model:
◼ Key constraints
◼ Entity integrity constraints
◼ Referential integrity constraints
◼ Another implicit constraint is the domain constraint
◼ Every value in a tuple must be from the domain of its
attribute (or it could be null, if allowed for that attribute)

Slide 5- 21
 Key Constraints
◼ Superkey of R:
◼ Is a set of attributes SK of R with the following condition:
◼ No two tuples in any valid relation state r(R) will have the
same value for SK
◼ That is, for any distinct tuples t1 and t2 in r(R), t1[SK]  t2[SK]
◼ This condition must hold in any valid state r(R)
◼ Key of R:
◼ A "minimal" superkey
◼ That is, a key is a superkey K such that removal of any
attribute from K results in a set of attributes that is not a
superkey (does not possess the superkey uniqueness
property)

Slide 5- 22
 Key Constraints (continued)
◼ Example: Consider the CAR relation schema:
◼ CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year)
◼ CAR has two keys:
◼ Key1 = {State, Reg#}
◼ Key2 = {SerialNo}
◼ Both are also superkeys of CAR
◼ {SerialNo, Make} is a superkey but not a key.
◼ In general:
◼ Any key is a superkey (but not vice versa)
◼ Any set of attributes that includes a key is a superkey
◼ A minimal superkey is also a key

Slide 5- 23
 Key Constraints (continued)
◼ If a relation has several candidate keys, one is chosen
arbitrarily to be the primary key.
◼ The primary key attributes are underlined.

◼ Example: Consider the CAR relation schema:

◼ CAR(State, Reg#, SerialNo, Make, Model, Year)
◼ We chose SerialNo as the primary key
◼ The primary key value is used to uniquely identify each
tuple in a relation

◼ Also used to reference the tuple from another tuple

◼ General rule: Choose as primary key the smallest of the
candidate keys (in terms of size)

Slide 5- 24
CAR table with two candidate keys –
LicenseNumber chosen as Primary Key

Slide 5- 25
 Relational Database Schema
◼ Relational Database Schema:
◼ A set S of relation schemas that belong to the
same database.
◼ S is the name of the whole database schema
◼ S = {R1, R2, ..., Rn}
◼ R1, R2, …, Rn are the names of the individual
relation schemas within the database S
◼ Following slide shows a COMPANY database
schema with 6 relation schemas

Slide 5- 26
COMPANY Database Schema

Slide 5- 27
 Entity Integrity
◼ Entity Integrity:
◼ The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema

R in S cannot have null values in any tuple of r(R).

◼ This is because primary key values are used to identify the
individual tuples.
◼ t[PK]  null for any tuple t in r(R)
◼ If PK has several attributes, null is not allowed in any of these
attributes
◼ Note: Other attributes of R may be constrained to
disallow null values, even though they are not members
of the primary key.

Slide 5- 28
 Referential Integrity
◼ A constraint involving two relations
◼ The previous constraints involve a single relation.
◼ Used to specify a relationship among tuples in
two relations:
◼ The referencing relation and the referenced
relation.

Slide 5- 29
 Referential Integrity
◼ Tuples in the referencing relation R1 have
attributes FK (called foreign key attributes) that
reference the primary key attributes PK of the
referenced relation R2.
◼ A tuple t1 in R1 is said to reference a tuple t2 in
R2 if t1[FK] = t2[PK].
◼ A referential integrity constraint can be displayed
in a relational database schema as a directed arc
from R1.FK to R2.PK

Slide 5- 30
 Referential Integrity (or foreign key)
Constraint
◼ Statement of the constraint
◼ The value in the foreign key column (or columns)
FK of the referencing relation R1 can be either:
◼ (1) a value of an existing primary key value of a
corresponding primary key PK in the referenced
relation R2, or
◼ (2) a null.
◼ In case (2), the FK in R1 should not be a part of
its own primary key.

Slide 5- 31
 Displaying a relational database
schema and its constraints
◼ Each relation schema can be displayed as a row of
attribute names
◼ The name of the relation is written above the attribute
names
◼ The primary key attribute (or attributes) will be
underlined
◼ A foreign key (referential integrity) constraints is
displayed as a directed arc (arrow) from the foreign key
attributes to the referenced table
◼ Can also point the the primary key

Slide 5- 32
Referential Integrity Constraints for COMPANY database

Slide 5- 33
 Other Types of Constraints
◼ Semantic Integrity Constraints:
◼ based on application semantics and cannot be
expressed by the model per se
◼ Example: “the max. no. of hours per employee for
all projects he or she works on is 56 hrs per week”
◼ A constraint specification language may have
to be used to express these
◼ SQL-99 allows triggers and ASSERTIONS to
express for some of these

Slide 5- 34
 Populated database state
◼ Each relation will have many tuples in its current relation
state
◼ The relational database state is a union of all the
individual relation states
◼ Whenever the database is changed, a new state arises
◼ Basic operations for changing the database:
◼ INSERT a new tuple in a relation
◼ DELETE an existing tuple from a relation
◼ MODIFY an attribute of an existing tuple
◼ Next slide shows an example state for the COMPANY
database

Slide 5- 35
 Populated
database state
for COMPANY

Slide 5- 36
 Update Operations on Relations
◼ INSERT a tuple.
◼ DELETE a tuple.
◼ MODIFY a tuple.
◼ Integrity constraints should not be violated by the
update operations.
◼ Several update operations may have to be
grouped together.
◼ Updates may propagate to cause other updates
automatically. This may be necessary to maintain
integrity constraints.
Slide 5- 37
 Update Operations on Relations
◼ In case of integrity violation, several actions can
be taken:
◼ Cancel the operation that causes the violation
(RESTRICT or REJECT option)
◼ Perform the operation but inform the user of the
violation
◼ Trigger additional updates so the violation is
corrected (CASCADE option, SET NULL option)
◼ Execute a user-specified error-correction routine

Slide 5- 38
 Possible violations for each operation
◼ INSERT may violate any of the constraints:
◼ Domain constraint:
◼ if one of the attribute values provided for the new tuple is not
of the specified attribute domain
◼ Key constraint:
◼ if the value of a key attribute in the new tuple already exists in
another tuple in the relation
◼ Referential integrity:
◼ if a foreign key value in the new tuple references a primary key
value that does not exist in the referenced relation
◼ Entity integrity:
◼ if the primary key value is null in the new tuple

Slide 5- 39
 Possible violations for each operation
◼ DELETE may violate only referential integrity:
◼ If the primary key value of the tuple being deleted is
referenced from other tuples in the database
◼ Can be remedied by several actions: RESTRICT, CASCADE,
SET NULL (see Chapter 8 for more details)
◼ RESTRICT option: reject the deletion
◼ CASCADE option: propagate the new primary key value into the
foreign keys of the referencing tuples
◼ SET NULL option: set the foreign keys of the referencing tuples
to NULL
◼ One of the above options must be specified during database
design for each foreign key constraint

Slide 5- 40
 Possible violations for each operation
◼ UPDATE may violate domain constraint and NOT NULL
constraint on an attribute being modified
◼ Any of the other constraints may also be violated,
depending on the attribute being updated:
◼ Updating the primary key (PK):
◼ Similar to a DELETE followed by an INSERT
◼ Need to specify similar options to DELETE
◼ Updating a foreign key (FK):
◼ May violate referential integrity
◼ Updating an ordinary attribute (neither PK nor FK):
◼ Can only violate domain constraints

Slide 5- 41
 Summary
◼ Presented Relational Model Concepts
◼ Definitions
◼ Characteristics of relations
◼ Discussed Relational Model Constraints and Relational
Database Schemas
◼ Domain constraints’
◼ Key constraints
◼ Entity integrity
◼ Referential integrity
◼ Described the Relational Update Operations and Dealing
with Constraint Violations

Slide 5- 42
 Exercise
(Taken from Exercise 5.15)
Consider the following relations for a database that keeps track of student
enrollment in courses and the books adopted for each course:
STUDENT(SSN, Name, Major, Bdate)
COURSE(Course#, Cname, Dept)
ENROLL(SSN, Course#, Quarter, Grade)
BOOK_ADOPTION(Course#, Quarter, Book_ISBN)
TEXT(Book_ISBN, Book_Title, Publisher, Author)
Draw a relational schema diagram specifying the foreign keys for this
schema.

Slide 5- 43
Course Name: Database Management System
Course Code: 18CS53
V Semester
2018 Scheme

Module 2- Chapter-8
 Chapter 6
The Relational Algebra and
Calculus
Chapter Outline

● Relational Algebra
○ Unary Relational Operations
○ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
○ Binary Relational Operations
○ Additional Relational Operations
○ Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra

Slide 6-
46
Relational Algebra Overview

● Relational algebra is the basic set of operations for the relational model
● These operations enable a user to specify basic retrieval requests
(or queries)
● The result of an operation is a new relation, which may have been formed
from one or more input relations
○ This property makes the algebra “closed” (all objects in relational algebra are relations)

Slide 6-
47
Relational Algebra Overview (continued)

● The algebra operations thus produce new relations

○ These can be further manipulated using operations of the same algebra
● A sequence of relational algebra operations forms a relational algebra
expression
○ The result of a relational algebra expression is also a relation that
represents the result of a database query (or retrieval request)

Slide 6-
48
Brief History of Origins of Algebra
● Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (800-847 CE) wrote a book titled al-jabr
about arithmetic of variables
○ Book was translated into Latin.
○ Its title (al-jabr) gave Algebra its name.
● Al-Khwarizmi called variables “shay”
○ “Shay” is Arabic for “thing”.
○ Spanish transliterated “shay” as “xay” (“x” was “sh” in Spain).
○ In time this word was abbreviated as x.
● Where does the word Algorithm come from?
○ Algorithm originates from “al-Khwarizmi”

Slide 6-
49
Relational Algebra Overview
● Relational Algebra consists of several groups of operations
○ Unary Relational Operations
■ SELECT (symbol: (sigma))
■ PROJECT (symbol: (pi))
■ RENAME (symbol:  (rho))
○ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
■ UNION ( ), INTERSECTION ( ), DIFFERENCE (or MINUS, – )
■ CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )
○ Binary Relational Operations
■ JOIN (several variations of JOIN exist)
■ DIVISION
○ Additional Relational Operations
■ OUTER JOINS, OUTER UNION
■ AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (These compute summary of information: for example,
SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX)

Slide 6-
50
 Database State for COMPANY
● All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY database
shown here.

Slide 6-
51
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT

● The SELECT operation (denoted by (sigma)) is used to select a subset of the tuples from
a relation based on a selection condition.
○ The selection condition acts as a filter
○ Keeps only those tuples that satisfy the qualifying condition
○ Tuples satisfying the condition are selected whereas the other tuples are
discarded (filtered out)
● Examples:
○ Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department number is 4:
DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
○ Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater than $30,000:
SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)

Slide 6-
52
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT

○ In general, the select operation is denoted by <selection

condition>(R) where
■ the symbol (sigma) is used to denote the select operator
■ the selection condition is a Boolean (conditional) expression specified on the attributes of
relation R
■ tuples that make the condition true are selected
● appear in the result of the operation
■ tuples that make the condition false are filtered out
● discarded from the result of the operation

Slide 6-
53
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT (contd.)
● SELECT Operation Properties
○ The SELECT operation <selection condition>(R) produces a relation
S that has the same schema (same attributes) as R
○ SELECT is commutative:
■ <condition1>( < condition2> (R)) = <condition2> ( < condition1> (R))

○ Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence) of

SELECT operations may be applied in any order:
■ <cond1>( <cond2> ( <cond3> (R)) = <cond2> ( <cond3> ( <cond1> (
R)))
○ A cascade of SELECT operations may be replaced by a single
selection with a conjunction of all the conditions:
■ <cond1>( < cond2> ( <cond3>(R)) = <cond1> AND < cond2> AND <
cond3>(R)))
○ The number of tuples in the result of a SELECT is less than
(or equal to) the number of tuples in the input relation R
Slide 6-
54
The following query results refer to this database state
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT

● PROJECT Operation is denoted by (pi)

● This operation keeps certain columns (attributes) from a relation and discards
the other columns.
○ PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning
■ The list of specified columns (attributes) is kept in each tuple
■ The other attributes in each tuple are discarded
● Example: To list each employee’s first and last name and salary, the following
is used:
LNAME, FNAME,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)

Slide 6-
56
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT (cont.)

● The general form of the project operation is:

<attribute list>(R)
○ (pi) is the symbol used to represent the project operation
○ <attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from relation R.
● The project operation removes any duplicate tuples
○ This is because the result of the project operation must be a set of tuples
■ Mathematical sets do not allow duplicate elements.

Slide 6-
57
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT (contd.)

● PROJECT Operation Properties

○ The number of tuples in the result of projection <list>(R) is always less or equal to the
number of tuples in R
■ If the list of attributes includes a key of R, then the number of tuples in the result of
PROJECT is equal to the number of tuples in R
○ PROJECT is not commutative
■ <list1> ( <list2> (R) ) = <list1> (R) as long as <list2> contains the attributes in <list1>

Slide 6-
58
Examples of applying SELECT and PROJECT
operations
Relational Algebra Expressions

● We may want to apply several relational algebra operations one after the
other
○ Either we can write the operations as a single relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations, or
○ We can apply one operation at a time and create intermediate result relations.

● In the latter case, we must give names to the relations that

hold the intermediate results.

Slide 6-
60
Single expression versus sequence of relational operations
(Example)
● To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all employees who work in
department number 5, we must apply a select and a project operation
● We can write a single relational algebra expression as follows:
○ FNAME, LNAME, SALARY( DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))
● OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations, giving a name to
each intermediate relation:
○ DEP5_EMPS  DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
○ RESULT  FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)

Slide 6-
61
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME

● The RENAME operator is denoted by  (rho)

● In some cases, we may want to rename the attributes of a relation or the
relation name or both
○ Useful when a query requires multiple operations
○ Necessary in some cases (see JOIN operation later)

Slide 6-
62
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME (contd.)

● The general RENAME operation  can be expressed by any of the following

forms:
○ S (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes both:
■ the relation name to S, and
■ the column (attribute) names to B1, B1, …..Bn
○ S(R) changes:
■ the relation name only to S
○ (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes:
■ the column (attribute) names only to B1, B1, …..Bn

Slide 6-
63
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME (contd.)

● For convenience, we also use a shorthand for renaming attributes in an

intermediate relation:
○ If we write:
• RESULT  FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)
• RESULT will have the same attribute names as DEP5_EMPS (same
attributes as EMPLOYEE)
• If we write:
• RESULT (F, M, L, S, B, A, SX, SAL, SU, DNO) FNAME, LNAME,
SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)
• The 10 attributes of DEP5_EMPS are renamed to F, M, L, S, B, A, SX,
SAL, SU, DNO, respectively
Slide 6-
64
Example of applying multiple operations and
RENAME
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
● UNION Operation
○ Binary operation, denoted by
○ The result of R S , is a relation that includes all tuples that are either in R or in S or in
both R and S
○ Duplicate tuples are eliminated
○ The two operand relations R and S must be “type compatible” (or
UNION compatible)
■ R and S must have same number of attributes
■ Each pair of corresponding attributes must be type compatible (have
same or compatible domains)

Slide 6-
66
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
● Example:
○ To retrieve the social security numbers of all employees who either work in
department 5 (RESULT1 below) or directly supervise an employee who works in
department 5 (RESULT2 below)
○ We can use the UNION operation as follows:
DEP5_EMPS  DNO=5 (EMPLOYEE)
RESULT1  SSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT2(SSN)  SUPERSSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT  RESULT1 RESULT2
○ The union operation produces the tuples that are in either RESULT1 or RESULT2
or both

Slide 6-
67
Example of the result of a UNION operation

● UNION Example

Slide 6-
68
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory
● Type Compatibility of operands is required for the binary set operation
UNION , (also for INTERSECTION , and SET DIFFERENCE –, see next
slides)
● R1(A1, A2, ..., An) and R2(B1, B2, ..., Bn) are type compatible if:
○ they have the same number of attributes, and
○ the domains of corresponding attributes are type compatible (i.e.
dom(Ai)=dom(Bi) for i=1, 2, ..., n).
● The resulting relation for R1 R2 (also for R1 R2, or R1–R2, see next slides)
has the same attribute names as the first operand relation R1 (by convention)

Slide 6-
69
Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory: INTERSECTION
● INTERSECTION is denoted by
● The result of the operation R S, is a
relation that includes all tuples that are in
both R and S
○ The attribute names in the result will be
the same as the attribute names in R
● The two operand relations R and S must
be “type compatible”
Slide 6-
70
Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory: SET
DIFFERENCE
● SET (cont.)
DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or EXCEPT) is
denoted by –
● The result of R – S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are in R but not in S
○ The attribute names in the result will be
the same as the attribute names in R
● The two operand relations R and S must
be “type compatible”

Slide 6-
71
Example to illustrate the result of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE
Some properties of UNION, INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE

● Notice that both union and intersection are commutative operations; that is
○ R S = S R, and R S = S R
● Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary operations applicable to
any number of relations as both are associative operations; that is
○ R (S T) = (R S) T
○ (R S) T = R (S T)
● The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in general
○ R–S≠S–R

Slide 6-
73
Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory: CARTESIAN
PRODUCT
● CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT Operation
○ This operation is used to combine tuples from two relations in a combinatorial
fashion.
○ Denoted by R(A1, A2, . . ., An) x S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
○ Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
■ Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order.
○ The resulting relation state has one tuple for each combination of tuples—one
from R and one from S.
○ Hence, if R has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR ), and S has nS tuples, then R x
S will have nR * nS tuples.
○ The two operands do NOT have to be "type compatible”
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Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
(cont.)
● Generally, CROSS PRODUCT is not a meaningful operation
○ Can become meaningful when followed by other operations
● Example (not meaningful):
○ FEMALE_EMPS  SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
○ EMPNAMES  FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
○ EMP_DEPENDENTS  EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
● EMP_DEPENDENTS will contain every combination of EMPNAMES and
DEPENDENT
○ whether or not they are actually related

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Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
(cont.)
● To keep only combinations where the DEPENDENT is
related to the EMPLOYEE, we add a SELECT
operation as follows
● Example (meaningful):
○ FEMALE_EMPS  SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
○ EMPNAMES  FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
○ EMP_DEPENDENTS  EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
○ ACTUAL_DEPS  SSN=ESSN(EMP_DEPENDENTS)
○ RESULT  FNAME, LNAME, DEPENDENT_NAME
(ACTUAL_DEPS)
● RESULT will now contain the name of female
employees and their dependents
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Example of applying CARTESIAN PRODUCT
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
● JOIN Operation (denoted by )
○ The sequence of CARTESIAN PRODUCT followed by SELECT
○ A special operation, called JOIN combines this sequence into a single operation
○ It allows us combine related tuples from various relations
○ The general form of a join operation on two relations R(A1, A2, . . ., An) and
S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R <join condition>S
○ where R and S can be any relations that result from general relational algebra
expressions.

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN (cont.)
● Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the name of
the manager of each department.
○ To get the manager’s name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple whose
SSN value matches the MGRSSN value in the
department tuple.
○ We do this by using the join operation.
○ DEPT_MGR  DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSN
EMPLOYEE
● MGRSSN=SSN is the join condition
○ The join condition can also be specified as
DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN= EMPLOYEE.SSN

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Example of applying the JOIN operation
Some properties of JOIN

● Consider the following JOIN operation:

○ R(A1, A2, . . ., An) S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
R.Ai=S.Bj
○ Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
■ Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order.
○ The resulting relation state has one tuple for each combination of tuples—r from
R and s from S, but only if they satisfy the join condition r[Ai]=s[Bj]
○ Hence, if R has nR tuples, and S has nS tuples, then the join result will generally
have less than nR * nS tuples.
○ Only related tuples (based on the join condition) will appear in the result

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Some properties of JOIN
● The general case of JOIN operation is called a Theta-join: R S
theta
● The join condition is called theta
● Theta can be any general boolean expression on the attributes of R and S; for
example:
○ R.Ai<S.Bj AND (R.Ak=S.Bl OR R.Ap<S.Bq)
● Most join conditions involve one or more equality conditions “AND”ed
together; for example:
○ R.Ai=S.Bj AND R.Ak=S.Bl AND R.Ap=S.Bq

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Binary Relational Operations: EQUIJOIN

● EQUIJOIN Operation
● The most common use of join involves join conditions with equality
comparisons only
● Such a join, where the only comparison operator used is =, is called an
EQUIJOIN.
○ In the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have one or more pairs of attributes (whose names
need not be identical) that have identical values in every tuple.
○ The JOIN seen in the previous example was an EQUIJOIN.

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Binary Relational Operations:
NATURAL JOIN Operation
● NATURAL JOIN Operation
○ Another variation of JOIN called NATURAL JOIN — denoted by * — was
created to get rid of the second (superfluous) attribute in an EQUIJOIN
condition.
■ because one of each pair of attributes with identical values is superfluous
○ The standard definition of natural join requires that the two join attributes, or
each pair of corresponding join attributes, have the same name in both relations
○ If this is not the case, a renaming operation is applied first.

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Binary Relational Operations NATURAL JOIN (contd.)
● Example: To apply a natural join on the DNUMBER attributes of
DEPARTMENT and DEPT_LOCATIONS, it is sufficient to write:
○ DEPT_LOCS  DEPARTMENT * DEPT_LOCATIONS
● Only attribute with the same name is DNUMBER
● An implicit join condition is created based on this attribute:
DEPARTMENT.DNUMBER=DEPT_LOCATIONS.DNUMBER

● Another example: Q  R(A,B,C,D) * S(C,D,E)

○ The implicit join condition includes each pair of attributes
with the same name, “AND”ed together:
■ R.C=S.C AND R.D=S.D
○ Result keeps only one attribute of each such pair:
■ Q(A,B,C,D,E)

Slide 6-
85
Example of NATURAL JOIN operation
Complete Set of Relational Operations

● The set of operations including SELECT , PROJECT , UNION ,

DIFFERENCE - , RENAME , and CARTESIAN PRODUCT X is called a
complete set because any other relational algebra expression can be
expressed by a combination of these five operations.
● For example:
○ R S = (R S ) – ((R - S) (S - R))
○ R <join condition>S = <join condition> (R X S)

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Binary Relational Operations: DIVISION

● DIVISION Operation
○ The division operation is applied to two relations
○ R(Z) S(X), where X subset Z. Let Y = Z - X (and hence Z = X Y);
that is, let Y be the set of attributes of R that are not attributes of S.

○ The result of DIVISION is a relation T(Y) that includes a tuple t if tuples tR

appear in R with tR [Y] = t, and with
■ tR [X] = ts for every tuple ts in S.

○ For a tuple t to appear in the result T of the DIVISION, the values in t must
appear in R in combination with every tuple in S.

Slide 6-
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Example of DIVISION

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Recap of Relational Algebra Operations
Additional Relational Operations: Aggregate Functions and
Grouping
● A type of request that cannot be expressed in the basic relational algebra is to
specify mathematical aggregate functions on collections of values from the
database.
● Examples of such functions include retrieving the average or total salary of all
employees or the total number of employee tuples.
○ These functions are used in simple statistical queries that summarize
information from the database tuples.
● Common functions applied to collections of numeric values include
○ SUM, AVERAGE, MAXIMUM, and MINIMUM.
● The COUNT function is used for counting tuples or values.

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Aggregate Function Operation

● Use of the Aggregate Functional operation ℱ

○ ℱMAX Salary (EMPLOYEE) retrieves the maximum salary value from the
EMPLOYEE relation
○ ℱMIN Salary (EMPLOYEE) retrieves the minimum Salary value from the
EMPLOYEE relation
○ ℱSUM Salary (EMPLOYEE) retrieves the sum of the Salary from the EMPLOYEE
relation
○ ℱCOUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (EMPLOYEE) computes the count (number) of
employees and their average salary
■ Note: count just counts the number of rows, without removing duplicates

Slide 6-
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Using Grouping with Aggregation
● The previous examples all summarized one or more attributes for a set of
tuples
○ Maximum Salary or Count (number of) Ssn
● Grouping can be combined with Aggregate Functions
● Example: For each department, retrieve the DNO, COUNT SSN, and
AVERAGE SALARY
● A variation of aggregate operation ℱ allows this:
○ Grouping attribute placed to left of symbol
○ Aggregate functions to right of symbol
○ DNO ℱCOUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (EMPLOYEE)
● Above operation groups employees by DNO (department number) and
computes the count of employees and average salary per department

Slide 6-
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Examples of applying aggregate functions and grouping

Slide 6-
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Illustrating aggregate functions and grouping

Slide 6-
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Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
● Recursive Closure Operations
○ Another type of operation that, in general,
cannot be specified in the basic original
relational algebra is recursive closure.
■ This operation is applied to a recursive relationship.
○ An example of a recursive operation is to
retrieve all SUPERVISEES of an
EMPLOYEE e at all levels — that is, all
EMPLOYEE e’ directly supervised by e; all
employees e’’ directly supervised by each
employee e’; all employees e’’’ directly
supervised by each employee e’’; and so
on.
Slide 6-
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Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

● Although it is possible to retrieve employees at each level and then take their
union, we cannot, in general, specify a query such as “retrieve the
supervisees of ‘James Borg’ at all levels” without utilizing a looping
mechanism.
○ The SQL3 standard includes syntax for recursive closure.

Slide 6-
97
 Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

●
Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

● The OUTER JOIN Operation

○ In NATURAL JOIN and EQUIJOIN, tuples without a matching (or related) tuple
are eliminated from the join result
■ Tuples with null in the join attributes are also eliminated
■ This amounts to loss of information.
○ A set of operations, called OUTER joins, can be used when we want to keep all
the tuples in R, or all those in S, or all those in both relations in the result of the
join, regardless of whether or not they have matching tuples in the other
relation.

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Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

● The left outer join operation keeps every tuple in the first or left relation R in R
S; if no matching tuple is found in S, then the attributes of S in the join result
are filled or “padded” with null values.
● A similar operation, right outer join, keeps every tuple in the second or right
relation S in the result of R S.
● A third operation, full outer join, denoted by keeps all tuples in both
the left and the right relations when no matching tuples are found, padding
them with null values as needed.

Slide 6-
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Additional Relational Operations (cont.)

Slide 6-
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Populated Database--Fig.5.6

Slide 8-
102
Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the ‘Research’
department.
RESEARCH_DEPT  σ DNAME=’Research’ (DEPARTMENT)
RESEARCH_EMPS  (RESEARCH_DEPT DNUMBER= DNOEMPLOYEEEMPLOYEE)

RESULT  π FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS (RESEARCH_EMPS)

◼ Retrieve the names of employees who have no dependents.

ALL_EMPS  π SSN(EMPLOYEE)
EMPS_WITH_DEPS(SSN)  π ESSN(DEPENDENT)
EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS  (ALL_EMPS - EMPS_WITH_DEPS)
RESULT  π LNAME, FNAME (EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS * EMPLOYEE)
For every project located in ‘Stafford’, list the
project number, the controlling department
number, and the department manager’s last
name, address, and birth date.
List the names of all employees with two or
more dependents.
Make a list of project numbers for projects that
involve an employee whose last name is
‘Smith’, either as a worker or as a manager of
the department that controls the project.
 Find the names of employees who work on all
the projects controlled by department number
5.
Chapter Summary

● Relational Algebra
○ Unary Relational Operations
○ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
○ Binary Relational Operations
○ Additional Relational Operations
○ Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra

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Course Name: Database Management System
Course Code: 18CS53
V Semester
2018 Scheme

Module 2- Textbook-2 Chapter-3.5

LOGICAL DATABASE DESIGN: ER TO
RELATIONAL
 Introduction

● Describe how to translate an ER diagram into a collection of tables with

associated constraints, that is, a relational database schema.
 Entity Sets to Tables
● An entity set is mapped to a relation
● Each attribute of the entity set becomes an attribute of
the table.
● Domain of each attribute and the (primary) key of an
entity set are known

CREATE TABLE Employees ( ssn CHAR(11),

name CHAR(30) ,
lot INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (ssn) )
 Relationship Sets (without Constraints) to Tables

● A relationship set, like an entity set, is mapped to a relation

● The attributes of the relation include:
○ The primary key attributes of each participating entity set, as foreign key fields.
○ The descriptive attributes of the relationship set.
○ The set of nondescriptive attributes is a superkey for the relation.
○ If there are no key , this set of attributes is a candidate key.
 Consider the Works_In2 relationship set shown in Figure 3.10. Each
department has offices in several locations and we want to record the
locations at which each employee works.

CREATE TABLE Works_In2 ( ssn CHAR(11),

did INTEGER,
address CHAR(20) ,
since DATE,
PRIMARY KEY (ssn, did, address),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees,
FOREIGN KEY (address) REFERENCES Locations,
FOREIGN KEY (did) REFERENCES Departments)
Role indicators supervisor and
subordinate are used to create
meaningful field
names

CREATE TABLE Reports_To (

Supervisor_ssn CHAR (11),
Subordinate_ssn CHAR (11) ,
PRIMARY KEY (supervisor_ssn, subordinate_ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (supervisor_ssn) REFERENCES Employees(ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (subordinate_ssn) REFERENCES Employees(ssn)
)
 Translating Relationship Sets with Key
Constraints
● If a relationship set involves n entity sets and some of
them are linked via arrows in the ER diagram, the key
for anyone of these m entity sets constitutes a key for
the relation to which the relationship set is mapped.
CREATE TABLE Manages (ssn CHAR (11) ,
did INTEGER,
since DATE,
PRIMARY KEY (did),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees,
FOREIGN KEY (did) REFERENCES Departments)

Each department has at most one manager, no two tuples can have the same
did value but differ on the ssn value.
did is itself a key for Manages; indeed, the set did, ssn is not a key (because it
is not minimal)
Translating Relationship Sets with
Participation Constraints
Translating Relationship Sets with Participation Constraints
CREATE TABLE Dept_Mgr ( did INTEGER,
dname CHAR(20) ,
budget REAL,
ssn CHAR(11) NOT NULL,
since DATE,
PRIMARY KEY (did),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees
ON DELETE NO ACTION)

•It captures the participation constraint that every

department must have a manager.
•Because ssn cannot take on null values, each tuple of
Dep_Mgr identifies a tuple in Employees
 Translating Weak Entity Sets

● A weak entity set always participates in a one-to-many binary relationship and

has a key constraint and total participation.
● Weak entity has only a partial key.
● When an owner entity is deleted, we want all owned weak entities to be
deleted
CREATE TABLE Dep_Policy (pname CHAR(20) ,
age INTEGER,
cost REAL,
ssn CHAR (11) ,
PRIMARY KEY (pname, ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees
ON DELETE CASCADE )

Observe that the primary key is (pname, ssn) , since

Dependents is a weak entity.
Translating Class Hierarchies
 Translating Class Hierarchies
1. We can map each of the entity sets Employees, Hourly_Emps,
and Contract_Emps to a distinct relation. The relation for
Hourly_Emps includes the hourly_wages and hours_worked
attributes of Hourly_Emps. It also contains the key attributes of the
superclass (ssn, in this example), which serve as the primary key
for Hourly_Emps, as well as a foreign key referencing the
superclass (Employees).

2. We can create just two relations, corresponding to Hourly_Emps

and Contract_Emps. The relation for Hourly_Emps includes all
the attributes of Hourly_Emps as well as all the attributes of
Employees
Translating ER Diagrams with
Aggregation

Monitors
 Translating ER Diagrams with Aggregation

•For the Monitors relationship set, we create a relation with the

following attributes: the key attributes of Employees (SSn), the key
attributes of Sponsors (did, pid, and the descriptive attributes of
Monitors (until).

•There is a special case in which this translation can be refined by

dropping the Sponsors relation.

•Sponsors has no descriptive attributes and has total participation

in Monitors, every possible instance of the Sponsors relation can
be obtained from the (pid, did) columns of Monitors; Sponsors can
be dropped.
ER to Relational: Additional Examples
 CREATE TABLE Policies ( policyid INTEGER,
cost REAL,
ssn CHAR (11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (policyid),
FOREIGN KEY (ssn) REFERENCES Employees
ON DELETE CASCADE )
CREATE TABLE Dependents (pname CHAR(20) ,
age INTEGER,
policyid INTEGER,
PRIMARY KEY (pname, policyid),
FOREIGN KEY (policyid) REFERENCES Policies
ON DELETE CASCADE)

Suppose that policyid distinguishes only the policies

owned by a given employee; that is, policyid is only a
partial key and Policies should be modeled as a weak
entity set. ?
CREATE TABLE Dependents (pname CHAR(20) ,
ssn CHAR (11) ,
age INTEGER,
policyid INTEGER NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (pname, policyid, ssn),
FOREIGN KEY (policyid, ssn) REFERENCES
Policies
ON DELETE CASCADE )