Database Systems

Relational Model
& Keys
Dr. Maqbool Khan

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 Relational Model:

▪ Based on the mathematical concept of a relation.

▪ Relational model was first proposed by Dr. E. F. Codd in 1970

Objectives:
▪ Allow a high degree of data independence.
▪ Provide base for dealing with data semantics, consistency, and redundancy
problems (Normalized relations).
▪ Expansion of set-oriented data manipulation languages.

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 Relational Model:
▪ First project by IBM in 1970 was the prototype relational DBMS System R,
that led to:
▪ The development of a structured query language called SQL.
▪ The production of various commercial RDBMS products during the late
1970s and the 1980s, For example:
DB2 and SQL/DS from IBM and Oracle from Oracle Corporation.

▪ The second project to have been significant in the development of the

relational model was the INGRES (Interactive Graphics Retrieval System)
at UC Berkeley.

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 Relational Database Terminology:

Relation is a table with columns and rows. Only applies to logical structure of
the database, not the physical structure.
Attribute is a named column of a relation.
Domain is the set of allowable values for one or more attributes.
Tuple is a row of a relation.

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 Relational Database Terminology:

Degree is the number of attributes in a relation.

Cardinality is the number of tuples in a relation.
Relational Database is a collection of normalized relations with distinct relation
names.
Typically means that the only shared columns among relations are foreign keys
(eliminates redundancy).

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 Alternative Terminology for Relational Model:

Formal Term Alternative 1 Alternative 2

Relation Table File

Tuple Row Record

Attribute Column Field

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 Examples: Branch and Staff Relations:

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 Examples of Attribute Domains:

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 Mathematical Definition of Relation:

▪ Consider two sets, D1 & D2, where D1 = {2, 4} and D2 = {1, 3, 5}.
▪ Cartesian product, D1 × D2, is set of all ordered pairs, where first element is
member of D1 and second element is member of D2.
D1 × D2 = {(2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 5), (4, 1), (4, 3), (4, 5)}
▪ Alternative way is to find all combinations of elements with first from D1
and second from D2.

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 Mathematical Definition of Relation:
Any subset of Cartesian product is a relation; e.g.
R = {(2, 1), (4, 3)}
May specify which pairs are in relation using some condition for selection e.g.
second element is 1:
R = {(x, y) | x ∈D1, y ∈D2, and y = 1}
R = {(2, 1), (4, 1)}

First element is always twice the second:

S = {(x, y) | x ∈D1, y ∈D2, and x = 2y}

S = {(2,1)}

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 Mathematical Definition of Relation:

Consider three sets D1, D2, D3 with Cartesian Product D1 × D2 × D3; e.g.
D1 = {1, 3}
D2 = {2, 4}
D3 = {5, 6}

D1 × D2 × D3 = {(1,2,5), (1,2,6), (1,4,5),

(1,4,6), (3,2,5), (3,2,6), (3,4,5), (3,4,6)}

▪ Any subset of these ordered triples is a relation.

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 Mathematical Definition of Relation:
Cartesian product of n sets (D1, D2, . . ., Dn) is:
D1 × D2 × . . . × Dn = {(d1, d2, . . . , dn) | d1 ∈D1, d2 ∈D2, . . . , dn∈Dn}
usually written as:

Any set of n-tuples from this Cartesian product is a relation on the n sets.

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 Database Relations:
Relation schema
▪ Named relation defined by a set of attribute and domain name pairs.
▪ Let A1, A2, . . . , An be attributes with domains D1, D2, . . . , Dn. Then the set {A1:D1,
A2:D2,. . . , An:Dn} is a relation schema.

▪ In our example, the Branch relation has attributes branchNo, street, city, and
postcode, each with its corresponding domain.
▪ relation instance {(branchNo: B005, street: 22 Deer Rd, city: London,
postcode: SW1 4EH)}

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 Database Relations:

Relational database schema

▪ Set of relation schemas, each with a distinct name.

▪ If R1, R2, . . . , Rn are a set of relation schemas, then we can write the relational
database schema, or simply relational schema, R, as:

R = {R1, R2, . . . , Rn}

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 Properties of Relations:

▪ Relation name is distinct from all other relation names in relational schema.
▪ Each cell of relation contains exactly one atomic (single) value. (e.g., a phone
field may not contain multiple phone numbers)
▪ Each attribute has a distinct name.
▪ Values of an attribute are all from the same domain.
▪ Each tuple is distinct; there are no duplicate tuples.
▪ Order of attributes has no significance.
▪ Order of tuples has no significance, theoretically.

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 Relational Keys:

▪ Candidate Key
▪ Primary Key
▪ Super Key
▪ Alternate Key
▪ Foreign Key
▪ Composite Key

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 Candidate Key:
▪ The minimal set of attributes that can uniquely identify a tuple is known as a
candidate key. For Example, STUD_NO in STUDENT relation.

▪ It is a minimal super key.

▪ It is a super key with no repeated data is called a candidate key.
▪ The minimal set of attributes that can uniquely identify a record.
▪ It must contain unique values and It can also contain NULL values.
▪ Every table must have at least a single candidate key.
▪ A table can have multiple candidate keys but only one primary key.
▪ The value of the Candidate Key is unique and may be null for a tuple.
▪ There can be more than one candidate key in a relationship.

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 Candidate Key:
The candidate key can be simple (having only one attribute) or composite as well.

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 Primary Key:
▪ There can be more than one candidate key in relation out of which one can be
chosen as the primary key.

▪ It is a unique key.
▪ It can identify only one tuple (a record) at a time.
▪ It has no duplicate values, it has unique values.
▪ It cannot be NULL.
▪ Primary keys are not necessarily to be a single column; more than one column
can also be a primary key for a table.

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 Primary Key:

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 Super Key:
▪ The set of attributes that can uniquely identify a tuple is known as Super Key.

▪ Adding zero or more attributes to the candidate key generates the super key.
▪ A candidate key is a super key but vice versa is not true.
▪ Super Key values may also be NULL.

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 Super Key:

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 Alternate Key:
▪ The candidate key other than the primary key is called an alternate key.

▪ All the keys which are not primary keys are called alternate keys.
▪ It is a secondary key.
▪ It contains two or more fields to identify two or more records.
▪ These values are repeated.
▪ Eg:- SNAME, and ADDRESS is Alternate keys

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 Alternate Key:

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 Foreign Key:

▪ It is a key it acts as a primary key in one table, and it acts as secondary key in
another table.
▪ It combines two or more relations (tables) at a time.
▪ They act as a cross-reference between the tables.
▪ For example, DNO is a primary key in the DEPT table and a non-key in EMP

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 Foreign Key:

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 Composite Key:
▪ It acts as a primary key if there is no primary key in a table
▪ Two or more attributes are used together to make a composite key.
▪ Different combinations of attributes may give different accuracy in terms of
identifying the rows uniquely.

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 Relational Keys:

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 Relational Keys:

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 Relational Keys:

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 Representing Relational Database Schemas

A relational database consists of any number of normalized relations. The

relational schema for part of the DreamHome case study is:

Book Page No. 159

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 THANKS

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