Module 2

The Relational Data Model and

Relational Database Constraints

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 2

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 3

Example of a Relation

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 4

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 5

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 6

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 7

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 have various formats such as year, month, date formatted
as 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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 8

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 9

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 10

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>

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 11

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
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 12
Example – A relation STUDENT

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 13

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.
■ 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 .
■ (However, a more general alternative definition of
relation does not require this ordering).

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 14

Same state as previous Figure (but
with different order of tuples)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 15

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 16

Characteristics Of Relations
■ Notation:
■ We refer to component values of a tuple t by:
■ t[Ai] or [Link]
■ 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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 17

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 18

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 19

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 20

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
■ Provides the tuple identity
■ 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)
■ Not always applicable – choice is sometimes subjective

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 21

CAR table with two candidate keys –
LicenseNumber chosen as Primary Key

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 22

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 23

COMPANY Database Schema

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 24

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 25

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 26

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 [Link] to R2.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 27

Referential Integrity (or foreign key)
Constraint
■ Statement of the constraint
■ The value in the foreign key column (or columns)
FK of the 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 28

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 of the referenced relation
for clarity
■ Next slide shows the COMPANY relational schema
diagram

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 29

Referential Integrity Constraints for COMPANY database

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 30

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 31

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 32

Populated database state for COMPANY

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 33

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.
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 34
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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 35

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 36

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 37

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 38

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 39

In-Class 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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 5- 40

ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm
■ Step 1: Mapping of Regular Entity Types.
■ For each regular (strong) entity type E in the ER schema,
create a relation R that includes all the simple attributes of
E.
■ Choose one of the key attributes of E as the primary key for
R.
■ If the chosen key of E is composite, the set of simple
attributes that form it will together form the primary key of R.
■ Example: We create the relations EMPLOYEE,
DEPARTMENT, and PROJECT in the relational schema
corresponding to the regular entities in the ER diagram.
■ SSN, DNUMBER, and PNUMBER are the primary keys for
the relations EMPLOYEE, DEPARTMENT, and PROJECT
as shown.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 41

FIGURE 7.1
The ER conceptual schema diagram for the COMPANY database.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 42

FIGURE 7.2
Result of mapping the COMPANY ER schema into a relational schema.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 43

 ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)

■ Step 2: Mapping of Weak Entity Types

■ For each weak entity type W in the ER schema with owner entity
type E, create a relation R & include all simple attributes (or
simple components of composite attributes) of W as attributes of
R.
■ Also, include as foreign key attributes of R the primary key
attribute(s) of the relation(s) that correspond to the owner entity
type(s).
■ The primary key of R is the combination of the primary key(s) of
the owner(s) and the partial key of the weak entity type W, if any.
■ Example: Create the relation DEPENDENT in this step to
correspond to the weak entity type DEPENDENT.
■ Include the primary key SSN of the EMPLOYEE relation as a
foreign key attribute of DEPENDENT (renamed to ESSN).
■ The primary key of the DEPENDENT relation is the combination
{ESSN, DEPENDENT_NAME} because DEPENDENT_NAME is
the partial key of DEPENDENT.
Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 44
ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)
■ Step 3: Mapping of Binary 1:1 Relation Types
■ For each binary 1:1 relationship type R in the ER schema, identify the
relations S and T that correspond to the entity types participating in R.
■ There are three possible approaches:
1. Foreign Key approach: Choose one of the relations-say S-and include
a foreign key in S the primary key of T. It is better to choose an entity
type with total participation in R in the role of S.
■ Example: 1:1 relation MANAGES is mapped by choosing the participating
entity type DEPARTMENT to serve in the role of S, because its participation
in the MANAGES relationship type is total.
2. Merged relation option: An alternate mapping of a 1:1 relationship type
is possible by merging the two entity types and the relationship into a
single relation. This may be appropriate when both participations are
total.
3. Cross-reference or relationship relation option: The third alternative
is to set up a third relation R for the purpose of cross-referencing the
primary keys of the two relations S and T representing the entity types.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 45

ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)

■ Step 4: Mapping of Binary 1:N Relationship Types.

■ For each regular binary 1:N relationship type R, identify the
relation S that represent the participating entity type at the
N-side of the relationship type.
■ Include as foreign key in S the primary key of the relation T
that represents the other entity type participating in R.
■ Include any simple attributes of the 1:N relation type as
attributes of S.
■ Example: 1:N relationship types WORKS_FOR,
CONTROLS, and SUPERVISION in the figure.
■ For WORKS_FOR we include the primary key DNUMBER
of the DEPARTMENT relation as foreign key in the
EMPLOYEE relation and call it DNO.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 46

ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)
■ Step 5: Mapping of Binary M:N Relationship Types.
■ For each regular binary M:N relationship type R, create a new
relation S to represent R.
■ Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys of the
relations that represent the participating entity types; their
combination will form the primary key of S.
■ Also include any simple attributes of the M:N relationship type (or
simple components of composite attributes) as attributes of S.
■ Example: The M:N relationship type WORKS_ON from the
ER diagram is mapped by creating a relation WORKS_ON
in the relational database schema.
■ The primary keys of the PROJECT and EMPLOYEE relations are
included as foreign keys in WORKS_ON and renamed PNO and
ESSN, respectively.
■ Attribute HOURS in WORKS_ON represents the HOURS attribute of
the relation type. The primary key of the WORKS_ON relation is the
combination of the foreign key attributes {ESSN, PNO}.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 47

 ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)

■ Step 6: Mapping of Multivalued attributes.

■ For each multivalued attribute A, create a new relation R.
■ This relation R will include an attribute corresponding to A, plus the
primary key attribute K-as a foreign key in R-of the relation that
represents the entity type of relationship type that has A as an
attribute.
■ The primary key of R is the combination of A and K. If the
multivalued attribute is composite, we include its simple
components.
■ Example: The relation DEPT_LOCATIONS is created.
■ The attribute DLOCATION represents the multivalued attribute
LOCATIONS of DEPARTMENT, while DNUMBER-as foreign
key-represents the primary key of the DEPARTMENT relation.
■ The primary key of R is the combination of {DNUMBER,
DLOCATION}.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 48

 ER-to-Relational Mapping Algorithm (contd.)

■ Step 7: Mapping of N-ary Relationship Types.

■ For each n-ary relationship type R, where n>2, create a new
relationship S to represent R.
■ Include as foreign key attributes in S the primary keys of the
relations that represent the participating entity types.
■ Also include any simple attributes of the n-ary relationship
type (or simple components of composite attributes) as
attributes of S.
■ Example: The relationship type SUPPY in the ER on the
next slide.
■ This can be mapped to the relation SUPPLY shown in the
relational schema, whose primary key is the combination of the
three foreign keys {SNAME, PARTNO, PROJNAME}

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 49

FIGURE 4.11
Ternary relationship types. (a) The SUPPLY relationship.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 50

FIGURE 7.3
Mapping the n-ary relationship type SUPPLY from Figure 4.11a.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 51

Summary of Mapping constructs and
constraints

Table 7.1 Correspondence between ER and Relational Models

ER Model Relational Model

Entity type “Entity” relation
1:1 or 1:N relationship type Foreign key (or “relationship” relation)
M:N relationship type “Relationship” relation and two foreign keys
n-ary relationship type “Relationship” relation and n foreign keys
Simple attribute Attribute
Composite attribute Set of simple component attributes
Multivalued attribute Relation and foreign key
Value set Domain
Key attribute Primary (or secondary) key

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 7- 52

Chapter 6
The Relational Algebra and
Calculus

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

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
■ Relational Calculus
■ Tuple Relational Calculus
■ Domain Relational Calculus
■ Example Database Application (COMPANY)
■ Overview of the QBE language (appendix D)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 54

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 55

Relational Algebra Overview (continued)

■ The algebra operations thus produce new

relations
■ 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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 56

Relational Algebra Overview
■ Relational Algebra consists of several groups of operations
■ Unary Relational Operations
■ SELECT (symbol: σ (sigma))
■ PROJECT (symbol: π (pi))
■ RENAME (symbol: ρ (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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 57

Database State for COMPANY
■ All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY database
shown here.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 58

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
■ The SELECT operation (denoted by σ (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:
σ DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
■ Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater than $30,000:
σ SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 59

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT

■ In general, the select operation is denoted by σ

<selection condition>
(R) where
■ the symbol σ (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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 60

Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
(contd.)
■ SELECT Operation Properties
■ The SELECT operation σ <selection condition>(R) produces a relation
S that has the same schema (same attributes) as R
■ SELECT σ is commutative:
■ σ
<condition1>
(σ < condition2> (R)) = σ <condition2> (σ < condition1> (R))
■ Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence) of
SELECT operations may be applied in any order:
■ σ (σ
<cond1> <cond2>
(σ<cond3> (R)) = σ<cond2> (σ<cond3> (σ<cond1> ( R)))
■ A cascade of SELECT operations may be replaced by a single
selection with a conjunction of all the conditions:
■ σ (σ
<cond1> < cond2>
(σ<cond3>(R)) = σ <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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 61

The following query results refer to this
database state

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 62

Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
■ PROJECT Operation is denoted by π (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:
πLNAME, FNAME,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 63

Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
(cont.)

■ The general form of the project operation is:

π<attribute list>(R)
■ π (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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 64

Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
(contd.)

■ PROJECT Operation Properties

■ The number of tuples in the result of projection
π<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
■ π <list1> (π <list2> (R) ) = π <list1> (R) as long as <list2>
contains the attributes in <list1>

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 65

Examples of applying SELECT and
PROJECT operations

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 66

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.

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 67

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:
■ π
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
(σ DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))
■ OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations,
giving a name to each intermediate relation:
■ DEP5_EMPS ← σ (EMPLOYEE)
DNO=5
■ RESULT ← π (DEP5_EMPS)
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 68

Unary Relational Operations: RENAME

■ The RENAME operator is denoted by ρ (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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 69

Unary Relational Operations: RENAME
(contd.)

■ The general RENAME operation ρ can be

expressed by any of the following forms:
■ ρS (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes both:
■ the relation name to S, and
■ the column (attribute) names to B1, B1, …..Bn
■ ρS(R) changes:
■ the relation name only to S
■ ρ(B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes:
■ the column (attribute) names only to B1, B1, …..Bn

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 70

Unary Relational Operations: RENAME
(contd.)

■ For convenience, we also use a shorthand for

renaming attributes in an intermediate relation:
■ If we write:
• RESULT ← π (DEP5_EMPS)
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
• 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)←
π 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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 71

Example of applying multiple operations
and RENAME

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 72

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 73

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 ← σDNO=5 (EMPLOYEE)
RESULT1 ← π SSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT2(SSN) ← πSUPERSSN(DEP5_EMPS)
RESULT ← RESULT1 ∪ RESULT2
■ The union operation produces the tuples that are in either
RESULT1 or RESULT2 or both

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 74

Example of the result of a UNION
operation

■ UNION Example

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 75

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)

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 76

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”

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 77

Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: SET DIFFERENCE (cont.)

■ SET 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”

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 78

Example to illustrate the result of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 79

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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 80

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”

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 81

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 ← σ SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
■ EMPNAMES ← π 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

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 82

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 ← σ SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
■ EMPNAMES ← π FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
■ EMP_DEPENDENTS ← EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
■ ACTUAL_DEPS ← σ SSN=ESSN(EMP_DEPENDENTS)
■ RESULT ← π FNAME, LNAME, DEPENDENT_NAME (ACTUAL_DEPS)
■ RESULT will now contain the name of female employees
and their dependents

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 83

Example of applying CARTESIAN
PRODUCT

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe Slide 6- 84