Relational Algebra Queries

CS430/630
Lecture 3

Slides based on “Database Management Systems” 3rd ed, Ramakrishnan and Gehrke
 Relational Algebra

� Basic operations:
� Selection  Selects a subset of rows from relation
� Projection  Deletes unwanted columns from relation
� Cross-product  Allows us to combine several relations
� Join ⊳⊲ Combines several relations using conditions
� Division  A bit more complex, will cover later on
� Set-difference
Union ∪ Intersection ∩

� Renaming  Helper operator, does not derive new result, just
renames relations and fields
 (R(F ), E)
� F contains oldname newname pairs
 Operator Precedence

� In decreasing order of priority:

1. Selection  Projection 
2. Cross-product  Join ⊳⊲
3.
4.
Set-difference
Union ∪
 Intersection ∩

Example:  Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors

bid 103
means ( Reserves) ⊳⊲ Sailors
bid 103
not  (Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors)
bid 103
 Example Schema
Sailors
Boats
sid sname rating age
22 dustin 7 45.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0
Reserves
bid name color
101 interlake red
103 clipper green
sid bid day
22 101 10/10/96
58 103 11/12/96
Sample Query 0
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who have ratings at least 8.

Detail of sailor sid Another sailor detail

 (( Sailors)
snam rating 8
sname
Sailors
rating 8
 Join Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors
Reserves Sailors
sid bid day sid sname rating age
22 101 10/10/96 22 dustin 7 45.0
58 103 11/12/96 31 lubber 8 55.5
Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors
58 rusty 10 35.0
sid bid day sname rating age
22 101 10/10/9 dustin 7 45.0
6
58 103 11/12/9 rusty 10 35.0
6

Each sid in Reserves is filled out with Sailor attributes

Sample Query 1
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day
bid only, no Boat deta
� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved boat #103
Detail of sailor sid sid, bid in reserves table
sname(( Reserves)⊳⊲ Sailors)
bid 103
sname( (Reserves⊳⊲ Sailors))
bid 103
 Example Schema
Sailors
Boats
sid sname rating age
22 dustin 7 45.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0
Reserves
bid name color
101 interlake red
103 clipper green
sid bid day
22 101 10/10/96
58 103 11/12/96
Sample Query 2
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat

Detail of sailor sid, bid Detail of boat bid
sid …
sname(
(( ( B))⊳ R)⊳⊲ S)
⊲
sid bid color 'red'
 sname(( Boats) ⊳⊲ Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors)
color ' red
'
 Sample Query 2
� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat
Detail of sailor sid sid, bid … Detail of boat bid

� One way that’s

right:
 sname((
color ' red Boats) ⊳⊲ Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors)
'

… but this next is Wrong!: Watch out for precedence!

sname
Boats⊳⊲
(snamReserves⊳⊲ Sailors
color e(
'red' Boats))⊳⊲ Reserves⊳
⊲ Sailors

color 'red'

empty!
Sample Query 3
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red or a green boat

 (Tempboats, ( Boats))
' red  color ' green
color ' '

sname(Tempboats⊳⊲ Reserves⊳⊲ Sailors)

sname(
B⊳⊲ R⊳⊲ S)
color 'red color
'green'
 Sample Query 4
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red and a green boat

 (Tempred,  (( Boats)⊳⊲ Reserves))
sid color '
red '
  (( green' Boats)⊳⊲
(Tempgreen, sid color '
Reserves))

 sname((Tempred  Tempgreen) ⊳⊲ Sailors)

 Sample Query 5
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved only red boats

 (Tempred,  (( Boats)⊳⊲ Reserves))
sid color '
red '
(Tempothers, (( Boats)⊳⊲ Reserves))
sid color
'red'
sname((Tempred Sailors)
Tempothers)⊳⊲
Time to try it yourself…
� Try the exercises on the handed-out sheet
� You can confer with neighbors—this is not graded
� Turn in completed paper for the 3 points

� Lab sheet (Solution) (Solution posted later)

� Note: you need to attend class to get credit for this

work—it is a form of class participation.
An Example of Self-Joins
Sailors
sid sname rating age
22 dustin 7 45.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0

� Find sailors with maximum age

� No max operator in RA… (SQL has this)
� Need a trick: self join with “left” age smaller than “right” age
� This will list rows for all ages for left side but the max age row(s)
� Then use all-sailors – this list
 An Example of Self-Join: cross-product
with rows eliminated by condition
“LeftHalf”
sid1 sname1 rating1 age1 sid2 sname2 rating2 age2
22 dustin 7 45.0 22 dustin 7 45.0
22 dustin 7 45.0 31 lubber 8 55.5
22 dustin 7 45.0 58 rusty 10 35.0
31 lubber 8 55.5 22 dustin 7 45.0
31 lubber 8 55.5 31 lubber 8 55.5
31 lubber 8 55.5 58 rusty 10 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0 22 dustin 7 45.0
58 rusty 10 35.0 31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0 58 rusty 10 35.0
� Join condition:“left” age smaller than “right” age
 An Example of Self-Join: Max ages
(S1,Sailors) (S2,Sailors)

(TempJoin(1 f f f f 4),
 1,2 2,3 3,4
S1⊳⊲ S1.age  S2.age S2)
(LeftHalf , f f f4
TempJoin)
f 1,
2, 3,

� Finally, subtract the resulting left hand side from the

initial relation, and you get sailors with maximum ages
� Final result is
SailorsLeftHalf
More on Natural Joins
Natural Joins match all same-named columns
� Consider two tables T1 and T2:
T1(id1, attr1, city) T2(id2, id1, attr2, city)
� Probably want to join on id1, a key for T1 showing up
in both tables
� But T1 and T2 have id1 and city in common, so a
natural join T1 ⨝ T2 matches both
� If we don’t want non-key columns matched like this
� We can use a theta join with an explicit condition:
T1 ⨝t1.id1=t2.id1 T2
� Or project out city before one of the joins
 Consider the Example Schema, modified to
have a name attribute for two entities
Boats
Sailors
sid name rating ageReserves
bid name color
22 dustin 7 sid 45.0
bid day 101 interlake red
31 lubber 8 22 55.5
101 10/10/96103 clipper green
58 rusty 10 58 35.0
103 11/12/96
Sample Query 2 on modified schema
Sailors Boats
Reserves bid name color
sid name rating age
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat

Detail of sailor sid sid, bid … Detail of boat bid

� Old solution:
 sname(( Boats) ⊳⊲ Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors)
color ' red
'
� Returns an empty relation!
� It’s looking for matches on name as well as bid, sid
Sample Query 2 on modified schema
Sailors Boats
Reserves bid name color
sid name rating age
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat

� Old solution for unmodified schema: returns empty table here

sname(( color ' red Boats) ⊳⊲ Reserves ⊳⊲ Sailors)
�

'
� Here we can project out boat names before join to Sailors
name(((  B)⊳ R)⊳⊲ S)
⊲
bid color 'red'
 sid sname rating age
Another self join: 28 yuppy 9 35.0
Close competitors
31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0
� Find pairs of sailors (sids) with ratings that differ by no more
than one.
sid1 sid2
(S1,Sailors) (S2,Sailors)
28 28
(TempJoin(1sid1,5sid2), 28 31
S1⊳ S1.ratingS 2.rating 1^S1.rating S 2.rating 1 28 58
⊲ S2) TempJoin 31 28
 … …
sid1,sid2
� We don’t want a lot of these results…
 sid sname rating age
Another self join 28 yuppy 9 35.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0
� Find pairs of different sailors (sids) with ratings that differ
by no more than one, listing each unordered pair once.

(S1,Sailors) (S2,Sailors)
(TempJoin(1 sid1,5 sid2),
S1⊳ S1.rating  S2.rating 1^ S1.rating  S2.rating 1^ S1.sid 
S2)
⊲ S2.sid

 TempJoin sid1 sid2

 sid1,sid2 28 31
� That’s better!
28 58
Like Query 0
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find colors of boats with names starting with C

Detail of Boat Another Boat detail
(assume lowercase names)
 (( Boats)
color 
 name'c'^name'd' Boats

color name'c'^name'd'
Like Query 3
Sailors Boats
sid sname rating age bid name color
Reserves
sid bid day

� Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red or a green

boat. List names and the boat color (two rows if the
sailor rented both color boats)
 (Tempboats, ( Boats))
' red  color ' green
color ' '

 sname ,colo (Tempboats⊳⊲ Reserves⊳⊲ Sailors)

r