Chapter 3

Relational Model
Definitions and Terminology
 Relational model is today a primary data model in which database is represented as a
collection of Relation where each relation is represented by a two dimensional table.
 The relational model was first proposed by E.F. Codd in 1970.
 Because of its simplicity, the relational model is now the dominant model for commercial
data processing operation.

Structure of relational model

 In this model, the data is organized into a collection of two-dimensional inter-related
tables, also known as relations.
 Each relation is a collection of columns and rows.
 column represents the attributes of an entity
 the rows (or tuples) represents the records.

Consider a case we wish to store the name, the CGPA attained, and the roll number of all
the students of a particular class. This structured data can be easily stored in a table as
described below.

As we can notice from the above relation:

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  Any given row of the relation indicates a student i.e. the row of the table describes a real-
world entity.
 The columns of the table indicate the attributes related to the entity. In this case, the roll
number, name and CGPA of student.

 Relational database is a collection of organized set of tables related to each other, and
from which data can be accessed easily.
 A Relational Database management System (RDBMS) is a database management system
based on the relational model .It is used to manage Relational database.
 Examples of RDBMS are Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL etc.

As discussed earlier, a relational database is based on the relational model. This database
consists of various components based on the relational model. These include:

Relation: Two-dimensional table used to store a collection of data elements.

Tuple: Each row of a table is known as record. It is also known as tuple. For example, the
following row is a record that we have taken from the above table.
1 anish 3.56

Attribute: Column of the relation, depicting properties that define the relation.
Eg. Roll_Number, Name, CGPA

Domain: A domain is a set of permitted values for an attribute in table. For example, a
domain of CGPA must be in the range of 0 to 4.

Relation Schema: A relation schema defines the structure of the relation and represents
the name of the relation with its attributes. e.g. student (Roll_Number, Name, CGPA) is the
relation schema for student. If a schema has more than 1 relation, it is called Relational
Schema.
Relational Instance: It is the collection of records present in the relation at a given time.
Above table shows the relation instance of student at a particular time. It can change
whenever there is an insertion, deletion, or update in the database.
Degree: It is the total number of attributes present in the relation.eg. The Student relation
defined above has degree 3.

Cardinality: It specifies the number of entities involved in the relation i.e., it is the total
number of rows present in the relation. The student relation defined above has cardinality
4.

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 Relation Keys: It is an attribute or a group of attributes that can be used to uniquely
identify an entity in a table or to determine the relationship between two tables. Relation
keys can be of 6 different types:
 Candidate Key
 Super Key
 Composite Key
 Primary Key
 Alternate Key
 Foreign Key

Properties of Relational model

 Each relation (or table) in a database has a unique name
 An entry at the intersection of each row and column is atomic (Each relation cell contains
exactly one atomic (single) value)
 Each row is unique; no two rows in a relation are identical
 Each attribute (or column) within a table has a unique name
 Tuples in a relation do not have to follow a significant order as the relation is not order-
sensitive.
 Similarly, the attributes of a relation also do not have to follow certain ordering, it’s up to
the developer to decide the ordering of attributes.

Advantages of Relational model

 A relational database model is much simpler compared to other data models because data
is stored in the form of rows and columns.
 Since there are several tables in a relational database, certain tables can be made to be
confidential. These tables are protected with username and password such that only
authorized users will be able to access them. The users are only allowed to work on that
specific table.
 Relational database uses primary keys and foreign keys to make the tables interrelated to
each other. Thus, all the data which is stored is non-repetitive. Which means that the data
does not duplicate. Therefore, the data stored can be guaranteed to be accurate.
 It is flexible, so one can get the data in the form which he/she wants. He/she can extract
the information very easily and information can also be manipulated by using various
operators such as project, join, etc.
 The Structure of Relational database can be changed without having to change any
application.

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Disadvantages of relational model
 The performance of the relational model depends upon the number of relations present in
the database.
 Hence, as the number of tables increases, the requirement of physical memory increases.
 The structure becomes complex and there is a decrease in the response time for the
queries.
 Because of all these factors, the cost of implementing a relational database increase.

Difference between DBMS and RDBMS

DBMS RDBMS
DBMS applications store data as file. RDBMS applications store data in a tabular
form.
Data elements need to access individually. Multiple data elements can be accessed at the
same time.
No relationship between data. Data is stored in the form of tables which are
related to each other.
Normalization is not present in DBMS. Normalization is present in RDBMS
DBMS does not support distributed database. RDBMS supports distributed database.
DBMS is meant to be for small organization RDBMS is designed to handle large amount of
and deal with small data. data.
The software and hardware requirements are The software and hardware requirements are
low. higher.
The data in a DBMS is subject to low security It features multiple layers of security while
levels with regards to data manipulation. handling data.
Examples: Window Registry, Forxpro, dbase III Examples: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server,
plus etc. Oracle, Microsoft Access etc.

E.F. Codd’s 12 Rules for RDBMS

 E.F Codd was a Computer Scientist who invented the Relational model for Database
management. Based on relational model, the Relational database was created.
 Codd proposed 13 rules popularly known as Codd's 12 rules to test DBMS's concept against
his relational model.
 Codd's rule actualy define what quality a DBMS requires in order to become a Relational
Database Management System(RDBMS).

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Rule 0: The Foundation Rule
The database must be in relational form. So that the system can manage the database through its
relational capabilities.
Rule 1: The Information Rule
A database contains various information, and this information must be stored in each cell of a
table in the form of rows and columns.
Rule 2: The Guaranteed Access Rule
Every single or precise data (atomic value) may be accessed logically from a relational database
using the combination of primary key value, table name, and column name.
Rule 3: The Systematic Treatment of Null Values
This rule defines the systematic treatment of Null values in database records. The null value has
various meanings in the database, like missing the data, no value in a cell, inappropriate
information, unknown data and the primary key should not be null.
Rule 4: The Dynamic/Active Online Catalog on the basis of the Relational Model
Database dictionary(catalog) is the structure description of the complete Database and it must be
stored online. The Catalog must be governed by same rules as rest of the database. The same
query language should be used on catalog as used to query database.
Rule 5: The Comprehensive Data SubLanguage Rule
The relational database supports a variety of languages, and in order to access the database, the
language has to be linear, explicit, or a well-defined syntax, character strings. It must support the
following operations: view definition, integrity constraints, data manipulation, data definition, as
well as limit transaction management. It is considered a DB violation if the DB permits access to
the data and information without the use of any language.
Rule 6: The View Updating Rule
A view table can theoretically be updated, and DB systems must update them in practice.
Rule 7: The Relational Level Operation (or High-Level Insert, Delete, and Update) Rule
A database system should follow high-level relational operations such as insert, update, and delete
in each level or a single row. It also supports union, intersection and minus operation in the
database system.
Rule 8: The Physical Data Independence Rule
The working of a database system should be independent of the physical storage of its data. If a
file is modified (renamed or moved to another location), it should not interfere with the working
of the system.

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Rule 9: The Logical Data Independence Rule
It indicates that any modifications made at the logical level (or the table structures) should not
have an impact on the user’s experience (application). For example, if a table is split into two
separate tables or into two table joins in order to produce a single table, the application at the
user view should not be affected.
Rule 10: The Integrity Independence Rule
A database must maintain integrity independence when inserting data into table's cells using the
SQL query language. All entered values should not be changed or rely on any external factor or
application to maintain integrity. It is also helpful in making the database-independent for each
front-end application
Rule 11: The Distribution Independence Rule
This rule denotes that a database must function properly even if it’s stored in multiple locations
and used by various end-users. Let’s say a person uses an application to access the database. In
such a case, they must not be aware that another user is using the same data, and thus, the data
they always obtain is only available on one site. The database can be accessed by end-users, and
each user’s access data must be independent in order for them to run SQL queries.
Rule 12: The Non-Subversion Rule
The non-subversion rule defines RDBMS as a SQL language to store and manipulate the data in the
database. If a system has a low-level or separate language other than SQL to access the database
system, it should not subvert or bypass integrity to transform data.

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 Relational Algebra
 The relational algebra is a procedural query language.
 It consist set of operation that takes one or more relations as inputs and produce a new
relation as output.
 The fundamental operations in relational algebra are selection, projection, union, set
difference, Cartesian product, and rename.
 Set intersection, natural join, division and assignments other operations of relational
algebra which can be define in terms of fundamental operations.

1. Fundamental Operations
 The fundamental operations selection, projection and rename on one relation so they
called unary operations.
 Others operations union, set difference and Cartesian product operates on
pairs of relations and so called binary operations.

1.1 Selection Operation

 The Select Operation selects tuples that satisfy a given predicate.

 Select is denoted by a lowercase Greek letter sigma (σ), with the predicate appearing as a
subscript.
 The relation is specifying within parentheses after σ. That is, general structure of selection
is σp(r) where p is selection predicate.
 Formally, selection operation define as
σp(r) = {t|t∈r and p(t)}
where p is formula in propositional calculus consisting terms connected by connectives:
^(and), ∨ (or), ¬ (not).
 Each term is in the format <attribute>op<attribute>or <constant>
where op is one of the comparison operators: =,≠ ,<,≤,>,≥
Let us consider the following employee relation

emp_id name department salary

1 ramesh civil 68000
2 krishna computer 75000
3 rita software 65000
4 sita mechanical 32000
5 juna mechanical 85000
6 nikita computer 60000
7 anish civil 55000

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Find all the employees working on computer department

σdepartment=”computer”(employee)
output

emp_id name department Salary

2 krishna computer 75000
6 nikita computer 60000

Find all the employees whose salary is greater than 70000

σsalary>70000(employee)
output

emp_id name department salary

2 krishna computer 75000
5 juna mechanical 85000

Find all the employees with name sita and department is mechanical

σname= “sita”^department=”mechanical”(employee)
emp_id name department salary
4 sita mechanical 32000

Find all the employees whose department is either civil or computer

σdepartment= “civil” v department=”computer”(employee)

emp_id name department salary
1 ramesh civil 68000
2 krishna computer 75000
6 nikita computer 60000
7 anish civil 55000

Find all the employees whose department is either civil or computer and name is not nikita

σ ( (department=”civil” v department=”computer”)^ name≠nikita) (employee)

emp_id name department salary
1 ramesh civil 68000
2 krishna computer 75000
7 anish civil 55000

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1.2 Projection operation
 The projection operation retrieves tuples for specified attributes of relation.
 It eliminates duplicate tuples in relation.
 The projection is denoted by uppercase Greek letter pi (∏).
 We need to specify attributes that we wish to appear in the result as a subscript to ∏.
 The general structure of projection is

∏A1,A2, . . ,Ak (r)

where A1, A2, . .Ak are attributes of relation r.
Example:
Find name and their salary from employee relation

∏name,salary(employee)

output

name salary
ramesh 68000
krishna 75000
rita 65000
sita 32000
juna 85000
nikita 60000
anish 55000

Composition of relational operations

Relational algebra operations can be composed together into relational-algebra expression.

This required for complicated query.
Example:
Find name and salary of employees of civil department

∏name, salary(σdepartment=”civil” (employee))

output

name salary
ramesh 68000
anish 55000

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Find name and department of employees whose salary is less than or equals to 60000

∏name, department(σsalary ≤ 60000(employee))

output

name department
sita mechanical
nikita computer
anish civil

1.3 Union operation

Suppose r and s are two relations, then union operation contains all tuples that appear in r, s, or
both.
The union of two relations r and s are defines as
r U s ={t | t∈r or t∈s}
For r U s to be valid, it must hold
 r,s must have same arity (same number of attributes)
 The attribute domain must be compatible (e.g. domain of ith column of r must deals with
same type of domain of ith column of s)
 Duplicate rows are eliminated by this operations
Let us consider two relations
depositer

customer_name account_no
ram A-101
sita A-105
hari A-205
nishant A-405
gita A-505

borrower

customer_name loan_no
aditya L-224
nishant L-185
mahesh L-150
gita L-174
ronish L-145

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Example:
Find name of all customers who have either account or loan
∏customer_name(depositor) U ∏customer_name(borrower)

Output

customer_name
ram
sita
hari
nishant
gita
Aditya
Mahesh
ronish

1.4 Set difference Operation

 The set difference allows us to find tuples that are in one relation but not in another
relation. The expression r-s produces a relation containing those tuples in r but not in s.
 Formally, let r and s are two relations then their difference r-s define as
r-s=={t | t∈r and t∉s}
 The set difference must be taken between compatible relations. For r-s to be valid, it must
hold
• r and s must have the same arity (same number of attributes)
• attribute domains of r and s must be compatible

Example:
Find name of all customer of the bank who have account but not loan
∏customer_name(depositor) - ∏customer_name(borrower)

customer_name
ram
sita
hari

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 1.5 Cartesian product
 It allows us to combine information from any two relations.
 The Cartesian product operation denoted by cross (X).
 Cartesian product of two relations r and s, denoted by r X s returns a relation instance
whose schema contains all the fields of r (in same order as they appear in r( followed all
field of s (in the same order as they appear in s).
 The result of r×s contains one tuples <r,s> (concatenation of tuples of r and s) for each pair
tuples t∈r, q∈s.
Formally, r X s={<t,q>|t∈r and q∈s}
Note:
If r and s are two relation having n and m number of attributes and p and q number of records
respectively, then the Cartesian product of these two relation denoted by r X s results a new
relation having (n+m) numberof attributes and (p*q) number of records

Example:
Relation Employee
emp_id name
1 anish
2 sita
3 nitesh

Relation Department
dept_id dept_name
1 computer
2 civil
3 electrical

Employee X Department
emp_id name dept_id dept_name
1 anish 1 computer
1 anish 2 civil
1 anish 3 electrical
2 nitesh 1 computer
2 nitesh 2 civil
2 nitesh 3 electrical
3 sita 1 computer
3 sita 2 civil
3 sita 3 electrical

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Example 2:

Relation borrower

customer_name loan_number
X L01
Y L02

Relation loan

loan_number branch_name amount

L01 B1 5000
L02 B2 6000

Query: Find all customer who taken loan from branch “B1”.

∏customer_name(σ borrower.loan_number=loan.loan_number(σ branch_name=”B1” (borrower×loan)))

Process:

borrower×loan

customer_name borrower.loan_number loan.loan_number branch_name amount

X L01 L01 B1 5000
X L01 L02 B2 6000
Y L02 L01 B1 5000
Y L02 L02 B2 6000

σ branch_name=”B1”(borrower×loan)

customer_name borrower.loan_number loan.loan_number branch_name amount

X L01 L01 B1 5000
Y L02 L01 B1 5000

σ borrower.loan_number=loan.loan_number(σ branch_name=”B1”(borrower×loan))

customer_name borrower.loan_number loan.loan_number branch_name amount

X L01 L01 B1 5000

∏customer_name(σ borrower.loan_number=loan.loan_number(σ branch_name=”B1” (borrower×loan)))

customer_name
X

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1.6 Rename operation
 The result of relational-algebra expression does not have a name to refer it. It is better to
give name to result relation.
 The rename operator is denoted by lower case Greek letter rho
( ρ ).
 Rename operation in relation-algebra expressed as ρx(E)
where E is a relational algebra expression and x is name for result relation. It returns the
result of expression E under the name x.
 Since a relation r is itself a relational-algebra expression thus, the rename operation can
also apply to rename the relation r (i.e. to get same relation under a new name).
 Rename operation can also used to rename attributes of relation. Assume a relational
algebra expression E has arity n. Then expression ρx(A1,A2,…An)(E) returns the result of
expression E under the name x and it renames attributes to A1,A2,..,An.
Let us consider the relation
Customer(customer_id,customer_name,customer_city)
Example1:
To find all the customer_name from this relation algebra expression can be written as
∏customer_name(customer)
This result of the expression can be renamed as
ρcname(∏customer_name(customer))

Example 2:
Rename the relation named customer
ρnewcustomer(customer)
Here relation named customer can be renamed as newcustomer.
Example 3:
Relation named can also be renamed as well their attributes also
ρc(cid,cname,ccity) (Customer)
Her relation name customer is renamed as c and their attributes
customer_id,customer_name,customer_city are renamed as cid,cname and ccity respectively.

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2. Additional relational operations
2.1 Set intersection operation
 Suppose r and s are two relations, then set intersection operation contains all tuples that
are in both r and s.
 Let r and s are two relation having same arity and attributes of r and s are compatible then
their intersection r∩ s define as r∩ s={t|t∈r and t∈s}
Example
Find all customer who have both loan and account
∏customer_name(borrower) ∩ ∏ customer_name (depositor)

customer_name
nishant
gita

2.2 Division
 The division operator takes two relations and builds another relation consisting of values of
an attribute of one relation that matches all the values in another relation
 Division operator r÷s or r/s can be applied if and only if, Attributes of s is proper subset of
Attributes of r.
 The relation returned by division operator will have attributes = (All attributes of r – All
Attributes of s)
Example 1:

K X Y
1 A 2
1 B 4
2 A 2 X Y
3 B 4 A 2
4 B 4 B 4
3 A 2
Relation r Relation s

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r÷ s:

Example 2:
Consider the following relation

subject course
subject_name course_name course_name
DBMS CMP CMP
C++ ELX ELX
C++ CMP
OS CMP

Find the name of subject taught in all course

subject÷ course

subject_name
C++

2.3 Assignment Operation

 The assignment operation provides convenient way to express complex query.
 The assignment operation denoted by ←, works like assignment in programming language.
 The evaluation of an assignment does not result any relation being displayed to the user.
But the result of the expression to the right of the ← is assigned to the relation variable.
 This relation variable may used in subsequent expressions.
 With the assignment expression, a query can be written as a sequential program consisting
a series of assignments followed by an expression whose value is displayed as the result of
the query.

Example: Find all customer who taken loan from bank as well as has bank account.
temp1←∏customer_name(borrower)
temp2←∏customer_name(depositor)
result← temp1 ∩ temp2

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2.4 Join Operation
 A Join operation combines related tuples from different relations, if and only if a given join
condition is satisfied.
 It is denoted by ⋈.
 Join operation is essentially a Cartesian product followed by a selection criterion.
 In its simplest form, the join operation is just the cross product of two relations which
produce large result size but using this operation, one record from relation R and on record
from Relation S can be combined together to form the result if the combination satisfies
the join condition.
 The join condition can be =, , ≤, ≥, ≠
Various forms of join operation are:
1. Equi Join
2. Natural Join
3. Outer Join
i. Left Outer Join
ii. Right Outer Join
iii. Full Outer Join
Before discussing various joins let us consider the following relations
Student

stu_id sname address

1 Anish Kathmandu
2 Rita Lalitpur
3 Krishna Bhaktapur
4 Nitu Butwal

Course

stu_id cname fee

1 Java 25000
3 Python 22000
4 PHP 18000
5 MERN stack 30000

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1. Equi join
An equijoin is an operation that combines two relations based on the equality of values in
specified attributes.
It is denoted by the symbol ⨝ and is defined as follows:

R ⋈ <condition> S

Where R and S are the relations to be joined, and <condition> represents the equality condition on
the common attribute(S).
student ⋈ Student.stu_id = Course.stu_id course

stu_id sname addreess cname fee

1 Anish Kathmandu Java 25000
3 Krishna Bhaktapur Python 22000
4 Nitu Butwal PHP 18000

The resulting relation includes only the tuples that have matching "stu_id" values in both the
"Student" and "Course" relations.

2. Natural Join
 Natural join automatically matches and combines tuples from two relations based on the
common attribute(s) with the same name.
 In example given below, the common attribute is "stu_id".
 Natural join does not use any comparison operator
 The name and type of the attribute must be same.
 It eliminates duplicate attributes in the result.
 It is denoted by ⋈
Student ⋈ course

stu_id sname addreess cname fee

1 Anish Kathmandu Java 25000
3 Krishna Bhaktapur Python 22000
4 Nitu Butwal PHP 18000

The resulting relation includes only the tuples that have matching attribute values with the same
name ("stu_id" in this case).

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3. Outer join
 It is an extension of natural join to deal with missing values of relation.
 It is used to retrieve all records from relation, even for those tuples with no matching value
in the other relation based on the join condition.
 In such cases, it returns NULL as the value for the missing attributes.
It is further classified as:
i. Left Outer Join
ii. Right Outer Join
iii. Full Outer Join
i) Left outer join (⟕)
 Left outer join returns all tuples from the left relation and the matching tuples from the
right relation.
 If there is no match in the right relation, NULL values are used for the attributes of the right
relation in the resulting relation
Student ⟕ course

stu_id sname address cname fee

1 Anish Kathmandu Java 25000
2 Rita Lalitpur NULL NULL
3 Krishna Bhaktapur python 22000
4 Nitu Butwal PHP 18000

The resulting relation includes all tuples from the left relation ("Student") and the matching tuples
from the right relation ("Course"). The NULL values in the "cname" and "fee" columns indicate that
there is no match for the corresponding tuples in the "Course" relation.

ii) Right Outer Join(⟖)

 Right outer join returns all tuples from the right relation and the matching tuples from the
left relation.
 If there is no match in the left relation, NULL values are used for the attributes of the left
relation in the resulting relation.
Student ⟖ Course

stu_id sname address cname fee

1 Anish Kathmandu Java 25000
3 Krishna Bhaktapur Python 22000
4 Nitu Butwal PHP 18000
5 NULL NULL MERN stack 30000

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The resulting relation includes all tuples from the right relation ("Course") and the matching tuples
from the left relation ("Student"). The NULL values in the "sname" and "address" columns indicate
that there is no match for the corresponding tuples in the "Student" relation.

iii) Full outer join(⟗)

 Full outer join returns all tuples from both relations.
 If there is no match for a tuple in either relation, NULL values are used for the attributes of
the relation that does not have a match.

Student ⟗ Course

stu_id sname address cname fee

1 Anish Kathmandu Java 25000
2 Rita Lalitpur NULL NULL
3 Krishna Bhaktapur python 22000
4 Nitu Butwal PHP 18000
5 NULL NULL MERN stack 30000

The resulting relation includes all tuples from both the left relation ("Student") and the right
relation ("Course"). The NULL values indicate that there is no match for the corresponding tuples
in either relation.

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3. Extended Relational- Algebra Operations
3.1 Generalized Projection
Generalized projection operation allows arithmetic and string functions in the projection list.
The generalized projection has the form
∏F1,F2, . .Fn ( E )
where E is any relational algebra expression. Each F1,F2, . .Fn are arithmetic expression involving
constants and attributes in the schema of E.
Example 1:
Suppose a relation
credit_info(customer_name, credit_limit,credit_balance)
Find how much more each person can spend.
∏customer_name, credit_limit - credit_balance(credit_info)
Example 2:
Suppose relation
employee(employee_id,ename,salary)
Find employee and their corresponding bonus, assume that bonus for each employee is 10% of
his/her salary.
∏ ename,salary*1.10 (employee)

3.2 Aggregation
 The aggregate operation permits the use of aggregate functions such as min ,average etc.
on set of values.
 Aggregation function takes a collection of values and returns a single value as a result.
Some aggregate functions are
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values

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  Aggregate operation in relational algebra denoted by the symbol g (i.e. is the letter
G in calligraphic font)

G1, G2, …, Gn F1( A1), F2( A2),…, Fn( An) (E)

 E is any relational-algebra expression

 G1, G2 …, Gn is a list of attributes on which to group (can be empty)
 Each Fi is an aggregate function
 Each Ai is an attribute name

Let us consider the following relation named Employee

emp_id name department salary
1 Ramesh Civil 55000
2 Prizma Computer 65000
3 Riya IT 52000
4 Narayan Civil 25000
5 Nimesh computer 5000

Find the average salary of employee

avg( salary) (Employee)

Find the minimum salary of employee

min( salary) (Employee)

Find the name of employee who have highest salary

∏name( σ salary= max( salary) ( Employee) )

Find the total salary paid by employee in each department

department sum(salary) (Employee)

department salary
Civil 80000
Computer 70000
IT 52000

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Modification of database
Insertion, deletion and updating operations are responsible for database modification

Deletion
 A delete request is expressed similarly to a query, except instead of displaying tuples to the
user, the selected tuples are removed from the database.
 Can delete only whole tuples; cannot delete values on only particular attributes
 A deletion is expressed in relational algebra by:

rr–E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra query.
Let us consider the following relation
Employee(employee_id,name,department,salary)
Example 1: Delete information of all employee from civil department
Employee ← Employee- σ department=”civil” (Employee)
Example 2:
Delete all records of employee with salary in the range 25000 to 60000

Employee  Employee–  (salary  25000 ) ^ (salary 60000) (Employee)

Insertion
To insert data into relation we can either specify a tuple to be inserted or write a query
whose result is a set of tuples to be inserted.
In relational-algebra, an insertion is express by r←r∪ E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra expression
Example:
Insert the information of employee whose employee id is 10, named “rikesh” working in civil
department and having salary 50000

Employee  Employee  {(10,“rikesh”, “civil”,50000)}

Updating
Updating allow to change a value in a tuple without changing all values in tuple. In
relational algebra, updating express by
r←∏ F1,F2, . . ,Fn(r)

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where each Fi is either
 the ith attribute of r, if the ith attribute is not updated, or,
 expression involving only constant and attributes of r, if the attribute is to be
updated. It gives the new value for the attribute.
Example:
Increase salary of all employees by 5 %
Employee←∏ employee_id,name,deparment,salary*1.05(Employee)
Increase the salary of employee by 20% if salary is less than 50000 and increase salary of
remaining employees by 10%

Employee←∏ employee_id, name,,department, salary * 1.2 ( salary <50000 (Employee))

 employee_id,name,department,salary*1.1(salary ≥ 50000 (Employee))
Increase salary of employees of civil department by 15%

Employee←∏ employee_id,name,department,salary*1.15(department= “civil (Employee))

U (Employee-department= “civil (Employee))

Update an employee so that ram now shifted to computer department

Employee←∏ employee_id,name,”computer”,salary(name= “ram”(Employee)) U

(Employee-name=“ram”(Employee))
Note:
update operation will be in another form as well

r←∏ F1,F2,F3,…Fn( p (r) ) U (r-p(r) )

Database schema
Database schema is a logical design of a database and the database instance is a snapshot of the
data in the database at a given instant in time.
The concept of a relation corresponds to the programming language notation of a variable
While the concept of a relation schema corresponds to the programming language notation
of type definition. In general a relation schema consists of list of attributes and their
corresponding domains.
The concept of a relation instance corresponds to the programming –language notation of a value
of a variable. The value of a given variable may change with time; similarly the contents of a
relation instance may change with time as the relation is updated. In contrast, the schema of a
relation does not generally change.

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For example, the relation schema for relation customer is express as

Customer (customer_id, customer_name, customer_city)

We may also specify domains of attributes as

Customer (customer_id: integer, customer_name: string,customer_city:string)

The below figure shows the instance of relation

customer_id customer_name customer_city

1 ronit kathmandu
2 sita pokhara
3 nitu lalitpur

Let us consider university database example

Each course in a university may be offered multiple times, across different semesters, or even within a
semester. We need a relation to describe each individual offering, or section, of the class.

The schema is section (course id, sec id, semester, year, building, room number, time slot id)

We need a relation to describe the association between instructors and the class sections that they teach.
The relation schema to describe this association is

teaches (ID, course id, sec id, semester, year)

As we can imagine, there are many more relations maintained in a real university database.
Now, all the database schemas for university database can be listed as

instructor(id,name,dept_name,salary)
course(course_id,title,dept_name,credits)
department (dept_name, building, budget)
section (course_id, sec_id, semester, year, building, room_number, time_slot_id)
teaches (ID, course_id, sec_id, semester, year)
student (ID, name, dept_name, tot_cred)
advisor (s_id, i_id)
prereq(course_id,prereq_id)
takes (ID, course_id, sec_id, semester, year, grade)
classroom (building, room_number, capacity)
time_slot (time_slot_id, day, start_time, end_time)

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Schema diagrams

A database schema, along with primary key and foreign key dependencies, can be depicted by
schema diagrams. Figure given below shows the schema diagram for university organization. Each
relation appears as a box, with the relation name at the top in blue, and the attributes listed inside
the box. Primary key attributes are shown underlined. Foreign key dependencies appear as arrows
from the foreign key attributes of the referencing relation to the primary key of the referenced
relation.

Assignment
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.

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Views
 “Views“ are virtual relations through which a selective portion of the data from one or
more relations can be seen.
 It does not store any data on its own but provides an alternative way to present the data
stored in the underlying relations.
 Views are defined based on queries, and they can be used to simplify complex queries,
restrict access to certain data, or present a customized perspective of the data to different
users or applications.
In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see all the actual relations stored in the database.
For example consider the following relation

Employee(emp_id,emp_name,postion,salary,dept_id)
Department(dep_id,dept_name,location,budget)

Consider a person who needs to know information of employees with name, position and
department name but not salary as well as other information, then this person should see a
relation described, in the relational algebra, by

emp_name,postion,dept_name(Employee ⨝ Department)
But in such cases views can be created.

Views definition
A view is defined using the create view statement which has the form
create view v as <query expression>
where <query expression> is any legal relational algebra query expression.
 The view name is represented by v.
 Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to refer to the virtual relation that the
view generates.
 View definition is not the same as creating a new relation by evaluating the query
expression
 Rather, a view definition causes the saving of an expression; the expression is substituted
into queries using the view.
Consider the view (named all_employees) consisting of emp_name, position and department

create view all_employees as

emp_name,postion,dept_name(Employee ⨝ Department)

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We can find all employees of civil department by writing

emp_name (dept_name = “civil” (all_employees))

Benefits of using views

 Data Security: Views can be used to enforce data security by limiting the access to sensitive
information. By creating views that only expose certain columns or rows, we can control what data
users can see and ensure that confidential or restricted information remains hidden.
 Data Abstraction: Views provide a level of abstraction, allowing users to interact with the data in a
more simplified and intuitive way.
 Query Simplification: Views can be used to encapsulate complex or frequently used queries,
making them easier to reuse.

Update through views

Database modifications expressed as views must be translated to modifications of the actual
relations in the database.
Consider the person who needs to see all department data in the department relation except
budget. The view given to the person, department_info is defined as:

create view department_info as

dept_id,dept_name,location(Department)

Since we allow a view name to appear wherever a relation name is allowed, the person may write:

department_info  department_info  {(1,“computer”, “kathmandu”)}

The previous insertion must be represented by an insertion into the actual relation department
from which the view department_info is constructed.
An insertion into department requires a value for budget. The insertion can be dealt with by
either.
 rejecting the insertion and returning an error message to the user.
 inserting a tuple (1,“computer”, “kathmandu”, null) into department relation

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Data Dictionary storage
A relational database system needs to maintain data about the relations, such as the schema of
the relations. In general, such “data about data” is referred to as metadata. Relational schemas
and other metadata about relations are stored in a structure called the data dictionary or system
catalog.
Among the types of information that the system must store are these:
 Names of the relations.
 Names of the attributes of each relation.
 Domains and lengths of attributes.
 Names of views defined on the database, and definitions of those views.
 Integrity constraints (for example, key constraints).
In addition, many systems keep the following data on users of the system:
 Names of authorized users.
 Authorization and accounting information about users.
 Passwords or other information used to authenticate users.
Further, the database may store statistical and descriptive data about the relations, such as:
 Number of tuples in each relation.
 Method of storage for each relation
The data dictionary may also note the storage organization (sequential, hash, or heap) of relations,
and the location where each relation is stored:
 If relations are stored in operating system files, the dictionary would note the names of the
file (or files) containing each relation.
 If the database stores all relations in a single file, the dictionary may note the blocks
containing records of each relation in a data structure such as a linked list.

Assignment:

 How relational algebra is different from relational calculus? Define Tuple Relational
Calculus and Domain Relational Calculus.
(Refer: Text Book “Database system concept” by Abraham Silberschatz )

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