SESSION 4 RELATIONAL MODEL CONCEPTS

1.Table / Relation
RELATIONAL MODELS
2.Tuple / Record
3.Attribute / Column / Field
Relational data model is the primary data
4.Relation Key
model, which is used widely around the
world for data storage and processing. 5.Attribute Domain
6.Relation Schema
Relational model represents the database 7.Relation Instance
as a collection of relations. A relation is
nothing but a table of values. Every row TABLE
in the table represents a collection of
related data values. These rows in the A table has two properties rows and
table denote a real-world entity or columns. Rows represent records and
relationship. columns represent attributes.

CODD’S 12 RULES

• 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 TUPLE
known as Codd's 12 rules to test
DBMS's concept against his relational A single row of a table, which contains a
model. single record.
• Codd's rule actually define what quality
a DBMS requires in order to become a
Relational Database Management
System (RDBMS).

ATTRIBUTE
Each column in a Table. Attributes are the
properties which define a relation.
ATTRIBUTE DOMAIN
A domain is a set of permitted values for an
attribute in table. An attribute cannot accept
values that are outside of their domains.

KEYS
Key plays an important role in relational
database; it is used for identifying unique
rows from table. It also establishes
relationship among tables.
RELATIONAL SCHEMA
TYPES OF KEYS
Represents the name of the relation with its
attributes. • Super Key • Candidate Key •
Primary Key • Alternative /
Alternate Key • Composite Key •
Foreign Key • Non-Key

Super Key - is defined as a set of attributes

within a table that can uniquely identify
each record within a table.
Super Key is a superset of Candidate key.

RELATIONAL INSTANCE TABLE: EMPLOYEE

A finite set of tuples in the RDBMS system.

Relation instances never have duplicate
tuples.

Candidate key - a minimal super key with

no redundant attributes. It is a super key
with no redundant attributes
EM_ID, EM_PhilHealthNum
RELATION KEY
Every row has one, two or multiple
attributes. It is an attribute which can
uniquely identify a particular tuple(row) in a
relation(table).
Primary key - a column or set of columns
in a table that uniquely identifies tuples
(rows) in that table. It is selected from a set
of candidate keys. This is done by
database admin or database designer.
Foreign Key – Foreign keys are the
columns of a table that points to the
primary key of another table.
AR_ID is the primary key of the AIRLINES
Relation
OTHER KEYS
Alternate Key – Out of all candidate keys,
only one gets selected as primary key,
remaining keys are known as alternate or
secondary keys.
Composite Key – A key that consists of
more than one attribute to uniquely identify
rows (also known as records & tuples) in a
table is called composite key.
Non–Key - attributes are the attributes or
fields of a table, other than candidate key
attributes/fields in a table.
CONSTRAINTS
Relational Integrity Constraints - Every
relation has some conditions that must hold
for it to be a valid relation.
Three main integrity constraints:
• Key constraints • Domain
constraints • Referential integrity
constraints
KEY CONSTRAINTS
An attribute that can uniquely identify a
tuple in a relation is called the key of the
table.
The value of the attribute for different tuples
in the relation has to be unique.
DOMAIN CONSTRAINTS
• Domain constraints can be violated if
an attribute value is not appearing in
the corresponding domain or it is not
of the appropriate data type.
• Domain constraints specify that within
each tuple, and the value of each
attribute must be unique.
• This is specified as data types which
include standard data types integers,
real numbers, characters, Booleans,
variable length strings, etc.
REFERENTIAL INTEGRITY
CONSTRAINTS
• Referential integrity constraints is based
on the concept of Foreign Keys.
• A foreign key is an important attribute of
a relation which should be referred to in
other relationships.
• Referential integrity constraint state
happens where relation refers to a key
attribute of a different or same relation.
However, that key element must exist in
the table.
QUERY LANGUAGE
• Relational database systems are
expected to be equipped with a query
language that can assist its users to
query the database instances.
• There are two kinds of query
languages
a) Relational Algebra – Procedural
b) Relational Calculus – Non
Procedural
RELATIONAL ALGEBRA
• Relational Algebra is a procedural query
language used to query the database
tables to access data in different ways.
• In relational algebra, input is a relation
(table from which data has to be
accessed) and output is also a relation
(a temporary table holding the data
asked for by the user).
• Relational Algebra works on the whole
table at once, so we do not have to use
loops etc. to iterate over all the
rows(tuples) of data one by one.
• It uses operators to perform queries. An
operator can be either unary or binary
• All we have to do is specify the table
name from which we need the data, and
in a single line of command, relational
algebra will traverse the entire given
table to fetch data for you.
• The primary operations that we can
perform using relational algebra are: a)
Select
b) Project
c) Union
d) Set Intersection
e) Set Different
f) Cartesian product
g) Rename
SELECT
• Select Operator is denoted by sigma (σ)
and it is used to find the tuples (or rows)
in a relation (or table) which satisfy the
given condition.
• Notation: σ Condition (Relation/Table
name)
 UNION

PROJECT

• Project operator is denoted by ∏ symbol

and it is used to select desired columns
from a table.
• Notation: ∏ column_name1, ..
column_nameN(table_name)

SET INTERSECTION

• Suppose there are two tuples R and S.

• The set intersection operation contains
all tuples that are in both R & S.
• It is denoted by intersection ∩.
• Notation: R ∩ S
 CARTESIAN PRODUCT

• The Cartesian product is used to

combine each row in one table with
each row in the other table.
• It is also known as a cross product.
• It is denoted by X.
• Notation: E X D

SET DIFFERENT

• Suppose there are two tuples R and S.

• The set intersection operation contains
all tuples that are in R but not in S.
• It is denoted by intersection minus (-).
• Notation: R – S RENAME

• Rename (ρ) operation can be used to

rename a relation or an attribute of a
relation.
• It is denoted by rho (ρ).
• Notation: ρ(OLD NAME, NEW NAME)
• EX: ρ(AIRCRAFT, AIRPLANE)

RELATIONAL CALCULUS

• In contrast to Relational Algebra,

Relational Calculus is a non-procedural
query language, that is, it tells what to
do but never explains how to do it.
• It tells the system what data to be
retrieved but doesn’t tell how to retrieve
it.
• Relational calculus exists in two forms:
a) Tuple Relational Calculus (TRC)
 b) Domain Relational Calculus
(DRC)
• Tuple relational calculus is used for
selecting those tuples that satisfy the
given condition.
• Notation: {T | P (T)} or {T | Condition
(T)}

Where
a) T is the resulting tuples
b) P(T) is the condition used to
fetch T.

DOMAIN RELATIONAL CALCULUS (DRC)

• In domain relational calculus the

records are filtered based on the
domains.
• The filtering variable uses the domain of
attributes instead of entire tuple values
• It uses logical connectives ∧ (and), ∨
(or) and ┓ (not).
• It uses Existential (∃) and Universal
Quantifiers (∀) to bind the variable.

• Notation: {a1, a2, a3, ..., an | P (a1, a2,

a3, ... ,an)}
Where
a) a1, a2 are attributes
b) P stands for formula built by inner
attributes