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
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Data
Domain Constraints: Domain of attributes must be
satisfied.

Entity Constrains: PK cant have NULL values

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example of a Relation

attributes
(or columns)

tuples
(or rows)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.5 ©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 2.6 ©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 (a1, a2, …, an) where
each ai  Di
 The current values (relation instance) of a relation are
specified by a table
 An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row in a
table

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.7 ©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 2.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Keys
 Let K  R
 K is a superkey 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.
 Superkey 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.
 which one?
 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 2.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 “Key” terms
 An entity is something of importance to a user that needs to be
represented in a database
 An entity represents one theme or topic and is represented by a
table.
 The table dimensions, like a matrix, consist of rows (tuples) and
columns (attributes)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 A Key

• A (primary) key is one (or more) columns of a relation

that is (are) used to identify a row

• A composite key is a key that contains two or more

attributes

– For a key to be unique, it is sometimes

necessary to use a composite key

– Can also generate a set of unique

values to serve as the key (for
example University ID numbers)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 A Foreign Key
 A table may be related to other tables (i.e., a relationship)
 To create relationships, you may need to create a foreign key
 A foreign key is a primary key from one table placed into
another table
 Referential integrity - every value of a foreign key must match
a value of an existing primary key

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Foreign Key Example

Project Manager

Proj_Num MgrID Primary Key

s hip
i on
Proj_Name a t MgrName
Rel
MgrID
Foreign Key

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Schema Diagram for University
Database

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.14 ©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 2.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Select Operation – selection of rows
(tuples)
 Relation r

A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Project Operation – selection of columns
(Attributes)

 Relation r:

 A,C (r)

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Union of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r  s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Set difference of two relations
 Relations r, s:

 r – s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.19 ©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 2.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 joining two relations -- Cartesian-
product
 Relations r, s:

 r x s:

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cartesian-product – naming issue
 Relations r, s: B

 r x s: r.B s.B

Database System Concepts - 6th Edition 2.22 ©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 2.23 ©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 2.24 ©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 2.25 ©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 2.26 ©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 2.27 ©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
 End of Chapter 2

Database System Concepts, 6th Ed.

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