Chapter 4 : Intermediate SQL

Database System Concepts, 7th Ed.

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

 Join Expressions
 Views
 Transactions
 Integrity Constraints
 SQL Data Types and Schemas
 Index Definition in SQL
 Authorization

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations

 Join operations take two relations and return as a result another

relation.
 A join operation is a Cartesian product which requires that tuples in the
two relations match (under some condition). It also specifies the
attributes that are present in the result of the join
 The join operations are typically used as subquery expressions in the
from clause
 Three types of joins:
 Natural join
 Inner join
 Outer join

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join in SQL

 Natural join is the cartesian product of two relations that

matches tuples with the same values for all common
attributes
 It retains only one copy of each common column.
 Example:
 student natural join takes
 In relational algebra
takes
 Example in the next 3 slides

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Student Relation

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Takes Relation

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 student natural join takes

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Use Example

 List the names of instructors along with the course ID of

the courses that they taught
 select name, course_id
from instructor natural join takes
 The same query without the use of natural join
 select name, course_id
from instructor , takes
where instructor.ID = takes.ID

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Structure in SQL

 The from clause can have multiple relations combined using

natural join:
select A1, A2, … An
from r1 natural join r2 natural join .. natural join rn
where P ;

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Dangerous in Natural Join

 Beware of unrelated attributes with same name which get equated

incorrectly
 Example -- List the names of students along with the titles of courses
that they have taken
 Correct version
select name, title
from student natural join takes, course
where takes.course_id = course.course_id;
 Incorrect version
select name, title
from student natural join takes natural join course;
 This query omits all (student name, course title) pairs where the
student takes a course in a department other than the student's
own department.
 The correct version (above), correctly outputs such pairs.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Outer Join

 An extension of the join operation that avoids loss of information.

 Computes the join and then adds tuples form one relation that does
not match tuples in the other relation to the result of the join.
 Uses null values.
 Three forms of outer join:
 left outer join
 right outer join
 full outer join

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Outer Join Example Tables

 course relation

 prereq relation

 Observe that
course information is missing CS-347
prereq information is missing CS-315

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Left Outer Join

 General structure
 <table 1> natural left outer join <table 2>
 Example
 course natural left outer join prereq

 Add to the course relation (on the left) the relevant info from prereq
 Since CS-315 does not appear in prereq we use null for prereq_id
 In relational algebra syntax:
course ⟕ prereq

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Right Outer Join

 course natural right outer join prereq

 Add to the prereq relation (on the right) the relevant info from course
 In relational algebra:
course ⟖ prereq

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Full Outer Join

 course natural full outer join prereq

 In relational algebra:
course ⟗ prereq

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Views

 In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see the entire
logical model (that is, all the actual relations stored in the database.)
 Consider a person who needs to know an instructor's name and
department, but not the salary. This person should see a relation
described, in SQL, by

select ID, name, dept_name

from instructor

 A view provides a mechanism to hide certain data from the view of

certain users.
 Any relation that is not part of the conceptual model but is made
visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is called a view.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View 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 SQL 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.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View Definition and Use

 Create a view of instructors without their salary

create view faculty as

select ID, name, dept_name
from instructor
 Find the names all instructors in the Biology department

select name
from faculty
where dept_name = 'Biology'
 Create a view of department salary totals

create view departments_total_salary (dept_name, total_salary) as

select dept_name, sum (salary) as total_salary
from instructor
group by dept_name;

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Views Defined Using Other Views

 One view may be used in the expression defining another view

 A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a view relation v2
if v2 is used in the expression defining v1
 A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation v2 if either v1
depends directly to v2 or there is a path of dependencies from v1
to v2
 A view relation v is said to be recursive if it depends on itself.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Views Defined Using Other Views Example

 create view physics_fall_2017 as

select course.course_id, sec_id, building, room_number
from course, section
where course.course_id = section.course_id
and course.dept_name = 'Physics'
and section.semester = 'Fall'
and section.year = '2017’;

 create view physics_fall_2017_watson as

select course_id, room_number
from physics_fall_2017
where building= 'Watson';

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View Expansion

 Expand the view :

create view physics_fall_2017_watson as
select course_id, room_number
from physics_fall_2017
where building= 'Watson'
 To:

create view physics_fall_2017_watson as

select course_id, room_number
from (select course.course_id, building, room_number
from course, section
where course.course_id = section.course_id
and course.dept_name = 'Physics'
and section.semester = 'Fall'
and section.year = '2017')
where building= 'Watson';

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View Expansion (Cont.)

 A way to define the meaning of views defined in terms of other views.

 Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may itself contain uses of
view relations.
 View expansion of an expression repeats the following replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the expression defining
vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
 As long as the view definitions are not recursive, this loop will terminate

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Update of a View

 Add a new tuple to the faculty view which we defined earlier

insert into faculty
values ('30765', 'Green', 'Music');
 This insertion must be represented by the insertion of the tuple into the
instructor relation
 Must have a value for salary
 Two approaches
 Reject the insert
 Inset the tuple
('30765', 'Green', 'Music', null)
into the instructor relation

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Some Updates Cannot be Translated Uniquely

 create view instructor_info as

select ID, name, building
from instructor, department
where instructor.dept_name = department.dept_name;
 insert into instructor_info
values ('69987', 'White', 'Taylor');
 Issues
 Which department, if multiple departments in Taylor?
 What if no department is in Taylor?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 And Some Cannot be Done at All

 create view history_instructors as

select *
from instructor
where dept_name= 'History';
 What happens if we insert
('25566', 'Brown', 'Biology', 100000)
into history_instructors?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 View Updates in SQL

 Most SQL implementations allow updates only on simple views

 The from clause has only one database relation.
 The select clause contains only attribute names of the relation,
and does not have any expressions, aggregates, or distinct
specification.
 Any attribute not listed in the select clause can be set to null
 The query does not have a group by or having clause.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Materialized Views

 Certain database systems allow view relations to be physically stored.

 Physical copy created when the view is defined.
 Such views are called materialized view:
 If relations used in the query are updated, the materialized view result
becomes out of date
 Need to maintain the view, by updating the view whenever the
underlying relations are updated.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Transactions

 A transaction consists of a sequence of query and/or update

statements and is a “unit” of work
 The SQL standard specifies that a transaction begins implicitly when
an SQL statement is executed.
 The transaction must end with one of the following statements:
 Commit work. The updates performed by the transaction
become permanent in the database.
 Rollback work. All the updates performed by the SQL
statements in the transaction are undone.
 Atomic transaction
 Either fully executed or rolled back as if it never occurred
 Isolation from concurrent transactions

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Integrity Constraints

 Integrity constraints guard against accidental damage to the database,

by ensuring that authorized changes to the database do not result in a
loss of data consistency.
 A checking account must have a balance greater than $10,000.00
 A salary of a bank employee must be at least $11.00 an hour
 A customer must have a (non-null) phone number

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Constraints on a Single Relation

 not null
 primary key
 unique
 check (P), where P is a predicate

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Not Null Constraints

 An attribute tagged with not null cannot have a null value

 Declare name and budget to be not null
name varchar(20) not null
budget numeric(12,2) not null

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Unique Constraints

 unique ( A1, A2, …, Am)

 The unique specification states that the attributes A1, A2, …, Am
form a candidate key.
 Candidate keys are permitted to be null (in contrast to primary
keys).

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 The check clause

 The check (P) clause specifies a predicate P that must be satisfied by

every tuple in a relation.
 Example: ensure that the value of semester is one of {fall, winter, spring
or summer}

create table section

(course_id varchar (8),
sec_id varchar (8),
semester varchar (6),
year numeric (4,0),
building varchar (15),
room_number varchar (7),
time slot id varchar (4),
primary key (course_id, sec_id, semester, year),
check (semester in ('Fall', 'Winter', 'Spring', 'Summer')))

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Referential Integrity

 Ensures that a value that appears in one relation for a given set
of attributes also appears for a certain set of attributes in another
relation.
 Example: If “Biology” is a department name appearing in
one of the tuples in the instructor relation, then there exists a
tuple in the department relation for “Biology”.
 Let A be a set of attributes. Let R and S be two relations that
contain attributes A and where A is the primary key of S. A is said
to be a foreign key of R if for any values of A appearing in R
these values also appear in S.
 S is the referencing relation
 R is the referenced relation

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Referential Integrity in SQL

 Foreign keys can be specified as part of the SQL create table

statement
foreign key (dept_name) references department
 By default, a foreign key references the primary-key attributes of the
referenced table.
 SQL allows a list of attributes of the referenced relation to be specified
explicitly.
foreign key (dept_name) references department (dept_name)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cascading Actions in Referential Integrity

 When a referential-integrity constraint is violated, the normal

procedure is to reject the action that caused the violation.
 The transaction performing the update action is rolled back
 For foreign keys, in the case of a delete or update, instead of
rejecting the action, the system can take steps to change the tuple
in the referencing relation to restore the constraint.
 In the declaration of a foreign key, we can use:
 on delete cascade
 on update cascade,
 For delete, If a delete of a tuple results in a referential-integrity
constraint being violated, the system does not reject the delete.
Instead, the delete cascades to the referencing relation, deleting
the appropriate tuples
 Similarly for updates

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Cascading Actions Example

 Consider the declaration of course

create table course (
(…
dept_name varchar(20),
foreign key (dept_name) references department
on delete cascade
on update cascade,
. . .)
 If we delete department Physics, then we also delete all courses
offered in the Physics department
 Instead of cascade we can use :
 set null,
 set default

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Integrity Constraint Violation During Transactions

 Consider:
create table person (
ID char(10),
name char(40),
mother char(10),
father char(10),
primary key ID,
foreign key father references person,
foreign key mother references person)
 How to insert a tuple without causing constraint violation?
 Insert father and mother of a person before inserting person
 OR, set father and mother to null initially, update after inserting all
persons (not possible if father and mother attributes declared to be
not null)
 OR defer constraint checking

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Complex Check Conditions

 The predicate in the check clause can be an arbitrary predicate that

can include a subquery.
check (time_slot_id in (select time_slot_id from time_slot))
The check condition states that the time_slot_id in each tuple in the
section relation is actually the identifier of a time slot in the time_slot
relation.
 The condition has to be checked not only when a tuple is
inserted or modified in section , but also when the relation
time_slot changes

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.41 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Assertions

 An assertion is a predicate expressing a condition that we wish the

database always to satisfy.
 The following constraints, can be expressed using assertions:
 For each tuple in the student relation, the value of the attribute
tot_cred must equal the sum of credits of courses that the
student has completed successfully.
 An instructor cannot teach in two different classrooms in a
semester in the same time slot
 An assertion in SQL takes the form:
create assertion <assertion-name> check (<predicate>);

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Built-in Data Types in SQL

 date: Dates, containing a (4 digit) year, month and day

 Example: date '2005-7-27'
 time: Time of day, in hours, minutes and seconds.
 Example: time '09:00:30'
 Example: time '09:00:30.75'
 timestamp: date plus time of day
 Example: timestamp '2005-7-27 09:00:30.75'
 interval: period of time
 Example: interval '1' day
 Subtracting a date/time/timestamp value from another gives an
interval value
 Interval values can be added to date/time/timestamp values

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.43 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 User-Defined Types

 create type construct in SQL creates user-defined type

create type Dollars as numeric (12,2) final

 Example:
create table department
(dept_name varchar (20),
building varchar (15),
budget Dollars);

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.44 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Domains

 create domain construct in SQL-92 creates user-defined

domain types

create domain person_name char(20) not

null

 Types and domains are similar. Domains can have

constraints, such as not null, specified on them.
 Example:
create domain degree_level varchar(10)
constraint degree_level_test
check (value in ('Bachelors', 'Masters', 'Doctorate'));

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Large-Object Types

 Large objects (photos, videos, CAD files, etc.) are stored as a large
object:
 blob: binary large object -- object is a large collection of
uninterpreted binary data (whose interpretation is left to an
application outside of the database system).
 Photo of a student
 Video of a lecture
 clob: character large object -- object is a large collection of
character data
 Essay of a student
 Large objects are usually not stored in the tables
 When a query returns a large object, a pointer is returned rather than
the large object itself.
 What can you do with large objects?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Creation

 Many queries reference only a small proportion of the records in a table.

 It is inefficient for the system to read every record to find a record with
particular value
 An index on an attribute of a relation is a data structure that allows the
database system to find those tuples in the relation that have a specified
value for that attribute efficiently, without scanning through all the tuples of
the relation.
 We create an index with the create index command
create index <name> on <relation-name> (attribute);

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Index Creation Example

 create table student

(ID varchar (5),
name varchar (20) not null,
dept_name varchar (20),
tot_cred numeric (3,0) default 0,
primary key (ID))
 create index studentID_index on student(ID)
 The query:
select *
from student
where ID = '12345'
can be executed by using the index to find the required record, without
looking at all records of student

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Authorization

 We may assign a user several forms of authorizations on parts of the

database.

 Read - allows reading, but not modification of data.

 Insert - allows insertion of new data, but not modification of
existing data.
 Update - allows modification, but not deletion of data.
 Delete - allows deletion of data.
 Each of these types of authorizations is called a privilege.
 We may authorize the user all, none, or a combination of these types
of privileges on specified parts of a database, such as a relation or a
view.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Authorization (Cont.)

 Forms of authorization to modify the database schema

 Index - allows creation and deletion of indices.
 Resources - allows creation of new relations.
 Alteration - allows addition or deletion of attributes in a relation.
 Drop - allows deletion of relations.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Authorization Specification in SQL

 The grant statement is used to confer authorization

grant <privilege list> on <relation or view > to <user list>
 <user list> is:
 a user-id
 public, which allows all valid users the privilege granted
 A role (more on this later)
 <privilege > is:
 select, insert, update, delete, all
 Example:
 grant select on department to Amit, Satosh
 Granting a privilege on a view does not imply granting any privileges on
the underlying relations.
 The grantor of the privilege must already hold the privilege on the
specified item (or be the database administrator).

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.51 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Privileges in SQL

 select allows read access to relation, or the ability to query using

the view
 Example: To grant users U1, U2, and U3 the select
authorization on the instructor relation:
grant select on instructor to U1, U2, U3
 insert: the ability to insert tuples
 update: the ability to update using the SQL update statement
 delete: the ability to delete tuples.
 all privileges: used as a short form for all the allowable privileges

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.52 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Revoking Authorization in SQL

 The revoke statement is used to revoke authorization.

revoke <privilege list> on <relation or view> from <user list>
 Example:
revoke select on student from U1, U2, U3
 <privilege-list> may be all to revoke all privileges the revokee may hold.
 If <revokee-list> includes public, all users lose the privilege except
those granted it explicitly.
 If the same privilege was granted twice to the same user by different
grantees, the user may retain the privilege after the revocation.
 How do you implement this?
 All privileges that depend on the privilege being revoked are also
revoked.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.53 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Roles

 A role is a way to distinguish among various users as far as what

these users can access/update in the database.
 To create a role, we use:
create a role <name>
 Example:
 create role teacher
 Once a role is created, we can assign “users” to the role using:
 grant <role> to <users>
 Example:
 create role teacher;
 grant teacher to Amit;

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.54 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Roles (Cont.)

 Privileges can be granted to roles:

 grant select on takes to teacher
 Roles can be granted to users, as well as to other roles
 create role teaching_assistant
 grant teaching_assistant to teacher;
 Teacher inherits all privileges of teaching_assistant
 Chain of roles
 create role dean;
 grant teacher to dean;
 grant dean to Satoshi;

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.55 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Authorization on Views

 create view geo_instructor as

(select *
from instructor
where dept_name = 'Geology');
 grant select on geo_instructor to geo_staff
 Suppose that a geo_staff member issues
 select *
from geo_instructor;
 What if
 geo_staff does not have permissions on instructor?
 Creator of view did not have some permissions on instructor?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.56 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Other Authorization Features

 Transfer of privileges
 grant select on department to Amit with grant option;
 revoke select on department from Amit, Satoshi cascade;
 revoke select on department from Amit, Satoshi restrict;
 And more!

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.57 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Food for Thought

 Are there queries that cannot be expressed in SQL?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.58 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 End of Chapter 4

Database System Concepts, 7th Ed.

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

 references is the privilege to create foreign key

 grant reference (dept_name) on department to Mariano;
 Why is this required?
 Transfer of privileges
 grant select on department to Amit with grant option;
 revoke select on department from Amit, Satoshi cascade;
 revoke select on department from Amit, Satoshi restrict;
 And more!

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.60 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples

 course natural right outer join prereq

 course full outer join prereq using (course_id)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.61 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join in SQL

 Natural join matches tuples with the same values for all common
attributes and retains only one copy of each common column.
 List the names of instructors along with the course ID of the courses
that they taught
 select name, course_id
from students, takes
where student.ID = takes.ID;
 Same query in SQL with “natural join” construct
 select name, course_id
from student natural join takes;

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.62 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Versus Cartesian Product

 List the names of instructors along with the course ID of the courses
that they taught
 select name, course_id
from students, takes
where student.ID = takes.ID;
 Same query in SQL with “natural join” construct
 select name, course_id
from student natural join takes;
 Are the above two queries giving us the same result?

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.63 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Types and Conditions

 Join operations take two relations and return as a result another

relation.
 These additional operations are typically used as subquery expressions
in the from clause
 Join type – defines how tuples are treated in each relation that do not
match any tuple in the other relation (based on the join condition).
 Join condition – defines which tuples in the two relations match.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.64 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Types and Conditions

 Join type – defines how tuples are treated in each relation that do not
match any tuple in the other relation (based on the join condition).
 Join condition – defines which tuples in the two relations match.

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.65 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples

 course natural right outer join prereq

 course full outer join prereq using (course_id)

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.66 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Joined Relations – Examples

 course inner join prereq on

course.course_id = prereq.course_id

 What is the difference between the above, and a natural join?

 course left outer join prereq on
course.course_id = prereq.course_id

Database System Concepts - 7th Edition 4.67 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan