Course : ISYS6169 –Database Systems

Year : 2016

RELATIONAL ALGEBRA AND

RELATIONAL CALCULUS
Session 5&6
 LEARNING OUTCOME

LO 2 : Apply database language and SQL

Programming language
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

These slides have been adapted

from Thomas Connolly and
Carolyn Begg. 2015. Database
Systems: A Practical Approach
To Design, Implementation, and
Management. Pearson
Education. USA. ISBN:978-1-
292-06118-4
 CHAPTER 5
RELATIONAL ALGEBRA AND
RELATIONAL CALCULUS
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Meaning of the term relational

completeness.
• How to form queries in relational algebra.
• How to form queries in tuple relational
calculus.
• How to form queries in domain relational
calculus.

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 INTRODUCTION

• Relational algebra and relational calculus are formal

languages associated with the relational model.
• Informally, relational algebra is a (high-level)
procedural language and relational calculus a non-
procedural language.
• However, formally both are equivalent to one
another.
• A language that produces a relation that can be
derived using relational calculus is relationally
complete.
 Relational Algebra
• Relational algebra operations work on one or more relations
to define another relation without changing the original
relations.
• Both operands and results are relations, so output from one
operation can become input to another operation.
• Allows expressions to be nested, just as in arithmetic. This
property is called closure.
• Five basic operations in relational algebra: Selection,
Projection, Cartesian product, Union, and Set Difference.
• These perform most of the data retrieval operations needed.
• Also have Join, Intersection, and Division operations, which
can be expressed in terms of 5 basic operations.
Relational Algebra Operations
Relational Algebra Operations
 Selection (or Restriction)

• predicate (R)
– Works on a single relation R and defines a relation that
contains only those tuples (rows) of R that satisfy the
specified condition (predicate).
• Example : List all staff with a salary greater than £10,000.

salary > 10000 (Staff)

 Projection
• col1, . . . , coln(R)
– Works on a single relation R and defines a relation that
contains a vertical subset of R, extracting the values of
specified attributes and eliminating duplicates.

• Example : Produce a list of salaries for all staff, showing only

staffNo, fName, lName, and salary details.
staffNo, fName, lName, salary(Staff)
 Union
• RS
– Union of two relations R and S defines a relation that
contains all the tuples of R, or S, or both R and S,
duplicate tuples being eliminated.
– R and S must be union-compatible.
• If R and S have I and J tuples, respectively, union is obtained
by concatenating them into one relation with a maximum of (I
+ J) tuples.
• Example : List all cities where there is either a branch office
or a property for rent.

city(Branch)  city(PropertyForRent)
 Set Difference

• R–S
– Defines a relation consisting of the tuples that are in
relation R, but not in S.
– R and S must be union-compatible.

• List all cities where there is a branch office but no

properties for rent.

city(Branch) – city(PropertyForRent)
 Intersection
• RS
– Defines a relation consisting of the set of all tuples that
are in both R and S.
– R and S must be union-compatible.
• Expressed using basic operations:
R  S = R – (R – S)
• Example : List all cities where there is both a branch office
and at least one property for rent.

city(Branch)  city(PropertyForRent)
 Cartesian product
• RXS
– Defines a relation that
is the concatenation of
every tuple of relation
R with every tuple of
relation S.
• Example : List the names
and comments of all
clients who have viewed a
property for rent.
(clientNo, fName,
lName(Client)) X
(clientNo, propertyNo,
comment (Viewing))
 Example - Cartesian product
and Selection
• Use selection operation to extract those tuples where Client.clientNo =
Viewing.clientNo.
Client.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo((clientNo, fName, lName(Client))  (clientNo,
propertyNo, comment(Viewing)))

Cartesian product and Selection can be reduced to a single operation

called a Join.
 Join Operations
• Join is a derivative of Cartesian product.
• Equivalent to performing a Selection, using join predicate as
selection formula, over Cartesian product of the two operand
relations.
• One of the most difficult operations to implement efficiently in an
RDBMS and one reason why RDBMSs have intrinsic
performance problems.
• Various forms of join operation
– Theta join
– Equijoin (a particular type of Theta join)
– Natural join
– Outer join
– Semijoin

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 Theta join (-join)

• R FS
– Defines a relation that contains tuples satisfying the
predicate F from the Cartesian product of R and S.
– The predicate F is of the form R.ai  S.bi where  may be
one of the comparison operators (<, , >, , =, ).
• Can rewrite Theta join using basic Selection and Cartesian
product operations.

R FS = F(R  S)
Degree of a Theta join is sum of degrees of the operand
relations R and S. If predicate F contains only equality (=),
the term Equijoin is used.
 Example - Equijoin

• List the names and comments of all clients who have viewed a property for
rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) Client.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo (clientNo, propertyNo,
comment(Viewing))
 Natural join
• R S
– An Equijoin of the two relations R and S over all common
attributes x. One occurrence of each common attribute is
eliminated from the result.
• Example : List the names and comments of all clients who have viewed a
property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) (clientNo, propertyNo, comment(Viewing))
 The (Left) Outer join
• Display rows in the result that don’t have matching values in the join column
• R S
– (Left) outer join is join in which tuples from R that do not have matching
values in common columns of S are also included in result relation.

• Example : Produce a status report on property viewings.

(propertyNo, street, city(PropertyForRent) ) Viewing
 Semijoin
• R FS
– Defines a relation that contains the tuples of R that participate in the join of
R with S.
Can rewrite Semijoin using Projection and Join:
R FS = A(R F S)
• List complete details of all staff who work at the branch in Glasgow.
Staff
Staff.branchNo = Branch.branchNo (city=‘Glasgow’ (Branch))
 Division
• RS
– Defines a relation over the attributes C that consists of
set of tuples from R that match combination of every
tuple in S.

• Expressed using basic operations:

T1 ¬ C(R)
T2 ¬ C((S X T1) – R)
T ¬ T1 – T2
 Example - Division
Identify all clients who have viewed all properties with three rooms.
(clientNo, propertyNo(Viewing))  (propertyNo(rooms = 3 (PropertyForRent)))
 Aggregate Operations
• AL(R)
– Applies aggregate function list, AL, to R to define a relation over the
aggregate list.
– AL contains one or more (<aggregate_function>, <attribute>) pairs .
• Main aggregate functions are: COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, and MAX.

• Example : How many properties cost more than £350 per month to rent?
R(myCount) COUNT propertyNo (σrent > 350 (PropertyForRent))
 Grouping Operation

• GA AL(R)
– Groups tuples of R by grouping attributes, GA, and then applies
aggregate function list, AL, to define a new relation.
– AL contains one or more (<aggregate_function>, <attribute>) pairs.
– Resulting relation contains the grouping attributes, GA, along with
results of each of the aggregate functions.

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 Example – Grouping Operation

• Find the number of staff working in each branch and the sum of their
salaries.
R(branchNo, myCount, mySum)branchNo COUNT staffNo, SUM salary(Staff)
 Relational Calculus
• Relational calculus query specifies what is to be retrieved rather
than how to retrieve it.
– No description of how to evaluate a query.
• In first-order logic (or predicate calculus), predicate is a truth-
valued function with arguments.
• When we substitute values for the arguments, function yields an
expression, called a proposition, which can be either true or
false.
• If predicate contains a variable (e.g. ‘x is a member of staff’),
there must be a range for x.
• When we substitute some values of this range for x, proposition
may be true; for other values, it may be false.
• When applied to databases, relational calculus has forms: tuple
and domain.
 Tuple Relational Calculus
• Interested in finding tuples for which a predicate is true. Based on
use of tuple variables.
• Tuple variable is a variable that ‘ranges over’ a named relation: i.e.,
variable whose only permitted values are tuples of the relation.
• Specify range of a tuple variable S as the Staff relation as:
Staff(S)
• To find set of all tuples S such that F(S) is true:
{S | F(S)}

Examples :
• To find details of all staff earning more than £10,000:
{S | Staff(S) S.salary > 10000}
• To find a particular attribute, such as salary, write:
{S.salary | Staff(S) S.salary > 10000}
 Tuple Relational Calculus

• Can use two quantifiers to tell how many instances the predicate
applies to:
– Existential quantifier $ (‘there exists’)
– Universal quantifier " (‘for all’)
• Tuple variables qualified by " or $ are called bound variables,
otherwise called free variables.
• Existential quantifier used in formulae that must be true for at least one
instance, such as:
Staff(S) ($B)(Branch(B) (B.branchNo = S.branchNo) B.city = ‘London’)

• Means ‘There exists a Branch tuple with same branchNo as the

branchNo of the current Staff tuple, S, and is located in London’.
 Tuple Relational Calculus

• Universal quantifier is used in statements about every instance,

such as:
("B) (B.city  ‘Paris’)

• Means ‘For all Branch tuples, the address is not in Paris’.

• Can also use ~($B) (B.city = ‘Paris’) which means ‘There are no
branches with an address in Paris’.
 Tuple Relational Calculus

• Formulae should be unambiguous and make sense.

• A (well-formed) formula is made out of atoms:
• R(Si), where Si is a tuple variable and R is a relation
• Si.a1  Sj.a2
• Si.a1  c
• Can recursively build up formulae from atoms:
• An atom is a formula
• If F1 and F2 are formulae, so are their conjunction, F1 F2;
disjunction, F1 F2; and negation, ~F1
• If F is a formula with free variable X, then ($X)(F) and
("X)(F) are also formulae.
 Example - Tuple Relational Calculus

• List the names of all managers who earn more than £25,000.
{S.fName, S.lName | Staff(S)
S.position = ‘Manager’ S.salary > 25000}

• List the staff who manage properties for rent in Glasgow.

{S | Staff(S) ($P) (PropertyForRent(P) (P.staffNo = S.staffNo)
P.city = ‘Glasgow’)}
 Example - Tuple Relational Calculus

• List the names of staff who currently do not manage any properties.
{S.fName, S.lName | Staff(S) (~($P) (PropertyForRent(P)(S.staffNo =
P.staffNo)))}
Or
{S.fName, S.lName | Staff(S) (("P) (~PropertyForRent(P)
~(S.staffNo = P.staffNo)))}

• List the names of clients who have viewed a property for rent in Glasgow.
{C.fName, C.lName | Client(C) (($V)($P) (Viewing(V) PropertyForRent(P)
(C.clientNo = V.clientNo) (V.propertyNo=P.propertyNo)
P.city =‘Glasgow’))}
 Example - Tuple Relational Calculus

• Expressions can generate an infinite set. For example:

{S | ~Staff(S)}  expression is said unsafe

• To avoid this, add restriction that all values in result must be values in
the domain of the expression.

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 Domain Relational Calculus

• Uses variables that take values from domains instead of tuples of

relations.

• If F(d1, d2, . . . , dn) stands for a formula composed of atoms and d1, d2, . . .
, dn represent domain variables, then:
{d1, d2, . . . , dn | F(d1, d2, . . . , dn)}
is a general domain relational calculus expression.
• Example : Find the names of all managers who earn more than
£25,000.
{fN, lN | ($sN, posn, sex, DOB, sal, bN)
(Staff (sN, fN, lN, posn, sex, DOB, sal, bN) posn = ‘Manager’ sal >
25000)}

36
 Example - Domain Relational Calculus

• List the staff who manage properties for rent in Glasgow.

{sN, fN, lN, posn, sex, DOB, sal, bN |

($sN1,cty)(Staff(sN,fN,lN,posn,sex,DOB,sal,bN)
PropertyForRent(pN, st, cty, pc, typ, rms,
rnt, oN, sN1, bN1) (sN=sN1)
cty=‘Glasgow’)}
• List the names of staff who currently do not manage any properties for
rent.

{fN, lN | ($sN)
(Staff(sN,fN,lN,posn,sex,DOB,sal,bN)
(~($sN1) (PropertyForRent(pN, st, cty, pc, typ, rms, rnt, oN, sN1, bN1)
(sN=sN1))))}
 Example - Domain Relational Calculus

• List the names of clients who have viewed a property for rent in
Glasgow.

{fN, lN | ($cN, cN1, pN, pN1, cty)

(Client(cN, fN, lN,tel, pT, mR, eM)
Viewing(cN1, pN1, dt, cmt)
PropertyForRent(pN, st, cty, pc, typ, rms, rnt,oN, sN, bN)
(cN = cN1) (pN = pN1) cty = ‘Glasgow’)}

When restricted to safe expressions, domain relational calculus is equivalent to

tuple relational calculus restricted to safe expressions, which is equivalent to
relational algebra.
Means every relational algebra expression has an equivalent relational calculus
expression, and vice versa.
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