Chapter 3: Relational Model

 Structure of Relational Databases

 Relational Algebra
 Tuple Relational Calculus
 Domain Relational Calculus
 Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations
 Modification of the Database
 Views

Database System Concepts 3.1 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example of a Relation

Database System Concepts 3.2 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Basic Structure
 Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a
subset of
D1 x D2 x … x Dn
Thus a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
each ai  Di
 Example: if

customer-name = {Jones, Smith, Curry, Lindsay}

customer-street = {Main, North, Park}
customer-city = {Harrison, Rye, Pittsfield}
Then r = { (Jones, Main, Harrison),
(Smith, North, Rye),
(Curry, North, Rye),
(Lindsay, Park, Pittsfield)}
is a relation over customer-name x customer-street x
customer-city

Database System Concepts 3.3 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Attribute Types
 Each attribute of a relation has a name
 The set of allowed values for each attribute is
called the domain of the attribute
 Attribute values are (normally) required to be
atomic, that is, indivisible
 E.g. multivalued attribute values are not atomic
 E.g. composite attribute values are not atomic
 The special value null is a member of every domain
 The null value causes complications in the
definition of many operations
 we shall ignore the effect of null values in our main
presentation and consider their effect later

Database System Concepts 3.4 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relation Schema
 A1, A2, …, An are attributes

 R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema

Customer-schema =
E.g.
(customer-name, customer-street,
customer-city)
 r(R) is a relation on the relation schema R

E.g. customer (Customer-schema)

Database System Concepts 3.5 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relation Instance
 The current values (relation instance) of a relation
are specified by a table
 An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row
in a table

attributes
(or columns)
customer-name
customer-streetcustomer-city

Jones Main Harrison

Smith North Rye tuples
Curry North Rye (or rows)
Lindsay Park Pittsfield

customer

Database System Concepts 3.6 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relations are Unordered
 Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an
arbitrary order)
 E.g. account relation with unordered tuples

Database System Concepts 3.7 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Database
 A database consists of multiple relations
 Information about an enterprise is broken up into parts,
with each relation storing one part of the information

E.g.: account : stores information about accounts

depositor : stores information about which
customer
owns which account
customer : stores information about customers
 Storing all information as a single relation such as
bank(account-number, balance, customer-name, ..)
results in
 repetition of information (e.g. two customers own an account)
 the need for null values (e.g. represent a customer without an
account)
 Normalization theory (Chapter 7) deals with how to design
relational schemas

Database System Concepts 3.8 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The customer Relation

Database System Concepts 3.9 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The depositor Relation

Database System Concepts 3.10 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 E-R Diagram for the Banking
Enterprise

Database System Concepts 3.11 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Keys
 Let K  R
 K is a superkey of R if values for K are sufficient to
identify a unique tuple of each possible relation r(R)
 by “possible r” we mean a relation r that could exist in
the enterprise we are modeling.
 Example: {customer-name, customer-street} and
{customer-name}
are both superkeys of Customer, if no two customers
can possibly have the same name.
 K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {customer-name} is a candidate key for
Customer, since it is a superkey (assuming no two
customers can possibly have the same name), and
no subset of it is a superkey.

Database System Concepts 3.12 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Determining Keys from E-R Sets
 Strong entity set. The primary key of the entity set
becomes the primary key of the relation.
 Weak entity set. The primary key of the relation
consists of the union of the primary key of the strong
entity set and the discriminator of the weak entity set.
 Relationship set. The union of the primary keys of the
related entity sets becomes a super key of the
relation.
 For binary many-to-one relationship sets, the primary key
of the “many” entity set becomes the relation’s primary
key.
 For one-to-one relationship sets, the relation’s primary
key can be that of either entity set.
 For many-to-many relationship sets, the union of the
primary keys becomes the relation’s primary key

Database System Concepts 3.13 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Schema Diagram for the Banking
Enterprise

Database System Concepts 3.14 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Query Languages
 Language in which user requests information from
the database.
 Categories of languages
 procedural
 non-procedural
 “Pure” languages:
 Relational Algebra
 Tuple Relational Calculus
 Domain Relational Calculus
 Pure languages form underlying basis of query
languages that people use.

Database System Concepts 3.15 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Relational Algebra
 Procedural language
 Six basic operators
 select
 project
 union
 set difference
 Cartesian product
 rename
 The operators take two or more relations as inputs
and give a new relation as a result.

Database System Concepts 3.16 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Select Operation – Example

• Relation r A B C D

  1 7
  5 7
  12 3
  23 10

• A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

A B C D

  1 7
  23 10

Database System Concepts 3.17 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Select Operation

 Notation:  p(r)
 p is called the selection predicate
 Defined as:

p(r) = {t | t  r and p(t)}

Where p is a formula in propositional calculus
consisting of terms connected by :  (and),  (or), 
(not)
Each term is one of:
<attribute> op <attribute> or
<constant>
where op is one of: =, , >, . <. 
 Example of selection:
 branch-name=“Perryridge”(account)

Database System Concepts 3.18 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Project Operation – Example

 Relation r: A B C

 10 1
 20 1
 30 1
 40 2

A C A C
A,C (r)
 

 1  1
 1 =  1
 1  2
 2

Database System Concepts 3.19 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Project Operation
 Notation:

A1, A2, …, Ak (r)

where A1, A2 are attribute names and r is a relation
name.
 The result is defined as the relation of k columns
obtained by erasing the columns that are not listed
 Duplicate rows removed from result, since relations
are sets
 E.g. To eliminate the branch-name attribute of
account
account-number, balance (account)

Database System Concepts 3.20 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Union Operation – Example

 Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r  s: A B

 1
 2
 1
 3

Database System Concepts 3.21 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Union Operation
 Notation: r  s
 Defined as:

r  s = {t | t  r or t  s}

 For r  s to be valid.

1. r, s must have the same arity (same number of

attributes)
2. The attribute domains must be compatible (e.g., 2nd
column
of r deals with the same type of values as does the
2nd
column of s)
 E.g. to find all customers with either an account or a
loan
customer-name (depositor)  customer-name (borrower)

Database System Concepts 3.22 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Difference Operation –
Example

 Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r – s: A B

 1
 1

Database System Concepts 3.23 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set Difference Operation
 Notation r – s
 Defined as:

r – s = {t | t  r and t  s}
 Set differences must be taken between compatible
relations.
 r and s must have the same arity
 attribute domains of r and s must be compatible

Database System Concepts 3.24 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Cartesian-Product Operation-
Example

Relations r, s: A B C D E

 1  10 a
 10 a
 2  20 b
r  10 b
s
r x s:
A B C D E
 1  10 a
 1  10 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  10 b

Database System Concepts 3.25 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Cartesian-Product Operation
 Notation r x s
 Defined as:

r x s = {t q | t  r and q  s}
 Assume that attributes of r(R) and s(S) are disjoint.
(That is,
R  S = ).
 If attributes of r(R) and s(S) are not disjoint, then
renaming must be used.

Database System Concepts 3.26 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Composition of Operations
 Can build expressions using multiple operations
 Example: A=C(r x s)
 rxs A B C D E
 1  10 a
 1  10 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  10 b

 A=C(r x s)
A B C D E
 1  10 a
 2  20 a
 2  20 b
Database System Concepts 3.27 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Rename Operation
 Allows us to name, and therefore to refer to, the
results of relational-algebra expressions.
 Allows us to refer to a relation by more than one
name.
Example:
 x (E )
returns the expression E under the name X
If a relational-algebra expression E has arity n, then
x (A1, A2, …, An) (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name X,
and with the
attributes renamed to A1, A2, …., An.

Database System Concepts 3.28 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Banking Example

branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)

customer (customer-name, customer-street,

customer-only)

account (account-number, branch-name,

balance)

loan (loan-number, branch-name, amount)

depositor (customer-name, account-number)

borrower (customer-name, loan-number)

Database System Concepts 3.29 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries

 Find all loans of over $1200

amount > 1200 (loan)

Find the loan number for each loan of an amount

greater than
$1200
loan-number (amount > 1200 (loan))

Database System Concepts 3.30 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan, an

account, or both, from the bank

customer-name (borrower)  customer-name (depositor)

Find the names of all customers who have a loan

and an
account at bank.
customer-name (borrower)  customer-name (depositor)

Database System Concepts 3.31 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch.

customer-name (branch-name=“Perryridge”

(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan)))

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch but do not have an account at any
branch of
the bank.
customer-name (branch-name = “Perryridge”

(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x
loan))) –
customer-name(depositor)

Database System Concepts 3.32 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch.
Query 1
customer-name(branch-name = “Perryridge” (
borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x
loan)))

 Query 2

customer-name(loan.loan-number = borrower.loan-number(
(branch-name = “Perryridge”(loan)) x borrower))

Database System Concepts 3.33 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
Find the largest account balance
 Rename account relation as d
 The query is:

balance(account) - account.balance

(account.balance < d.balance (account x d

(account)))

Database System Concepts 3.34 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Formal Definition
 A basic expression in the relational algebra consists
of either one of the following:
 A relation in the database
 A constant relation
 Let E and E be relational-algebra expressions; the
1 2
following are all relational-algebra expressions:
 E1  E2
 E1 - E2
 E1 x E2
 p (E1), P is a predicate on attributes in E1
 s(E1), S is a list consisting of some of the attributes in
E1
  x (E1), x is the new name for the result of E1

Database System Concepts 3.35 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Additional Operations

We define additional operations that do not add any

power to the
relational algebra, but that simplify common queries.

 Set intersection
 Natural join
 Division
 Assignment

Database System Concepts 3.36 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set-Intersection Operation
 Notation: r  s
 Defined as:
 r  s ={ t | t  r and t  s }
 Assume:
 r, s have the same arity
 attributes of r and s are compatible
 Note: r  s = r - (r - s)

Database System Concepts 3.37 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Set-Intersection Operation -
Example
 Relation r, s:
A B A B
 1  2
 2  3
 1

r s
 rs
A B

 2

Database System Concepts 3.38 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Natural-Join Operation
 Notation: r s
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively.
Then, r s is a relation on schema R  S obtained as
follows:
 Consider each pair of tuples tr from r and ts from s.
 If tr and ts have the same value on each of the attributes in R
 S, add a tuple t to the result, where
 t has the same value as tr on r

 t has the same value as ts on s

 Example:
R = (A, B, C, D)
S = (E, B, D)
 Result schema = (A, B, C, D, E)
r s is defined as:
r.A, r.B, r.C, r.D, s.E (r.B = s.B  r.D = s.D (r x s))
Database System Concepts 3.39 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Natural Join Operation – Example
 Relations r, s:

A B C D B D E

 1  a 1 a 
 2  a 3 a 
 4  b 1 a 
 1  a 2 b 
 2  b 3 b 
r s

r s
A B C D E
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 2  b 

Database System Concepts 3.40 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation

rs
 Suited to queries that include the phrase “for all”.
 Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S
respectively where
 R = (A1, …, Am, B1, …, Bn)
 S = (B1, …, Bn)
The result of r  s is a relation on schema
R – S = (A1, …, Am)

r  s = { t | t   R-S(r)   u  s ( tu  r ) }

Database System Concepts 3.41 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation – Example

Relations r, s: A B B
 1
1
 2
 3 2
 1 s
 1
 1
 3
 4
 6
 1
 2
r  s: A r




Database System Concepts 3.42 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Another Division Example

Relations r, s:
A B C D E D E

 a  a 1 a 1
 a  a 1 b 1
 a  b 1 s
 a  a 1
 a  b 3
 a  a 1
 a  b 1
 a  b 1
r

r  s: A B C

 a 
 a 

Database System Concepts 3.43 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Division Operation (Cont.)

 Property
 Let q – r  s
 Then q is the largest relation satisfying q x s  r
 Definition in terms of the basic algebra operation
Let r(R) and s(S) be relations, and let S  R

r  s = R-S (r) –R-S ( (R-S (r) x s) – R-S,S(r))

To see why
 R-S,S(r) simply reorders attributes of r

 R-S(R-S (r) x s) – R-S,S(r)) gives those tuples t in

R-S (r) such that for some tuple u  s, tu  r.

Database System Concepts 3.44 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Assignment Operation
 The assignment operation () provides a convenient
way to express complex queries.
 Write query as a sequential program consisting of
 a series of assignments
 followed by an expression whose value is displayed as
a result of the query.
 Assignment must always be made to a temporary relation
variable.
 Example: Write r  s as

temp1  R-S (r)

temp2  R-S ((temp1 x s) – R-S,S (r))
result = temp1 – temp2
 The result to the right of the  is assigned to the relation
variable on the left of the .
 May use variable in subsequent expressions.

Database System Concepts 3.45 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find all customers who have an account from at
least the “Downtown” and the Uptown” branches.
Query 1

CN(BN=“Downtown”(depositor account)) 

CN(BN=“Uptown”(depositor account))

where CN denotes customer-name and BN denotes

branch-name.

Query 2

customer-name, branch-name (depositor

account)
 temp(branch-name) ({(“Downtown”),
(“Uptown”)})
Database System Concepts 3.46 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example Queries
 Find all customers who have an account at all
branches located in Brooklyn city.

customer-name, branch-name (depositor

account)
 branch-name (branch-city = “Brooklyn” (branch))

Database System Concepts 3.47 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations

 Generalized Projection
 Outer Join
 Aggregate Functions

Database System Concepts 3.48 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Generalized Projection
 Extends the projection operation by allowing
arithmetic functions to be used in the projection
list.

 F1, F2, …, Fn (E )
 E is any relational-algebra expression
 Each of F1, F2, …, Fn are are arithmetic expressions
involving constants and attributes in the schema of
E.
 Given relation credit-info(customer-name, limit,
credit-balance), find how much more each person
can spend:
customer-name, limit – credit-balance (credit-info)

Database System Concepts 3.49 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions and
Operations
 Aggregation function takes a collection of values and
returns a single value as a result.
avg: average value
min: minimum value
max: maximum value
sum: sum of values
count: number of values
 Aggregate operation in relational algebra

G1, G2, …, Gn g F1( A1), F2( A2),…, Fn( An) (E)

 E is any relational-algebra expression
 G1, G2 …, Gn is a list of attributes on which to group (can
be empty)
 Each Fi is an aggregate function
 Each Ai is an attribute name

Database System Concepts 3.50 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Operation – Example
 Relation r:

A B C

  7
  7
  3
  10

sum-C
g sum(c) (r)
27

Database System Concepts 3.51 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Operation – Example

 Relation account grouped by branch-name:

branch-nameaccount-number balance
Perryridge A-102 400
Perryridge A-201 900
Brighton A-217 750
Brighton A-215 750
Redwood A-222 700

branch-name g sum(balance) (account)

branch-name balance
Perryridge 1300
Brighton 1500
Redwood 700

Database System Concepts 3.52 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Aggregate Functions (Cont.)
 Result of aggregation does not have a name
 Can use rename operation to give it a name
 For convenience, we permit renaming as part of
aggregate operation

branch-name g sum(balance) as sum-balance (account)

Database System Concepts 3.53 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join
 An extension of the join operation that avoids loss
of information.
 Computes the join and then adds tuples form one
relation that does not match tuples in the other
relation to the result of the join.
 Uses null values:
 null signifies that the value is unknown or does not
exist
 All comparisons involving null are (roughly speaking)
false by definition.
 Will study precise meaning of comparisons with
nulls later

Database System Concepts 3.54 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example

 Relation loan

loan-numberbranch-name amount
L-170 Downtown 3000
L-230 Redwood 4000
L-260 Perryridge 1700

 Relation borrower

customer-nameloan-number
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155

Database System Concepts 3.55 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example
 Inner Join

loan Borrower

loan-number branch-name amountcustomer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith

 Left Outer Join

loan Borrower
loan-number branch-name amountcustomer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null

Database System Concepts 3.56 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Outer Join – Example
 Right Outer Join
loan borrower

loan-number branch-name amountcustomer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes
 Full Outer Join
loan borrower
loan-number branch-name amountcustomer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
L-155 null null Hayes

Database System Concepts 3.57 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Null Values
 It is possible for tuples to have a null value, denoted by
null, for some of their attributes
 null signifies an unknown value or that a value does not
exist.
 The result of any arithmetic expression involving null is
null.
 Aggregate functions simply ignore null values
 Is an arbitrary decision. Could have returned null as result
instead.
 We follow the semantics of SQL in its handling of null values
 For duplicate elimination and grouping, null is treated like
any other value, and two nulls are assumed to be the
same
 Alternative: assume each null is different from each other
 Both are arbitrary decisions, so we simply follow SQL

Database System Concepts 3.58 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Null Values
 Comparisons with null values return the special
truth value unknown
 If false was used instead of unknown, then not (A <
5)
would not be equivalent to A >= 5
 Three-valued logic using the truth value unknown:
 OR: (unknown or true) = true,
(unknown or false) = unknown
(unknown or unknown) = unknown
 AND: (true and unknown) = unknown,
(false and unknown) = false,
(unknown and unknown) = unknown
 NOT: (not unknown) = unknown
 In SQL “P is unknown” evaluates to true if predicate P
evaluates to unknown
 Result of select predicate is treated as false if it
evaluates to unknown

Database System Concepts 3.59 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Modification of the Database
 The content of the database may be modified using
the following operations:
 Deletion
 Insertion
 Updating
 All these operations are expressed using the
assignment operator.

Database System Concepts 3.60 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Deletion
 A delete request is expressed similarly to a query,
except instead of displaying tuples to the user, the
selected tuples are removed from the database.
 Can delete only whole tuples; cannot delete values
on only particular attributes
 A deletion is expressed in relational algebra by:

rr–E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra
query.

Database System Concepts 3.61 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Deletion Examples
 Delete all account records in the Perryridge branch.

account  account – branch-name = “Perryridge” (account)

Delete all loan records with amount in the range of 0 to 50

loan  loan – amount 0and amount  50 (loan)

Delete all accounts at branches located in Needham.

r1  branch-city = “Needham” (account

branch)
r2  branch-name, account-number, balance (r1)

r3   customer-name, account-number (r2

depositor)
account  account – r2
Database System Concepts 3.62 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Insertion
 To insert data into a relation, we either:
 specify a tuple to be inserted
 write a query whose result is a set of tuples to be
inserted
 in relational algebra, an insertion is expressed by:

r r  E
where r is a relation and E is a relational algebra
expression.
 The insertion of a single tuple is expressed by
letting E be a constant relation containing one
tuple.

Database System Concepts 3.63 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Insertion Examples
 Insert information in the database specifying that Smith
has $1200 in account A-973 at the Perryridge branch.

account  account  {(“Perryridge”, A-973, 1200)}

depositor  depositor  {(“Smith”, A-973)}

 Provide as a gift for all loan customers in the

Perryridge
branch, a $200 savings account. Let the loan
number serve
r1  as
(branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower loan))
the account number for the new savings
account. account  branch-name, account-number,200 (r1)
account
depositor  depositor  customer-name, loan-number(r1)

Database System Concepts 3.64 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updating
 A mechanism to change a value in a tuple without
charging all values in the tuple
 Use the generalized projection operator to do this
task
r   F1, F2, …, FI, (r)
 Each Fi is either
 the ith attribute of r, if the ith attribute is not updated,
or,
 if the attribute is to be updated Fi is an expression,
involving only constants and the attributes of r, which
gives the new value for the attribute

Database System Concepts 3.65 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Update Examples
 Make interest payments by increasing all balances by 5
percent.
account   AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (account)

where AN, BN and BAL stand for account-number,

branch-name and balance, respectively.
 Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000 6
percent interest
and pay all others 5 percent
account   AN, BN, BAL * 1.06 (  BAL  10000
(account))
 AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (BAL  10000
(account))

Database System Concepts 3.66 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Views
 In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see
the entire logical model (i.e., all the actual relations
stored in the database.)
 Consider a person who needs to know a customer’s
loan number but has no need to see the loan
amount. This person should see a relation
described, in the relational algebra, by
customer-name, loan-number (borrower loan)
 Any relation that is not of the conceptual model but
is made visible to a user as a “virtual relation” is
called a view.

Database System Concepts 3.67 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Definition
 A view is defined using the create view statement
which has the form

create view v as <query expression

where <query expression> is any legal relational

algebra query expression. The view name is
represented by v.
 Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to
refer to the virtual relation that the view generates.
 View definition is not the same as creating a new
relation by evaluating the query expression
 Rather, a view definition causes the saving of an
expression; the expression is substituted into queries
using the view.

Database System Concepts 3.68 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Examples
 Consider the view (named all-customer) consisting
of branches and their customers.

create view all-customer as

branch-name, customer-name (depositor account)
 branch-name, customer-name (borrower loan)

We can find all customers of the Perryridge branch by writing:

branch-name

(branch-name = “Perryridge” (all-

customer))

Database System Concepts 3.69 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updates Through View
 Database modifications expressed as views must be
translated to modifications of the actual relations in
the database.
 Consider the person who needs to see all loan data in
the loan relation except amount. The view given to
the person, branch-loan, is defined as:
create view branch-loan as
branch-name, loan-number (loan)
 Since we allow a view name to appear wherever a
relation name is allowed, the person may write:

branch-loan  branch-loan  {(“Perryridge”, L-

37)}

Database System Concepts 3.70 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Updates Through Views (Cont.)
 The previous insertion must be represented by an insertion
into the actual relation loan from which the view branch-loan
is constructed.
 An insertion into loan requires a value for amount. The
insertion can be dealt with by either.
 rejecting the insertion and returning an error message to the
user.
 inserting a tuple (“L-37”, “Perryridge”, null) into the loan relation
 Some updates through views are impossible to translate into
database relation updates
 create view v as branch-name = “Perryridge” (account))
v  v  (L-99, Downtown, 23)
 Others cannot be translated uniquely
 all-customer  all-customer  {(“Perryridge”, “John”)}
 Have to choose loan or account, and
create a new loan/account number!

Database System Concepts 3.71 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Views Defined Using Other Views
 One view may be used in the expression defining
another view
 A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a
view relation v2 if v2 is used in the expression
defining v1
 A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation
v2 if either v1 depends directly to v2 or there is a
path of dependencies from v1 to v2
 A view relation v is said to be recursive if it
depends on itself.

Database System Concepts 3.72 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 View Expansion
 A way to define the meaning of views defined in
terms of other views.
 Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may
itself contain uses of view relations.
 View expansion of an expression repeats the
following replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the
expression defining vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
 As long as the view definitions are not recursive,
this loop will terminate

Database System Concepts 3.73 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Tuple Relational Calculus
 A nonprocedural query language, where each query is of
the form
{t | P (t) }
 It is the set of all tuples t such that predicate P is true
for t
 t is a tuple variable, t[A] denotes the value of tuple t on
attribute A
 t  r denotes that tuple t is in relation r
 P is a formula similar to that of the predicate calculus

Database System Concepts 3.74 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Predicate Calculus Formula
1. Set of attributes and constants
2. Set of comparison operators: (e.g., , , , , , )
3. Set of connectives: and (), or (v)‚ not ()
4. Implication (): x  y, if x if true, then y is true
x  y x v y
5. Set of quantifiers:
t r (Q(t)) ”there exists” a tuple in t in relation r
such that predicate Q(t) is true
t r (Q(t)) Q is true “for all” tuples t in relation r

Database System Concepts 3.75 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Banking Example
 branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)
 customer (customer-name, customer-street,
customer-city)
 account (account-number, branch-name, balance)
 loan (loan-number, branch-name, amount)
 depositor (customer-name, account-number)
 borrower (customer-name, loan-number)

Database System Concepts 3.76 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the loan-number, branch-name, and amount
for loans of over $1200
{t | t  loan  t [amount]  1200}

Find the loan number for each loan of an amount greater

than $1200
{t |  s loan (t[loan-number] = s[loan-number]  s
[amount]  1200)}

Notice that a relation on schema [loan-number] is

implicitly defined by the query

Database System Concepts 3.77 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan, an
account, or both at the bank

{t | s  borrower( t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])

 u  depositor( t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan

and an account
at the bank
{t | s  borrower( t[customer-name] =
s[customer-name])
 u  depositor( t[customer-name] =
u[customer-name])

Database System Concepts 3.78 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan at the
Perryridge branch

{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name]
 u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]))}

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan at

the
Perryridge branch, but no account at any branch of
{t | s  borrower( t[customer-name] =
the bank
s[customer-name]
 u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-
number]))
 not v  depositor (v[customer-name] =
t[customer-
name]) }
Database System Concepts 3.79 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan
 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan from
the Perryridge branch, and the cities they live in

{t | s  loan(s[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u  borrower (u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]
 t [customer-name] = u[customer-name])
  v  customer (u[customer-name] = v[customer-name]
 t[customer-city] = v[customer-city])

Database System Concepts 3.80 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers who have an
account at all branches located in Brooklyn:

{t |  c  customer (t[customer.name] = c[customer-name]) 

 s  branch(s[branch-city] = “Brooklyn” 
 u  account ( s[branch-name] = u[branch-name]
  s  depositor ( t[customer-name] = s[customer-name
 s[account-number] = u[account-number] )) )}

Database System Concepts 3.81 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Safety of Expressions
 It is possible to write tuple calculus expressions
that generate infinite relations.
 For example, {t |  t r} results in an infinite relation
if the domain of any attribute of relation r is infinite
 To guard against the problem, we restrict the set of
allowable expressions to safe expressions.
 An expression {t | P(t)} in the tuple relational
calculus is safe if every component of t appears in
one of the relations, tuples, or constants that
appear in P
 NOTE: this is more than just a syntax condition.
 E.g. { t | t[A]=5  true } is not safe --- it defines an
infinite set with attribute values that do not appear
in any relation or tuples or constants in P.

Database System Concepts 3.82 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Domain Relational Calculus
 A nonprocedural query language equivalent in
power to the tuple relational calculus
 Each query is an expression of the form:

{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

 x1, x2, …, xn represent domain variables

 P represents a formula similar to that of the predicate
calculus

Database System Concepts 3.83 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the loan-number, branch-name, and amount for
loans of over $1200
{ l, b, a  |  l, b, a   loan  a > 1200}

Find the names of all customers who have a loan of over $1200

{ c  |  l, b, a ( c, l   borrower   l, b, a   loan  a > 120

 Find the names of all customers who have a loan from

the
Perryridge branch and the loan amount:
{ c, a  |  l ( c, l   borrower  b( l, b, a   loan 
b = “Perryridge”))}
r { c, a  |  l ( c, l   borrower   l, “Perryridge”, a   loan)}

Database System Concepts 3.84 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Example Queries
 Find the names of all customers having a loan, an
account, or both at the Perryridge branch:

{ c  |  l ({ c, l   borrower
  b,a( l, b, a   loan  b = “Perryridge”))
  a( c, a   depositor
  b,n( a, b, n   account  b = “Perryridge”))}

 Find the names of all customers who have an

account at all
branches located in Brooklyn:
{ c  |  s, n ( c, s, n   customer) 
 x,y,z( x, y, z   branch  y = “Brooklyn”) 
 a,b( x, y, z   account   c,a   depositor)}

Database System Concepts 3.85 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Safety of Expressions
{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

is safe if all of the following hold:

1. All values that appear in tuples of the expression
are values from dom(P) (that is, the values appear
either in P or in a tuple of a relation mentioned in
P).
2. For every “there exists” subformula of the form 
x (P1(x)), the subformula is true if and only if there is
a value of x in dom(P1) such that P1(x) is true.
3. For every “for all” subformula of the form x (P1
(x)), the subformula is true if and
only if P1(x) is true for all values x from
dom (P1).

Database System Concepts 3.86 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

End of Chapter 3
 Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge” (loan)

Database System Concepts 3.88 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Loan Number and the Amount of the
Loan

Database System Concepts 3.89 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Names of All Customers Who Have
Either a Loan or an Account

Database System Concepts 3.90 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Customers With An Account But No
Loan

Database System Concepts 3.91 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of borrower  loan

Database System Concepts 3.92 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower 
loan)

Database System Concepts 3.93 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of customer-name

Database System Concepts 3.94 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of the Subexpression

Database System Concepts 3.95 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Largest Account Balance in the
Bank

Database System Concepts 3.96 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Customers Who Live on the Same Street and In
the Same City as Smith

Database System Concepts 3.97 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Customers With Both an Account and a
Loan at the Bank

Database System Concepts 3.98 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of customer-name, loan-number, amount
(borrower loan)

Database System Concepts 3.99 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of branch-name(customer-city =
“Harrison”(customer account depositor))

Database System Concepts 3.100 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of branch-name(branch-city =
“Brooklyn”(branch))

Database System Concepts 3.101 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of customer-name, branch-name(depositor account)

Database System Concepts 3.102 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The credit-info Relation

Database System Concepts 3.103 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of customer-name, (limit – credit-balance) as
(credit-info).
credit-available

Database System Concepts 3.104 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The pt-works Relation

Database System Concepts 3.105 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The pt-works Relation After
Grouping

Database System Concepts 3.106 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 branch-name sum(salary)
works)

Database System Concepts 3.107 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of branch-name  sum salary, max(salary) as
max-salary (pt-works)

Database System Concepts 3.108 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The employee and ft-works
Relations

Database System Concepts 3.109 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The Result of employee ft-works

Database System Concepts 3.110 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The Result of employee ft-
works

Database System Concepts 3.111 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of employee ft-works

Database System Concepts 3.112 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Result of employee ft-works

Database System Concepts 3.113 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Tuples Inserted Into loan and
borrower

Database System Concepts 3.114 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 Names of All Customers Who Have
a Loan at the Perryridge Branch

Database System Concepts 3.115 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 E-R Diagram

Database System Concepts 3.116 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The branch Relation

Database System Concepts 3.117 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The loan Relation

Database System Concepts 3.118 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan

 The borrower Relation

Database System Concepts 3.119 ©Silberschatz, Korth and Sudarshan