Database Management Systems

Chapter 4

Relational Algebra
Formal Relational Query Languages

• Two mathematical Query Languages form the basis for “real”

languages (e.g. SQL), and for implementation:
• Relational Algebra: More operational, very useful for representing
execution plans.
• Relational Calculus: Lets users describe what they want, rather than how
to compute it. (Non-operational, declarative.)
 Preliminaries
• A query is applied to relation instances, and the result of a query is also
a relation instance.
• Schemas of input relations for a query are fixed (but query will run regardless of
instance!)
• The schema for the result of a given query is also fixed! Determined by definition
of query language constructs.
• Positional vs. named-field notation:
• Positional notation easier for formal definitions, named-field notation more
readable.
• Both used in SQL
Example Schema

• Sailors (sid: integer, sname: string, rating: integer, age: real);

• Boats (bid: integer, bname: string, color: string);
• Reserves (sid: integer, bid: integer, day: date);
 R1 sid bid day
Example Instances 22 101 10/10/96
58 103 11/12/96
• We’ll use positional or named
field notation, assume that S1
sid sname rating age
names of fields in query results 22 dustin 7 45.0
are `inherited’ from names of
fields in query input relations. 31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0

S2 sid sname rating age

28 yuppy 9 35.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0
 Relational Algebra
• Basic operations:
• Selection ( ) Selects a subset of rows from relation.
• Projection (  ) Deletes unwanted columns from relation.
• Cross-product ( ) Allows us to combine two relations.
• Set-difference ( ) Tuples in reln. 1, but not in reln. 2.
• Union (  ) Tuples in reln. 1 and in reln. 2.
• Additional operations:
• Intersection, join, division, renaming
• Since each operation returns a relation, operations can be
composed!
 sname rating
Projection yuppy 9
lubber 8
• Deletes attributes that are not in guppy 5
projection list. rusty 10
• Schema of result contains exactly the
fields in the projection list, with the  sname,rating(S2)
same names that they had in the
(only) input relation.
• Projection operator has to eliminate
duplicates! (Why??) age
• Note: real systems typically don’t do duplicate
elimination unless the user explicitly asks for it. 35.0
(Why not?)
55.5
 age(S2)
 sid sname rating age
Selection
28 yuppy 9 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0
• Selects rows that satisfy
selection condition.  rating 8(S2)
• No duplicates in result!
(Why?)
• Schema of result identical
to schema of (only) input
relation. sname rating
• Result relation can be the yuppy 9
input for another relational rusty 10
algebra operation!
(Operator composition.)
 sname,rating( rating 8(S2))
 Set Operation - Union
sid sname rating age
22 dustin 7 45.0
S1 31 lubber 8 55.5
• R U S returns a relation instance
containing all tuples that occur in 58 rusty 10 35.0
either relation instance R or relation
sid sname rating age
instance S (or both), and the schema
28 S1 S2
yuppy 9 35.0
of the result is defined to be
identical to the schema of R. S2 31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
• R and S are union-compatible 58 rusty 10 35.0
• They have the same number of the
fields, sid sname rating age
• Corresponding fields, taken in order 22 dustin 7 45.0
from left to right, have the same 31 lubber 8 55.5
domains. 58 rusty 10 35.0
44 guppy 5 35.0
28 yuppy 9 35.0
Set Operation - Intersection
sid sname rating age
22 dustin 7 45.0
S1 31 lubber 8 55.5
• R S returns a relation 58 rusty 10 35.0
instance containing all
tuples that occur in both R sid sname rating age
28 yuppy 9 35.0
and S, and the schema of
the result is defined to be S2 31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
identical to the schema of 58 rusty 10 35.0
R.
• R and S must be union- sid sname rating age
compatible. 31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0
S1 S 2
 Set Operation - Set-Difference

sid sname rating age

• R-S returns a relation instance 22 dustin 7 45.0
containing all tuples that S1 31 lubber 8 55.5
occur in R but not in S, and 58 rusty 10 35.0
the schema of the result is sid sname rating age
defined to be identical to the 28 yuppy 9 35.0
schema of R. S2 31 lubber 8 55.5
44 guppy 5 35.0
• The relations R and S must be 58 rusty 10 35.0
union-compatible.

sid sname rating age

22 dustin 7 45.0
S1 S2
Set Operation – Cross-product
R1 sid bid day
22 101 10/10/96
• R X S returns a relation 58 103 11/12/96
instance whose schema
sid sname rating age
contains all the fields of R S1
followed by all the fields of 22 dustin 7 45.0
S, this is one tuple <r,s> for 31 lubber 8 55.5
each pair of tuples r∈R, 58 rusty 10 35.0
s∈S.
(sid) sname rating age (sid) bid day
• Joins two tables 22 dustin 7 45.0 22 101 10/10/96
22 dustin 7 45.0 58 103 11/12/96
• Cartitian product 31 lubber 8 55.5 22 101 10/10/96

• Student x course 31 lubber 8 55.5 58 103 11/12/96

58 rusty 10 35.0 22 101 10/10/96
58 rusty 10 35.0 58 103 11/12/96

S1 X R1
Renaming
Pie job(sigma ename=‘smith’)
Set Operation – Cross-product
R1 sid bid day
22 101 10/10/96
• R X S returns a relation 58 103 11/12/96
instance whose schema
sid sname rating age
contains all the fields of R S1
followed by all the fields of 22 dustin 7 45.0
S, this is one tuple <r,s> for 31 lubber 8 55.5
each pair of tuples r∈R, 58 rusty 10 35.0
s∈S.
(sid) sname rating age (sid) bid day
• Joins two tables 22 dustin 7 45.0 22 101 10/10/96
22 dustin 7 45.0 58 103 11/12/96
• Cartitian product 31 lubber 8 55.5 22 101 10/10/96

• Student x course 31 lubber 8 55.5 58 103 11/12/96

58 rusty 10 35.0 22 101 10/10/96
58 rusty 10 35.0 58 103 11/12/96

S1 X R1
 Joins

• One of most useful operations and most commonly used to

combine information from two or more relations.
• A join operation is defined as a cross-product, then a selection, and
projection.

R  S
Condition Join(Theta join)
R  c S   c ( R  S)

(sid) sname rating age (sid) bid day

22 dustin 7 45.0 58 103 11/12/96
31 lubber 8 55.5 58 103 11/12/96
• Result schema same as that of cross-product.
• Fewer tuples than cross-product, might be able to compute more
efficiently
• Sometimes called a theta-join.

S1  R1
S1. sid  R1. sid
 Equi-Join
• A special case of condition join where the condition c contains only
equalities.

sid sname rating age bid day

22 dustin 7 45.0 101 10/10/96
58 rusty 10 35.0 103 11/12/96
• Result schema similar to cross-product, but only one copy of fields for
which equality is specified.
• Natural Join: Equijoin on all common fields.

S1  R1
S1.sid  R1.sid
 Division
• Not supported as a primitive operator, but useful for expressing queries like:
Find sailors who have
reserved all boats.
• Let A have 2 fields, x and y; B have only 1 field y:
• A/B contains all x tuples such that for every y tuple in B, there is an x y tuple in A.
• Or: If the set of y values associated with an x value in A contains all y values in B, the x
value is in A/B.
• In general, x and y can be any lists of fields; y is the list of fields in B, and x y is
the list of fields of A.


Examples of Division A/B

sno pno pno pno pno

s1 p1 p2 p2 p1
s1 p2 p4 p2
s1 p3 B1 p4
s1 p4 B2
s2 p1 sno B3
s2 p2 s1
s3 p2 s2 sno
s4 p2 s3 s1 sno
s4 p4 s4 s4 s1

A A/B1 A/B2 A/B3

DIVISION
 Q1:
Find names of sailors who’ve reserved boat #103
• Solution 1:  sname(( Reserves)  Sailors)
bid 103
C

 Solution 2:  (Temp1,  Re serves)

bid  103

 ( Temp2, Temp1  Sailors)

C
 sname (Temp2)

 Solution 3:  sname ( (Re serves  Sailors))

bid 103
C
Q2:
Find names of sailors who’ve reserved a red boat
• Information about boat color only available in Boats; so need an
extra join:

 sname (( Boats)  Re serves  Sailors)

color ' red '

 A more efficient solution:

 sname ( ((  Boats)  Re s)  Sailors)
sid bid color ' red '

A query optimizer can find this, given the first solution!

 Q5:
Find sailors who’ve reserved a red or a green boat
• Can identify all red or green boats, then find sailors who’ve reserved
one of these boats:

 (Tempboats, ( Boats))
color ' red '  color ' green '
 sname(Tempboats  Re serves  Sailors)

 Can also define Tempboats using union! (How?)

 What happens if  is replaced by  in this query?
 Q6:
Find sailors who’ve reserved a red and a green boat
• Previous approach won’t work! Must identify sailors who’ve reserved
red boats, sailors who’ve reserved green boats, then find the
intersection (note that sid is a key for Sailors):

 (Tempred,  (( Boats)  Re serves))

sid color ' red '
 (Tempgreen,  (( Boats)  Re serves))
sid color ' green'

 sname((Tempred  Tempgreen)  Sailors)

 Q9:
Find the names of sailors who’ve reserved all boats

• Uses division; schemas of the input relations to / must be carefully

chosen:

 (Tempsids, ( Re serves) / ( Boats))

sid, bid bid
 sname (Tempsids  Sailors)

 To find sailors who’ve reserved all ‘Interlake’ boats:

..... / ( Boats)
bid bname ' Interlake'
Summary

• The relational model has rigorously defined query languages that are
simple and powerful.
• Relational algebra is more operational; useful as internal
representation for query evaluation plans.
• Several ways of expressing a given query; a query optimizer should
choose the most efficient version.