Chapter 5

4
Relational Algebra
Truong Quynh Chi
[email protected]

Spring- 2013
 Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus không thi

Relational Algebra 2
 Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Relational Algebra 3
 Relational Algebra Overview

£ Relational algebra is the basic set of operations

for the relational model
• These operations enable a user to specify basic
retrieval requests (or queries)
£ The result of an operation is a new relation,
which may have been formed from one or more
input relations
• This property makes the algebra “closed” (all
objects in relational algebra are relations)
£ A sequence of relational algebra operations
forms a relational algebra expression
Relational Algebra 4
 Relational Algebra Overview
£ Unary Relational Operations
• SELECT (symbol: s (sigma))
• PROJECT (symbol: p (pi))
• RENAME (symbol: r (rho))
£ Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
• UNION ( È ), INTERSECTION ( Ç ), DIFFERENCE (or
MINUS, – )
• CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )
£ Binary Relational Operations
• JOIN (several variations of JOIN exist)
• DIVISION
£ Additional Relational Operations
• OUTER JOINS, OUTER UNION
• AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX)

Relational Algebra 5
 COMPANY Database Schema

Relational Algebra 6
The following query results refer to this database state

Relational Algebra 7
 Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
£ The SELECT operation (denoted by s (sigma))
is used to select a subset of the tuples from a
relation based on a selection condition.
£ Examples:
• Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department number is 4:
s DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
• Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater than
$30,000:
s SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)

Relational Algebra 8
 Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
£ In general, the select operation is denoted by
s<selection condition>(R) where
• s (sigma) is used to denote the select operator
• <selection condition> is a Boolean expression
specified on the attributes of relation R
• Tuples that make the condition true appear in
the result of the operation, and tuples that make
the condition false are discarded from the result
of the operation

Relational Algebra 9
 Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
£ SELECT Operation Properties
• The relation S = s <selection condition>(R) has the same schema (same
attributes) as R
• SELECT s is commutative:
s<cond1>(s < cond2>(R)) = s<cond2>(s<cond1>(R))
• Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence) of
SELECT operations may be applied in any order:
s<cond1>(s<cond2>(s<cond3>(R))=
s<cond2>(s<cond3>(s<cond1>(R)))

= s<cond1>AND<cond2>AND<cond3>(R)
• The number of tuples in the result of a SELECT is less than (or
equal to) the number of tuples in the input relation R

Relational Algebra 10
 Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
£ PROJECT Operation is denoted by p (pi)
£ This operation keeps certain columns
(attributes) from a relation and discards the
other columns
• PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning: the list
of specified columns (attributes) is kept in each
tuple, the other attributes in each tuple are
discarded
£ Example: To list each employee’s first and last
name and salary, the following is used:
pLNAME, FNAME,SALARY(EMPLOYEE)

Relational Algebra 11
 Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
£ The general form of the project operation is:
p<attribute list>(R)
• <attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from relation R

£ The project operation removes any duplicate

tuples because the result of the project
operation must be a set of tuples and
mathematical sets do not allow duplicate
elements

Relational Algebra 12
 Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
£ PROJECT Operation Properties
• The number of tuples in the result of projection
p<list>(R) is always less or equal to the number
of tuples in R
• If the list of attributes includes a key of R, then
the number of tuples in the result of PROJECT is
equal to the number of tuples in R
• PROJECT is not commutative
p <list1> (p <list2> (R) ) = p <list1> (R) as long as <list2>
contains the attributes in <list1>

Relational Algebra 13
Examples of applying SELECT and PROJECT operations

Relational Algebra 14
 Relational Algebra Expressions
£ We may want to apply several relational
algebra operations one after the other
• Either we can write the operations as a single
relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations, or
• We can apply one operation at a time and
create intermediate result relations.
£ In the latter case, we must give names to
the relations that hold the intermediate
results.

Relational Algebra 15
Single expression versus sequence of
relational operations
£ To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all
employees who work in department number 5, we
must apply a select and a project operation
£ We can write a single relational algebra expression as
follows:
pFNAME, LNAME, SALARY(s DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))
£ OR We can explicitly show the sequence of
operations, giving a name to each intermediate
relation:
• DEP5_EMPS ¬ s DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
• RESULT ¬ p FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)

Relational Algebra 16
 Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
£ The RENAME operator is denoted by r (rho)
£ In some cases, we may want to rename the
attributes of a relation or the relation name or
both
• Useful when a query requires multiple
operations
• Necessary in some cases (see JOIN operation
later)

Relational Algebra 17
 Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
£ The general RENAME operation r can be
expressed by any of the following forms:
• rS (B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes both:
• the relation name to S, and
• the column (attribute) names to B1, B1, …..Bn
• rS(R) changes:
• the relation name only to S
• r(B1, B2, …, Bn )(R) changes:
• the column (attribute) names only to B1, B1,
…..Bn

Relational Algebra 18
 Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Relational Algebra 19
 Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
£ Binary operation, denoted by È
£ The result of R È S, is a relation that includes
all tuples that are either in R or in S or in both
R and S
£ Duplicate tuples are eliminated
£ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible” (or UNION compatible)
• R and S must have same number of attributes
• Each pair of corresponding attributes must be
type compatible (have same or compatible
domains)
Relational Algebra 20
 Example of the result of a UNION
operation

Relational Algebra 21
 Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory
£ Type Compatibility of operands is required for
the binary set operation UNION È, (also for
INTERSECTION Ç, and SET DIFFERENCE –)
£ The resulting relation for R1ÈR2 (also for
R1ÇR2, or R1–R2) has the same attribute
names as the first operand relation R1 (by
convention)

Relational Algebra 22
 Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: INTERSECTION
£ INTERSECTION is denoted by Ç
£ The result of the operation R  S, is a relation
that includes all tuples that are in both R and S
• The attribute names in the result will be the
same as the attribute names in R
£ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”

Relational Algebra 23
 Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: SET DIFFERENCE
£ SET DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or
EXCEPT) is denoted by –
£ The result of R – S, is a relation that includes
all tuples that are in R but not in S
• The attribute names in the result will be the
same as the attribute names in R
£ The two operand relations R and S must be
“type compatible”

Relational Algebra 24
Example to illustrate the result of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE

Relational Algebra 25
 Some properties of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE
£ Notice that both union and intersection are
commutative operations; that is
• R È S = S È R, and R Ç S = S Ç R
£ Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary
operations applicable to any number of relations as
both are associative operations; that is
• R È (S È T) = (R È S) È T
• (R Ç S) Ç T = R Ç (S Ç T)
£ The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in
general
• R–S≠S–R

Relational Algebra 26
 Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
£ CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT Operation
• Denoted by R(A1, A2, ..., An) x S(B1, B2, ..., Bm)
• Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
• Q(A1, A2, ..., An, B1, B2, ..., Bm), in that order.
• Hence, if R has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR ),
and S has nS tuples, then R x S will have nR * nS
tuples
• The two operands do NOT have to be "type
compatible”

Relational Algebra 27
 Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
£ JOIN Operation (denoted by )
• The sequence of CARTESIAN PRODECT followed by
SELECT is used quite commonly to identify and select related
tuples from two relations
• A special operation, called JOIN combines this sequence into
a single operation
• This operation is very important for any relational database
with more than a single relation, because it allows us combine
related tuples from various relations
• The general form of a join operation on two relations R(A1,
A2, . . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R <join condition>S

• where R and S can be any relations that result from general

relational algebra expressions.

Relational Algebra 28
 Binary Relational Operations: JOIN

£ Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the

name of the manager of each department.
• To get the manager’s name, we need to
combine each DEPARTMENT tuple with the
EMPLOYEE tuple whose SSN value matches
the MGRSSN value in the department tuple.
DEPT_MGR¬DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSNEMPLOYEE

£ MGRSSN=SSN is the join condition

• Combines each department record with the
employee who manages the department
• The join condition can also be specified as
DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN= EMPLOYEE.SSN
Relational Algebra 29
 COMPANY Database Schema
£ All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY DB below:

Relational Algebra 30
The following query results refer to this database state

Relational Algebra 31
 Example of applying the JOIN
operation

DEPT_MGR ¬ DEPARTMENT MGRSSN=SSN EMPLOYEE

Relational Algebra 32
 Some properties of JOIN
£ Consider the following JOIN operation:
• R(A1, A2, . . ., An) S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
R.Ai=S.Bj
• Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
• Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order
• The resulting relation state has one tuple for each combination
of tuples—r from R and s from S, but only if they satisfy the
join condition r[Ai]=s[Bj]
• Hence, if R has nR tuples, and S has nS tuples, then the join
result will generally have less than nR * nS tuples.
• Only related tuples (based on the join condition) will appear in
the result

Relational Algebra 33
 Some properties of JOIN
£ The general case of JOIN operation is called a
Theta-join: R <theta> S

£ The join condition is called theta

£ Theta can be any general boolean expression
on the attributes of R and S; for example:
• R.Ai<S.Bj AND (R.Ak=S.Bl OR R.Ap<S.Bq)

Relational Algebra 34
 Binary Relational Operations: EQUIJOIN
£ A join, where the only comparison operator
used is =, is called an EQUIJOIN
• In the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have
one or more pairs of attributes (whose names
need not be identical) that have identical values
in every tuple

Relational Algebra 35
 Binary Relational Operations:
NATURAL JOIN Operation
£ NATURAL JOIN Operation
• Another variation of JOIN called NATURAL JOIN — denoted
by * — was created to get rid of the second (superfluous)
attribute in an EQUIJOIN condition
• The standard definition of natural join requires that the two join
attributes, or each pair of corresponding join attributes, have
the same name in both relations
• If this is not the case, a renaming operation is applied first
£ Example: Q ¬ R(A,B,C,D) * S(C,D,E)
• The implicit join condition includes each pair of attributes with
the same name, “AND”ed together:
• R.C=S.C AND R.D.S.D
• Result keeps only one attribute of each such pair:
• Q(A,B,C,D,E)

Relational Algebra 36
 Example of NATURAL JOIN operation

Relational Algebra 37
 Complete Set of Relational Operations

£ The set of operations {s, p , È, - , X} is called a

complete set because any other relational algebra
expressions can be expressed by a combination of
these five operations
£ For example:
• R Ç S = (R È S ) – ((R - S) È (S - R))
• R <join condition>S = s <join condition> (R X S)

Relational Algebra 38
 Binary Relational Operations:
DIVISION
£ DIVISION Operation
• The division operation is applied to two relations R(Z)¸S(X),
where Z = X È Y (Y is the set of attributes of R that are not
attributes of S
• The result of DIVISION is a relation T(Y) that includes a tuple t
if tuples tR appear in R with tR [Y] = t, and with
tR [X] = ts for every tuple ts in S, i.e., for a tuple t to appear in
the result T of the DIVISION, the values in t must appear in R
in combination with every tuple in S

Relational Algebra 39
 The DIVISION operation
(a) Dividing SSN_PNOS by SMITH_PNOS
(b) T ¬ R ÷ S

Relational Algebra 40
 Recap of Relational Algebra
Operations

Relational Algebra 41
 Notation for Query Trees

£ Query tree
• Represents the input relations of query as leaf
nodes of the tree
• Represents the relational algebra operations as
internal nodes

Relational Algebra 42
 lấy các trường dữ liệu .... của quản lý của các bộ phận thực hiện dự án ở Stafford

Relational Algebra 43
 Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Relational Algebra 44
 Additional Relational Operations

£ Aggregate Functions and Grouping

• A type of request that cannot be expressed
in the basic relational algebra is to specify
mathematical aggregate functions on
collections of values from the database
• Examples of such functions include
retrieving the average or total salary of all
employees or the total number of employee
tuples
• Common functions applied to collections of
numeric values include SUM, AVERAGE, chỉ 5
MAXIMUM, and MINIMUM. The COUNT
function is used for counting tuples or values
Relational Algebra 45
 Examples of applying aggregate
functions and grouping

Relational Algebra 46
 Additional Relational Operations
£ Use of the Functional operator
• MAX Salary (Employee) retrieves the maximum
salary value from the Employee relation
• MIN Salary (Employee) retrieves the minimum
Salary value from the Employee relation
• SUM Salary (Employee) retrieves the sum of the
Salary from the Employee relation
• DNO COUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (Employee) groups
employees by DNO (department number) and
computes the count of employees and average
salary per department
• Note: count just counts the number of rows, without
removing duplicates

Relational Algebra 47
 Additional Relational Operations
£ Recursive Closure Operations
• Another type of operation that, in general, cannot be
specified in the basic original relational algebra is
recursive closure. This operation is applied to a
recursive relationship
• An example of a recursive operation is to retrieve all
SUPERVISEES of an EMPLOYEE e at all levels
• Although it is possible to retrieve employees at
each level and then take their union, we cannot, in
general, specify a query such as “retrieve the
supervisees of ‘James Borg’ at all levels” without
utilizing a looping mechanism
• The SQL3 standard includes syntax for recursive
closure

Relational Algebra 48
 Additional Relational Operations
£ The OUTER JOIN Operation
• In NATURAL JOIN and EQUIJOIN, tuples without a
matching (or related) tuple are eliminated from the join
result
• Tuples with null in the join attributes are also
eliminated
• This amounts to loss of information.
• A set of operations, called OUTER joins, can be used
when we want to keep all the tuples in R, or all those in
S, or all those in both relations in the result of the join,
regardless of whether or not they have matching tuples
in the other relation.
£ Outer Union operations: homework !!
Relational Algebra 49
 Additional Relational Operations
£ The left outer join operation keeps every tuple
in the first or left relation R in R S; if no
matching tuple is found in S, then the attributes
of S in the join result are filled or “padded” with
null values.
£ A similar operation, right outer join, keeps
every tuple in the second or right relation S in
the result of R S.
£ A third operation, full outer join, denoted by
keeps all tuples in both the left and the right
relations when no matching tuples are found,
padding them with null values as needed.
Relational Algebra 50
 Additional Relational Operations

£ Example: List all employee names and also

the name of the departments they manage if
they happen to manage a department (if they
do not manage one, we can indicate it with a
NULL value)

Relational Algebra 51
The following query results refer to this database state

Relational Algebra 52
 Additional Relational Operations

Relational Algebra 53
 Exercise

£ Using relational algebra: retrieve the name and

address of all employees who work for the
‘Research’ department
RESEARCH_DEPT ¬ s DNAME=’Research’ (DEPARTMENT)
RESEARCH_EMPS ¬ (RESEARCH_DEPT DNUMBER=

DNOEMPLOYEE)

RESULT ¬ p FNAME, LNAME, ADDRESS (RESEARCH_EMPS)

Relational Algebra 54
 Exercise

£ Using relational algebra: For every project

located in ‘Stafford’, list the project number, the
controlling department number, and the
department manager’s last name, address,
and birthdate.

Relational Algebra 55
 Contents

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Relational Algebra 56
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ A relational calculus expression creates a new relation,
which is specified in terms of variables that range over rows
of the stored database relations (in tuple calculus) or over
columns of the stored relations (in domain calculus)
£ In a calculus expression, there is no order of operations to
specify how to retrieve the query result—a calculus
expression specifies only what information the result should
contain. This is the main distinguishing feature between
relational algebra and relational calculus
£ Relational calculus is considered to be a nonprocedural
language. This differs from relational algebra, where we
must write a sequence of operations to specify a retrieval
request; hence relational algebra can be considered as a
procedural way of stating a query

Relational Algebra 57
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ The tuple relational calculus is based on specifying a
number of tuple variables. Each tuple variable usually
ranges over a particular database relation, meaning that the
variable may take as its value any individual tuple from that
relation
£ A simple tuple relational calculus query is of the form {t |
COND(t)} where t is a tuple variable and COND (t) is a
conditional expression involving t

Example: To find the first and last names of all employees whose salary
is above $50,000, we can write the following tuple calculus expression:
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME | EMPLOYEE(t) AND t.SALARY>50000}

The condition EMPLOYEE(t) specifies that the range relation of tuple

variable t is EMPLOYEE. The first and last name (pFNAME, LNAME) of
each EMPLOYEE tuple t that satisfies the condition t.SALARY>50000
(s SALARY >50000) will be retrieved
Relational Algebra 58
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ Two special symbols called quantifiers can appear
in formulas; these are the universal quantifier (")
and the existential quantifier ($)

£ Informally, a tuple variable t is bound if it is

quantified, meaning that it appears in an (" t) or ($
t) clause; otherwise, it is free

Relational Algebra 59
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ Example 1: retrieve the name and address of all
employees who work for the ‘Research’ dept.
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME, t.ADDRESS | EMPLOYEE(t)
and ($ d) (DEPARTMENT(d) and
d.DNAME=‘Research’ and d.DNUMBER=t.DNO) }

Relational Algebra 60
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ Example 2: find the names of employees who work
on all the projects controlled by department number
5
{e.LNAME, e.FNAME | EMPLOYEE(e) and ((" x)
(not(PROJECT(x)) or not(x.DNUM=5)
OR (($ w)(WORKS_ON(w) and w.ESSN=e.SSN and
x.PNUMBER=w.PNO))))}
£ Details: [1] Chapter 6

Relational Algebra 61
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ Another variation of relational calculus called the domain
relational calculus, or simply, domain calculus is equivalent
to tuple calculus and to relational algebra
£ QBE (Query-By-Example): see Appendix D
£ Domain calculus differs from tuple calculus in the type of
variables used in formulas: rather than having variables
range over tuples, the variables range over single values
from domains of attributes. To form a relation of degree n
for a query result, we must have n of these domain
variables—one for each attribute
£ An expression of the domain calculus is of the form
{x1, x2, . . ., xn | COND(x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . .,
xn+m)}
where x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . ., xn+m are domain
variables that range over domains (of attributes) and COND
is a condition or formula of the domain relational calculus
Relational Algebra 62
 Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
£ Example: Retrieve the birthdate and address of the
employee whose name is ‘John B. Smith’.

{uv | ($ q) ($ r) ($ s) ($ t) ($ w) ($ x) ($ y) ($ z)
(EMPLOYEE(qrstuvwxyz) and q=’John’ and r=’B’
and s=’Smith’)}

Relational Algebra 63
 Summary

1 Unary Relational Operations

2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus

Relational Algebra 64