Relational Model

Proposed by Edgar. F. Codd (1923-2003) in the early

seventies. [ Turing Award 1981 ]
Most of the modern DBMS are relational.
Simple and elegant model with a mathematical basis.
Led to the development of a theory of data dependencies
and database design.
Relational algebra operations
crucial role in query optimization and execution.
Laid the foundation for the development of
Tuple relational calculus and then
Database standard SQL
Introduction
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Relation Scheme
Consists of relation name, and a set of attributes or field
names or column names. Each attribute has an associated
domain.
Example:
st udent ( st udent Name : st r i ng,
r ol l Number : st r i ng,
phoneNumber : i nt eger ,
year Of Admi ssi on : i nt eger ,
br anchOf St udy : st r i ng )
Domain set of atomic (or indivisible ) values data type
Relation
name
Attribute
names
domains
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Relation Instance
A finite set of tuples constitute a relation instance.
A tuple of relation with scheme R = (A
1
, A
2
, , A
m
)
is an ordered sequence of values
(v
1
,v
2
, ... ,v
m
) such that v
i
domain (A
i
), 1 i m
No duplicate tuples ( or rows ) in a relation instance.
We shall later see that in SQL, duplicate rows would be allowed in tables.
studentName rollNumber
yearOf
Admission
branch
Of Study
phoneNumber
Ravi Teja CS05B015 2005 CS 9840110489
student
Rajesh CS04B125 2004 EC 9840110490

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Another Relation Example
enrollment (studentName, rollNo, courseNo, sectionNo)
studentName rollNumber courseNo
sectionNo
enrollment
Rajesh
Rajesh
Suresh
CS04B125
CS04B125
CS04B130
2
1
2

CS320
CS370
CS320
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Keys for a Relation (1/2)
Key: A set of attributes K, whose values uniquely identify a
tuple in any instance. And none of the proper subsets
of K has this property
Example: {rollNumber} is a key for student relation.
{rollNumber, name} values can uniquely identify a tuple
but the set is not minimal
not a Key
A key can not be determined from any particular instance data
it is an intrinsic property of a scheme
it can only be determined from the meaning of attributes
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Keys for a Relation (2/2)
A relation can have more than one key.
Each of the keys is called a candidate key
Example: book (isbnNo, authorName, title, publisher, year)
(Assumption : books have only one author )
Keys: {isbnNo}, {authorName, title}
A relation has at least one key
- the set of all attributes, in case no proper subset is a key.
Superkey: A set of attributes that contains any key as a subset.
A key can also be defined as a minimal superkey
Primary Key: One of the candidate keys chosen for indexing
purposes ( More details later)
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Relational Database Scheme and Instance
Relational database scheme: D consist of a finite no. of
relation schemes and a set I of integrity constraints.
Integrity constraints: Necessary conditions to be satisfied by
the data values in the relational instances so that the set
of data values constitute a meaningful database
domain constraints
key constraints
referential integrity constraints
Database instance: Collection of relational instances satisfying
the integrity constraints.
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Domain and Key Constraints
Domain Constraints: Attributes have associated domains
Domain set of atomic data values of a specific type.
Constraint stipulates that the actual values of an
attribute in any tuple must belong to the declared domain.
Key Constraint: Relation scheme associated keys
Constraint if K is supposed to be a key for scheme R,
any relation instance r on R should not have two tuples
that have identical values for attributes in K.
Also, none of the key attributes can have null value.
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Foreign Keys
Tuples in one relation, say r
1
(R
1
), often need to refer to tuples
in another relation, say r
2
(R
2
)
to capture relationships between entities
Primary Key of R
2
: K = {B
1
, B
2
, , B
j
}
A set of attributes F = {A
1
, A
2
, , A
j
} of R
1
such that
dom(A
i
) = dom(B
i
), 1 i j and
whose values are used to refer to tuples in r
2
is called a foreign key in R
1
referring to R
2
.
R
1
, R
2
can be the same scheme also.
There can be more than one foreign key in a relation scheme
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Foreign Key Examples(1/2)
Foreign key attribute deptNo of course relation refers to
Primary key attribute deptID of department relation
Course Department
courseId name credits deptNo
CS635 ALGORITHMS 3 1
CS636 A.I 4 1
ES456 D.S.P 3 2
ME650 AERO
DYNAMIC
3 3
deptId name hod phone
1
COMPUTER
SCIENCE
CS01 22576235
2
ELECTRICAL
ENGG
ES01 22576234
3
MECHANICAL
ENGG
ME01 22576233
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Foreign Key Examples(2/2)
It is possible for a foreign key in a relation
to refer to the primary key of the relation itself
An Example:
univEmployee ( empNo, name, sex, salary, dept, reportsTo)
reportsTo is a foreign key referring to empNo of the same relation
Every employee in the university reports to some other
employee for administrative purposes
- except the vice-chancellor, of course!
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Referential Integrity Constraint (RIC)
Let F be a foreign key in scheme R
1
referring to scheme R
2
and let K be the primary key of R
2
.
RIC: any relational instance r
1
on R
1
, r
2
on R
2
must be s.t
for any tuple t in r
1
, either its F-attribute values are null
or they are identical to the K-attribute values of some
tuple in r
2
.
RIC ensures that references to tuples in r
2
are for currently
existing tuples.
That is, there are no dangling references.
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Referential Integrity Constraint (RIC) - Example
courseId name credits deptNo
CS635 ALGORITHMS 3 1
CS636 A.I 4 1
ES456 D.S.P 3 2
ME650 AERO
DYNAMIC
3 3
CE751 MASS
TRANSFER
3 4
deptId name hod phone
1
COMPUTER
SCIENCE
CS01 22576235
2
ELECTRICAL
ENGG.
ES01 22576234
3
MECHANICAL
ENGG.
ME01 22576233
COURSE DEPARTMENT
The new course refers to a non-existent department and thus
violates the RIC
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Example Relational Scheme
student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor)
Here, degree is the program ( B Tech, M Tech, M S, Ph D
etc) for which the student has joined. Year is the year of
admission and advisor is the EmpId of a faculty member
identified as the students advisor.
department (deptId, name, hod, phone)
Here, phone is that of the departments office.
professor (empId, name, sex, startYear, deptNo, phone)
Here, startYear is the year when the faculty member has
joined the department deptNo.
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Example Relational Scheme
course (courseId, cname, credits, deptNo)
Here, deptNo indicates the department that offers the course.
enrollment (rollNo, courseId, sem, year, grade)
Here, sem can be either odd or even indicating the two
semesters of an academic year. The value of grade will
be null for the current semester and non-null for past
semesters.
teaching (empId, courseId, sem, year, classRoom)
preRequisite (preReqCourse, courseID)
Here, if (c1, c2) is a tuple, it indicates that c1 should be
successfully completed before enrolling for c2.
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Example Relational Scheme
student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor)
department (deptId, name, hod, phone)
professor (empId, name, sex, startYear, deptNo, phone)
course (courseId, cname, credits, deptNo)
enrollment (rollNo, courseId, sem, year, grade)
teaching (empId, courseId, sem, year, classRoom)
preRequisite (preReqCourse, courseID)
queries-1
queries-2
queries-3
TCQuery
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Example Relational Scheme with RICs shown
student (rollNo, name, degree, year, sex, deptNo, advisor)
department (deptId, name, hod, phone)
professor (empId, name, sex, startYear, deptNo, phone)
course (courseId, cname, credits, deptNo)
enrollment (rollNo, courseId, sem, year, grade)
teaching (empId, courseId, sem, year, classRoom)
preRequisite (preReqCourse, courseID)
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Relational Algebra
A set of operators (unary and binary) that take relation
instances as arguments and return new relations.
Gives a procedural method of specifying a retrieval query.
Forms the core component of a relational query engine.
SQL queries are internally translated into RA expressions.
Provides a framework for query optimization.
RA operations: select (), project (), cross product (),
union (), intersection (), difference (), join ( )
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The select Operator
Unary operator.
can be used to select those tuples of a relation that
satisfy a given condition.
Notation:

( r )
: select operator ( read as sigma)
: selection condition
r : relation name
Result: a relation with the same schema as r
consisting of the tuples in r that satisfy condition
Select operation is commutative:

c1
(
c2
( r ) ) =
c2
(
c1
( r ) )
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Selection Condition
Select condition:
Basic condition or Composite condition
Basic condition:
Either A
i
<compOp> A
j
or A
i
<compOp> c
Composite condition:
Basic conditions combined with logical operators
AND, OR and NOT appropriately.
Notation:
<compOp> : one of < , , > , , = ,
A
i
, A
j
: attributes in the scheme R of r
c : constant of appropriate data type
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Examples of select expressions
1. Obtain information about a professor with name
giridhar

name = giridhar
(professor)
2. Obtain information about professors who joined the
university between 1980 and 1985

startYear 1980 ^ startYear < 1985

(professor)
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The project Operator
Unary operator.
Can be used to keep only the required attributes of a
relation instance and throw away others.
Notation:
A
1
,A
2
, ,A
k
(r ) where A
1
,A
2
, ,A
k
is a list L of
desired attributes in the scheme of r.
Result = { (v
1
,v
2
, ,v
k
) | v
i
dom(A
i
) , 1 i k and
there is some tuple t in r s.t
t.A
1
= v
1
, t.A
2
= v
2
, , t.A
k
= v
k
}
If r
1
=
L
(r
2
) then scheme of r
1
is L
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Examples of project expressions
rollNo name degree year sex deptNo advisor
CS04S001 Mahesh M.S 2004 M 1 CS01
CS03S001 Rajesh M.S 2003 M 1 CS02
CS04M002 Piyush M.E 2004 M 1 CS01
ES04M001 Deepak M.E 2004 M 2 ES01
ME04M001 Lalitha M.E 2004 F 3 ME01
ME03M002 Mahesh M.S 2003 M 3 ME01
student
rollNo name
CS04S001 Mahesh
CS03S001 Rajesh
CS04M002 Piyush
ES04M001 Deepak
ME04M001 Lalitha
ME03M002 Mahesh

name
(
degree = M.S
(student))
name
Mahesh
Rajesh
Note: Mahesh is displayed only once because
project operation results in a set.

rollNo, name
(student)
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Size of project expression result
If r
1
=
L
(r
2
) then scheme of r
1
is L
What about the number of tuples in r
1
?
Two cases arise:
Projection List L contains some key of r
2
Then |r
1
| = |r
2
|
Projection List L does not contain any key of r
2
Then |r
1
| |r
2
|
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Set Operators on Relations
As relations are sets of tuples, set operations are applicable
to them; but not in all cases.
Union Compatibility : Consider two schemes R
1
, R
2
where
R
1
= (A
1
, A
2
, , A
k
) ; R
2
= (B
1
, B
2
, , B
m
)
R
1
and R
2
are called union-compatible if
k = m and
dom(A
i
) = dom(B
i
) for 1 i k
Set operations union, intersection, difference
Applicable to two relations if their schemes are
union-compatible
If r
3
= r
1
r
2
, scheme of r
3
is R
1
(as a convention)
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Set Operations
r
1
- relation with scheme R
1
r
2
- relation with scheme R
2
- union compatible with R
1
r
1
r
2
= {t | t r
1
or t r
2
};
r
1
r
2
= {t | t r
1
and t r
2
}
r
1
r
2
= {t | t r
1
and t r
2
};
By convention, in all the cases, the scheme of the result
is that of the first operand i.e r
1
.
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Cross product Operation
11 12 1 11 12 1
11 12 1 21 22 2
. .
. .
11 12 1 1 2
... ...
... ...
... ...
m n
m n
m t t tn
a a a b b b
a a a b b b
a a a b b b






21 22 2 11 12 1
21 22 2 21 22 2
. .
. .
21 22 2 1 2
... ...
... ...
... ...
m n
m n
m t t tn
a a a b b b
a a a b b b
a a a b b b






1 2 1 2
... ...
m n
A A A B B B


1 1 2
...
m
r A A A


11 12 1
21 22 2
...
...
m
m
a a a
a a a




1 2
...
s s sm
a a a
2 1 2
...
n
r B B B


11 12 1
21 22 2
...
...
n
n
b b b
b b b




1 2
...
t t tn
b b b


r
1
: s tuples
r
2
: t tuples
r
1
r
2
r
1
r
2
: s t tuples
.
.
.
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Example Query using cross product
Obtain the list of professors along with the name of their
departments
profDetail (eId, pname,deptno)
empId, name, deptNo
(professor)
deptDetail (dId,dname)
deptId, name
(department)
profDept profDetail deptDetail
desiredProfDept
deptno = dId
(profDept)
result
eld, pname, dname
(desiredProfDept)
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Join Operation
Cross product : produces all combinations of tuples
often only certain combinations are meaningful
cross product is usually followed by selection
Join : combines tuples from two relations provided they
satisfy a specified condition (join condition)
equivalent to performing cross product followed by
selection
a very useful operation
Depending on the type of condition we have
theta join
equi join
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Theta join
Let r
1
- relation with scheme R
1
= (A
1
,A
2
,,A
m
)
r
2
- relation with scheme R
2
= (B
1
,B
2
,,B
n
)
and R
1
R
2
=
Notation for join expression : r
1

r
2
, - join condition
is of the form : C
1
^ C
2
^ ^ C
s
C
i
is of the form : A
j
<CompOp> B
k
<CompOp> : = , , < , , > ,
Scheme of the result relation
Q = (A
1
,A
2
,,A
m
,B
1
,B
2
,,B
n
)
r = {(a
1
,a
2
,,a
m
,b
1
,b
2
,,b
n
) (a
1
,a
2
,,a
m
) r
1
,
(b
1
,b
2
,,b
n
) r
2
and (a
1
,a
2
,,a
m
, b
1
,b
2
,,b
n
) satisfies }

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empId name sex startYear deptNo phone
CS01
GIRIDHAR
M 1984 1 22576345
CS02
KESHAV
MURTHY
M 1989 1 22576346
ES01
RAJIV GUPTHA
M 1980 2 22576244
ME01
TAHIR
NAYYAR
M 1999 3 22576243
Professor
Department
deptId name hod phone
1 Computer Science CS01 22576235
2 Electrical Engg. ES01 22576234
3 Mechanical Engg. ME01 22576233
courseId cname credits deptNo
CS635 Algorithms 3 1
CS636 A.I 4 1
ES456 D.S.P 3 2
ME650 Aero
Dynamics
3 3
Courses
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Examples
For each department, find its name and the name, sex and phone number of
the head of the department.
Prof (empId, p-name, sex, deptNo, prof-phone)

empId, name, sex, deptNo, phone

(professor)
Result

DeptId, name, hod, p-name, sex, prof-phone

(Department
(empId = hod) ^ (deptNo = deptId)
Prof)
deptId name hod p-name sex prof-phone
1 Computer
Science
CS01 Giridher M 22576235
2 Electrical
Engg.
EE01 Rajiv
Guptha
M 22576234
3 Mechanical
Engg.
ME01 Tahir
Nayyar
M 22576233
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Equi-join and Natural join
Equi-join : Equality is the only comparison operator used in the
join condition
Natural join : R
1
, R
2
- have common attributes, say X
1
,X
2
,X
3
Join condition:
(R
1
.X
1
= R
2
.X
1
) ^ (R
1
.X
2
= R
2
.X
2
) ^ (R
1
.X
3
= R
2
.X
3
)
values of common attributes should be equal
Schema for the result Q = R
1
(R
2
- {X
1
, X
2
, X
3
})
Only one copy of the common attributes is kept
Notation for natural join : r = r
1
* r
2
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Examples Equi-join
Find courses offered by each department
deptId name courseId cname credits
1 Computer
Science
CS635 Algorithms 3
1 Computer
Science
CS636 A.I 4
2 Electrical
Engg.
ES456 D.S.P 3
3 Mechanical
Engg.
ME650 Aero
Dynamics
3

deptId, name, courseId, cname, credits

( Department
(
deptId = deptNo
)
Courses)
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empId courseId sem year classRoom
CS01 CS635 1 2005 BSB361
CS02 CS636 1 2005 BSB632
ES01 ES456 2 2004 ESB650
ME650 ME01 1 2004 MSB331
Teaching
To find the courses handled by each professor
Professor * Teaching
result
empId name sex startYear deptNo phone courseId sem year classRoom
CS01 Giridhar M 1984 1 22576345 CS635 1 2005 BSB361
CS02 Keshav
Murthy
M 1989 1 22576346 CS636 1 2005 BSB632
ES01 Rajiv
Guptha
M 1989 2 22576244 ES456 2 2004 ESB650
ME01 Tahir
Nayyar
M 1999 3 22576243 ME650 1 2004 MSB331
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Division operator
The necessary condition to determine r s on
instances r(R) and s(S) is S R
The relation r s is a relation on schema R S.
A tuple t is in r s if and only if
1) t is in
R-S
(r)
2) For every tuple t
s
in s, there is t
r
in r satisfying both
a) t
r
[S] = t
s
b) t
r
[R S] = t
Another Definition r = r
1
r
2
Division operator produces a relation R(X) that includes all
tuples t[X] in R
1
(Z) that appear in R
1
in combination with
every tuple from R
2
(Y) where Z = X Y

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R = (A, B, C, D), S = (A, B), X = (C, D)
x = r s

1 1
2 2
A B
a b
a b
1 1 1 1
2 2 1 1
1 1 2 2
1 1 3 3
2 2 3 3
A B C D
a b c d
a b c d
a b c d
a b c d
a b c d
s
r
x
(c
2
, d
2
) is not present in the result of division as it does not appear
in combination with all the tuples of s in r
c
1
d
1
c
3
d
3
C D
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Find those students who have registered for all courses offered
in dept of Computer Science.
Step1: Get the course enrollment information for all students
studEnroll
name, courseId
(student * enrollment)
Step2: Get the course Ids of all courses offered by CS dept
csCourse
courseId
(
dname = computer science
(courses
deptId = deptNo
dept))
Result : studEnroll csCourse
Query using division operation

Schema
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Suppose result of step 1 is
name courseId
Mahesh CS635
Mahesh CS636
Rajesh CS635
Piyush CS636
Piyush CS635
Deepak ES456
Lalitha ME650
Mahesh ME650
courseId
CS635
CS636
result of step 2
studEnroll csCourse
result
studEnroll
csCourse
name
Mahesh
Piyush

Lets assume for a

moment that student
names are unique!
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Complete Set of Operators
Are all Relational Algebra operators essential ?
Some operators can be realized through other operators
What is the minimal set of operators ?
The operators { , , , , - }constitute a complete set
of operators
Necessary and sufficient set of operators.
Intersection union and difference
Join cross product followed by selection
Division project, cross product and difference
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Example Queries
Retrieve the list of female PhD students

degree = phD ^ sex = F

(student)
Obtain the name and rollNo of all female Btech students

rollNo, name
(
degree = BTech ^ sex = F
(student))
Obtain the rollNo of students who never obtained an E grade

rollNo
(
grade

E
(enrollment)) is incorrect!!
(what if some student gets E in one course and A in another?)

rollNo
(student)
rollNo
(
grade = E
(enrollment))
Schema
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Obtain the department Ids for departments with no lady
professor

deptId
(dept)
deptId
(
sex = F
(professor))
Obtain the rollNo of girl students who have obtained
at least one S grade

rollNo
(
sex = F
(student))
rollNo
(
grade = S
(enrollment))
More Example Queries
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Obtain the names, roll numbers of students who have got S grade in
the CS370 course offered in 2006 odd semester along with his/her
advisor name.
reqStudsRollNo

rollNo
(
courseId =CS370& year =2006& semester = odd&grade=S
(enrollment))
reqStuds-Name-AdvId ( rollNo, sName, advId)

rollNo, name, advisor

(reqStudsRollNo * student)
result( rollNo, studentName, advisorName)

rollNo, sName, name

(reqStuds-Name-AdvId
advId=empId
professor)
Another Example Query
Schema
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Obtain the courses that are either direct or indirect prerequisites of
the course CS767.
Indirect prerequisite (prerequisite of )
+
a prerequisite course
Prerequisites at all levels are to be reported
levelOnePrereq(cId1)
preReqCourse
(
courseId =CS767
(preRequisite))
levelTwoPrereq(cId2)

preReqCourse
(preRequisite
courseId = cId1
levelOnePrereq))
Similarly, level k prerequisites can be obtained.
But, prerequisites at all levels can not be obtained as there is
no looping mechanism.
Transitive Closure Queries
Schema
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Theta join, equi-join, natural join are all called inner joins . The
result of these operations contain only the matching tuples
The set of operations called outer joins are used when all
tuples in relation r or relation s or both in r and s have
to be in result.
There are 3 kinds of outer joins:
Left outer join
Right outer join
Full outer join
Outer Join Operation (1/2)
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Left outer join: r s
It keeps all tuples in the first, or left relation r in the result. For
some tuple t in r, if no matching tuple is found in s then
S-attributes of t are made null in the result.
Right outer join: r s
Same as above but tuples in the second relation are all kept in
the result. If necessary, R-attributes are made null.
Full outer join: r s
All the tuples in both the relations r and s are in the result.
Outer Join Operation (2/2)
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Instance Data for Examples
rollNo name degree year sex deptNo advisor
CS04S001 Mahesh M.S 2004 M 1 CS01
CS05S001 Amrish M.S 2003 M 1 null
CS04M002 Piyush M.E 2004 M 1 CS01
ES04M001 Deepak M.E 2004 M 2 null
ME04M001 Lalitha M.E 2004 F 3 ME01
ME03M002 Mahesh M.S 2003 M 3 ME01
Student
empId name sex startYear deptNo phone
CS01
GIRIDHAR
M 1984 1 22576345
CS02
KESHAV
MURTHY
M 1989 1 22576346
ES01
RAJIV GUPTHA
M 1980 2 22576244
ME01
TAHIR
NAYYAR
M 1999 3 22576243
Professor
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Left outer join
temp (student
advisor = empId
professor)

rollNo, name, advisor

(
rollNo, student.name, professor.name
(temp))
rollNo name advisor
CS04S001 Mahesh Giridhar
CS05S001 Amrish Null
CS04M002 Piyush Giridhar
ES04M001 Deepak Null
ME04M001 Lalitha Tahir Nayyer
ME03M002 Mahesh Tahir Nayyer
Result
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Right outer join
temp (student
advisor = empId
professor)

rollNo, name, advisor

(
rollNo, student.name, professor.name
(temp))
rollNo name advisor
CS04S001 Mahesh Giridhar
CS04M002 Piyush Giridhar
null null Keshav Murthy
null null Rajiv Guptha
ME04M001 Lalitha Tahir Nayyer
ME03M002 Mahesh Tahir Nayyer
Result
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Full outer join
temp (student
advisor = empId
professor)

roll no, name, advisor

(
roll No, student.name, professor.name
(temp))
rollNo name advisor
CS04S001 Mahesh Giridhar
CS04M002 Piyush Giridhar
CS05S001 Amrish Null
ES04M001 Deepak Null
null null Keshav Murthy
null null Rajiv Guptha
ME04M001 Lalitha Tahir Nayyer
ME03M002 Mahesh Tahir Nayyer
Result
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E/R diagrams to Relational Schema
E/R model and the relational model are logical representations
of real world enterprises
An E/R diagram can be converted to a collection of tables
For each entity set and relationship set in E/R diagram we can
have a corresponding relational table with the same name as
entity set / relationship set
Each table will have multiple columns whose names are obtained
from the attributes of entity types/relationship types
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Relational representation of strong entity sets
Create a table T
i
for each strong entity set E
i.
Include simple attributes and simple components
of composite attributes of entity set E
i
as attributes of T
i
.
Multi-valued attributes of entities are dealt with separately.
The primary key of E
i
will also be the primary key of T
i
.
The primary key can be referred to by other tables via
foreign keys in them to capture relationships as we see later
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Relational representation of weak entity sets
Let E' be a weak entity owned by a strong/weak entity E
E' is converted to a table, say R'
Attributes of R' will be
Attributes of the weak entity set E' and
Primary key attributes of the identifying strong entity E
(Or, partial key of E + primary key of the owner of E,
if E is itself a weak entity)
These attributes will also be a foreign key in R' referring
to the table corresponding to E
Key of R' : partial key of E' + Key of E
Multi-valued attributes are dealt separately as described later
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Example
Course Section
has
Section
Name
CourseID
Credits
SectionNo
Year
RoomNo
Professor
Corresponding tables are
courseId name credits sectionNo courseId year roomNo professor
course section
Primary key of section = {courseId, sectionNo}
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Relational representation of multi-valued attributes
One table for each multi-valued attribute
One column for this attribute and
One column for the primary key attribute of entity / relationship
set for which this is an attribute.
Student
RollNo
Name
EmailId
rollNo name emailId rollNo
e.g.,
student mailIds
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Handling Binary 1:1 Relationship
Let S and T be entity sets in relationship R and S', T' be the
tables corresponding to these entity sets
Choose an entity set which has total participation if there is
one (says, S)
Include the primary key of T' as a foreign key in S' referring
to relation T'
Include all simple attributes (and simple components of
composite attributes) of R as attributes of S'
We can do the other way round too
lot of null values
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Example
STUDENT
Hostel
Room
resides
In
RollNo
Name
homeAddress
HostelName
RoomNo
Note: Assuming every student resides in hostel.
S-STUDENT R-residesIn T-Hostel Room
RollNo Name homeAddress RoomId
Student
RoomNo HostelName address
Hostel
Foreign key name need
not be same as primary key
of the other relation
1
1
address
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Handling 1:N Relationship
Let S be the participating entity on the N-side and T the other
entity. Let S' and T' be the corresponding tables.
Include primary key of T' as foreign key in S'
Include any simple attribute (and simple components of
composite attributes) of 1:N relation type as attributes of S'
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Example
Professor Student guides
Phone
Name
ProfID
Name
RollNo
1 N
RollNo Name guide ProfId Name phone
Student Professor
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Handling M:N relationship
Make a separate table T for this relationship R between entity
sets E
1
and E
2
.
Let R
1
and R
2
be the tables corresponding to E
1
and E
2
.
Include primary key attributes of R
1
and R
2
as foreign keys
in T. Their combination is the primary key in T.
E
1
E
2
R
M N
R
1
R
2
PK
1
FK
1
FK
2
PK
2
T
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Example
Student Course enrolls
Name
RollNo
Name
CourseID
M N
name rollNo rollNo courseId
student enrollment
course
Primary key of enrollment table is {RollNo, CourseID}
name courseID
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Handling Recursive relationships
Make a table T for the participating entity set E
( this might already be existing)
and one table for recursive relationship R.
Example
Course
CourseID
Credits
Timing
is
PreReq
Of
M
N
CourseTable
preReqCourse CourseID
CourseID Credits Timing
PreRequisiteTable
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