CC-2141

Database Systems

Department of Computer Science

School of Systems & Technology - SST
Lecture 7 & 8
 Chapter Objectives

In this chapter you will learn:

▪ The origins of the relational model.
▪ The terminology of the relational model.
▪ How tables are used to represent data.
▪ The connection between mathematical relations and relations in the relational model.
▪ Properties of database relations.
▪ How to identify candidate, primary, alternate, and foreign keys.
▪ The meaning of entity integrity and referential integrity.
▪ The purpose and advantages of views in relational systems.
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 What is an RDBMS?

• RDBMS stands for Relational Database

Management System.

• RDBMS is a program used to

maintain a relational database.

• RDBMS is the basis for all modern

database systems such as MySQL,
Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and
Microsoft Access.

• RDBMS uses SQL queries to access

the data in the database.

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 Introduction to relational model

▪ The relational model was first proposed by E. F. Codd (1970).

▪ The relational model’s objectives were:
• To allow a high degree of data independence.
• Application programs must not be affected by modifications to the internal data
representation.
• To provide substantial grounds for dealing with data semantics, consistency, and
redundancy problems.
• Codd Introduced the concept of normalized relations, that is, relations that have no
repeating groups.
• To enable the expansion of set-oriented data manipulation languages.
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 Relational Data Structure (Terminologies)

▪ Relation: A relation is a table with columns

and rows.

▪ Attribute: An attribute is a named column of

a relation.

▪ Domain: A domain is the set of allowable

values for one or more attributes.

▪ Tuple: A tuple is a row of a relation.

▪ Degree: The degree of a relation is the

number of attributes it contains.

▪ Cardinality: The cardinality of a relation is

the number of tuples it contains.

▪ Relational database: A collection of

normalized relations with distinct relation
names. 5
The Relational
Data Structure

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 The Relational Model Concepts

▪ The relational model is based on the mathematical concept of a relation,

which is physically represented as a table.

▪ An RDBMS requires that the database be perceived by the user as tables.

▪ This perception applies only to the logical structure of the database: that is,
the external and conceptual levels of the ANSI-SPARC architecture.

▪ In the relational model, relations are used to hold information about the
objects to be represented in the database.

▪ A relation is represented as a two dimensional table in which the rows of

the table correspond to individual records and the table columns correspond to
attributes.
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Contd…

▪ The relational model uses a collection of tables to represent both data and
the relationships among those data.

▪ Each table has multiple columns, and each column has a unique name.

▪ Remember, tables are also known as relations.

▪ A relational database consists of a collection of tables, each of which is

assigned a unique name.

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 Properties of Relations

A relation has the following properties:

• the relation has a name that is distinct from all other relation names in the relational schema;
• each cell of the relation contains exactly one atomic (single) value;
• each attribute has a distinct name;
• the values of an attribute are all from the same domain;
• each tuple is distinct; there are no duplicate tuples;
• the order of attributes has no significance;
• the order of tuples has no significance, theoretically. (However, in practice, the order may
affect the efficiency of accessing tuples.)

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 Mathematical Relations

▪ To understand the true meaning of the term relation, we have to review some concepts from
mathematics.

▪ Suppose that we have two sets, D1 and D2, where D1 = {2, 4} and D2 = {1, 3, 5}.

▪ The Cartesian product of these two sets, written D1 x D2, is the set of all ordered pairs such that
the first element is a member of D1 and the second element is a member of D2.

▪ An alternative way of expressing this is to find all combinations of elements with the first from D1
and the second from D2. In our case, we have:

▪ D1 x D2 = {(2, 1), (2, 3), (2, 5), (4, 1), (4, 3), (4, 5)}

▪ Any subset of this Cartesian product is a relation. For example, we could produce a relation R
such that: R = {(2, 1), (4, 1)}

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 Database Relations

▪ Relation schema: A 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.
▪ E.g.,
{(branchNo: B005, street: 22 Deer Rd, city:
London, postcode: SW1 4EH)}

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 Database Relations

▪ Relational database schema: A

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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 Relational Keys

▪ Primary key: The candidate key that is selected to identify tuples uniquely within the
relation.

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

▪ Candidate key: An attribute or set of attributes claimed to be candidate as a superkey or

primary key or alternate key

▪ Superkey: The set of attributes that can uniquely identify a tuple is known as Super Key. A
super key is a group of single or multiple keys that identifies rows in a table.

▪ Foreign key: An attribute, or set of attributes, within one relation that matches the candidate
key of some other (master) relation.

▪ Composite Key: Sometimes, a table might not have a single column/attribute that uniquely
identifies all the records of a table. To uniquely identify rows of a table, a combination of two
or more columns/attributes can be used. E.g., FULLNAME + DOB can be combined.
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Relational Keys

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Representing Relational Database Schemas

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 Integrity
Constraints

A null represents a value for an attribute that is unknown at the present time or is not applicable for this tuple.
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 Database Views

▪ A view in the relational model is a virtual or derived relation that is

dynamically created from the underlying base relation(s) when required.

▪ Views provide security and allow the designer to customize a user’s model.

▪ Not all views are updatable.

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Purpose of
Views

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Database Views (By Example)

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Thankyou
Any Queries?

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