Database Management Systems Unit 6

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Unit 6 Relational Algebra
Structure
6.1 Introduction
Objectives
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
6.2 Relational Model Constraints
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
6.3 Update Operation on Relations
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
6.4 The Relational Algebra:
6.4.1 The Select Operation
6.4.2 Project operation:
6.4.3 Set Theoretic Operations
6.4.4 The Join Operation
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
6.5 Summary
6.6 Terminal Questions (TQs)
6.7 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
6.8 Answers to SAQs, TQs and MCQs
6.8.1 Answers to Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs)
6.8.2 Answers to Terminal Question(s) (TQs)
6.8.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Question(s) (MCQs)
6.1 Introduction
Relational model has established itself as the primary data model for
commercial data processing application.
The relational model represents the database as a collection of relations
having a set of rows and columns, each of which is assigned a unique
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name. Relation consists of a relational schema [structure of table] and
relational instance [data in a table at the particular time]; there is a close
correspondence between the concept of table and the mathematical
concept of relation.
In relational model we use certain conventions. For instance, a row is called
a tuple and a column is termed as an attribute. The domain of a relational
schema is a pool of legal values.
Student [Reg. No, name, Addr, Phone, Dbirth, GPA]
In this example, Student is a relation and the attributes [columns] are
RegNo, Name, Addr, Phone, Dbirth. A possible tuple for the Student relation
is [1BL02CS023', 'Vinod Babu', '115, 1-main, Ist cross, Dinnur Main Road,
R.T. Nagar, Bangalore-32', 23438553, 11-Jan-1986].
The domain of each attribute is as follows:
RegNo. : 10 alphanumeric characters
Name : characters
Addr : Alphanumeric characters
Phone : 7 digits
Dbirth : Date
Characteristics of a relation:
- The tuples in the relation need not be ordered.
- Each tuple in the relation is an entity.
Domain:
A domain D is a set of atomic values. For each attribute there is a set of
permitted values called the domain of that attribute.
For e.g.: For the attribute empname, the domain is the set of all empnames.
Let D1 denotes the attributes of empnames.
D2 - > Set of all empnames.
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D3 - > Set of all addr.
D4 - > set of al phone
D5 - > set of all salary.
In general a table of 'n' columns must be subset of D1X D2X D3DD4X
Dn-1 X Dn.
In relational model terminology the datatype describing the type of values
that can appear in each column is called a domain.
1) Since a relation is a set of tuples we use the mathematical notation of t r
to denote that tuple t is in relation r.
2) A domain is atomic its not divisible], if elements of the domain are
considered to be individual units.
For e.g: the set of integers is an atomic domain.
Entity set:
The number of tuples in a relation is called an entity set.
Database schema or relational schema:
1) Denoted by R [A, A3w, Ae..An] is made up of a relation name R and
a list of attributes A1, A2, A3.An
2) Database instance is the data in DATABASE at a particular moment of
time.
3) D is called domain of A1 and denoted by dom[A1]
4) A relational schema is a list of attributes and their corresponding
domains [set of values]
5) To represent incomplete tuples, we must use NULL values; e.g.:
Apartment number.
6) Candidate keys are other keys [except primary key].
7) Primary attribute is one of the candidate keys, where values of their
attribute is unique and NOT NULL
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8) If we denote cardinality of a domain D by | D |, and assume that all
domains are finite, the total Number of tuples in the Cartesian product is
| dom(A1) | * |dom(A2) | * * | dom(An) |
9) Current relation state reflects only the valid tuples that represent a
particular state of the real world.
Tables must be normalized.
Relational Model Notation:
A relational schema R of degree 'n' is denoted by R[A1, A2. A3.An],
known as degree of relation [total number of attributes].
An n-tuple t in a relation r(R) is denoted by t = [V1, V2. V3..Vn] where
Vi is the value corresponding to attribute Ai
The letters Q, R, S denote relation names.
The letter q, r, s denote relation status
The letters t, u, v denote tuples.
In general the name of a relation such as STUDENT indicates the
current set of tuples in that relation where STUDENT (name, SSN..)
refers to the relation schema.
Objectives
To know about
o Relational Database Concepts
o Relational model constraints
o Update Operation on Relations
o Relational Algebra
o Select Operation
o Project operation
o Set theoretic operations
o The Join Operation
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Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (for section 6.1)
1. Define relational model and give one example.
6.2 Relational model constraints
These include
Domain constraints
Key constraints
Entity integrity constraints
Referential integrity constraints
Data dependencies [functional and multi valued dependencies]
Domain constraints:
It specifies that the value of each attribute A must be an atomic value from
the domain dom(A) for that attribute. It also specifies that integer type holds
only integer values but not float values.
It is possible for several attributes to have the same domain.
For e.g: Customer name and employee name must have the same
domain.
The SQL standard supports a restricted set of domain types.
Characters, fixed-length string, and variable-length with user specified
length (char(20) and varchar2(20)) are also available.
Numeric data types for integers and real number (e.g. Number (4) and
Number (5,2))
Other possible domains maybe described by a subrange of values from
a data type or as an enumerated data type where all possible values are
explicitly listed.
Standard SQL, allow the domain of the attribute to include the
specification NOT NULL. This prohibits the insertion of a NULL value for
this attribute. Any DATABASE modification that would cause a NULL to
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be inserted in a NOT NULL domain generates error. By default, primary
keys is of type NOT NULL.
Key constraints:
A relation is defined as a set of tuples.
All tuples in a relation must also be distinct. This means that no 2 tuples
can have the same value [maintains uniqueness]. Tl[sk] !=2[sk], here sk
is a super key.
In any schema there will be a super key[pk] to distinguish tuples.
Every relation can have at least 1 super key.
In general, a relation schema may have more than one key. In this case
each of these keys is called a candidate key.
Relational database schema and integrity constraints:
A relational DATABASE schema S is a set of relation schema S = {R1,
R2..Rn} and a set of integrity constraints (IC).
A relational DATABASE instance DB of S is a set of relation instances
DB = {r1, r2..rm} such that ri is an instance of Ri and such that each ri
relations satisfy the integrity constraint specified in IC.
The relational DATABASE schema for company is shown below:
Employee:
ENAME Minit Lname Ssn BDATE ADDR SEX SALARY SUPERSSN DNUM
Department:
DNAME DNUM MGSSN MGSTARTDATE
Integrity constraints are specified on a DATABASE schema and are
expected to hold on every database instance of the schema.
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Entity constraints:
It states that no PK value can be NULL, because PK value is used to
identify individual tuple in a relation. Having NULL values for PK implies
that we cannot identify some tuples.
Referential integrity:
Tables can be related by common columns; a referential integrity constraint
requires that the value in the foreign key matches a value in the parent key
[unique or primary key of the same or different table referenced key]
For e.g: The attribute DNO of emp gives the dept. number for which each
employee works, hence its value in every employee tuple must match the
DNUM value of some tuple in the department relation.
Foreign key:
The condition for a foreign key specifies a referential integrity constraint
between the two relation schemas R1 andR2.
An attribute A is a foreign key, if it satisfies the following rules.
A rule defined on a column in one table that allows insert or update of a row,
only if the value for the column dependent table matches a value in a
column of the referenced table. That is, the attribute in FK must have the
same domain (values) as the primary key attribute PK of another relation
(parent table).
Foreign key reference, a parent key of the same table, is called self
referential integrity constraint.
For eg: DNUM is a foreign key of emp relation referring to the DNUM as a
foreign key of emp relation, referring to the DNUM of dept relation.
Self Assessment Question(s) (for section 6.2)
1. List constraints used in Relational model.
2. Explain the concept of Keys in relations model.
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6.3 Update Operation on Relations
Insert, Delete and Modify.
Insert: Insert is used to insert a new tuple or tuples in a relation. Insert can
violate any of the 4 types of constraints.
A) Domain Constraints: can be violated if an attribute value is given that
does not appear in the corresponding domain (allows only permitted
values).
B) Key Constraints: can be violated if a key value in the new tuple t
already exists in another tuple in the Relation r(R) [avoids duplicate
entries].
C) Entity Constraints: can be violated if the primary key of new tuple 't' is
NULL (avoids NULL values).
D) Referential Integrity: can be violated if the value of any foreign key in t
refers to a tuple, that does not exist in the referenced relation[foreign key
values should match with primary key values].
E.g.: insert into emp values (1, john.etc.) into emp acceptable.
insert into emp values (1, smithetc.) into emp
not acceptable because same eno already exist in the employee
relation, violates key constraints.
insert into emp values [null, raj.etc] into emp.
not acceptable because null for the primay key eno; it violates entity
integrity constraints.
Insert into emp values (1, joy, 70, etc.) into emp
not acceptable because it violates referential integrity constraints
specified on dno, no department tuple exists with dno = 70.
Delete:
1) It is used to delete tuples. Delete operation can violate only
referential integrity if the tuple being deleted is referenced by foreign
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keys from other tuples in the DATABASE. To specify the deletion, a
condition on the relation selects the tuple to be deleted.
2) 3 options are available if a deletion operation causes a violation.
a) The 1
st
option is to reject the deletion.
b) The 2
nd
option is to attempt to delete the referenced tuples, when
link data field is deleted.
c) The 3
rd
option is to modify the referencing attribute values that
cause the violation.
Delete the emp tuple with eno. = 5 this deletion is acceptable
Delete the dept. tuple with dno = 10 this deletion is not
acceptable because tuples in emp refer to this tuple. Referential
integrity violation will result.
Modify:
1) The modify operation is used to change the values of one or more
attributes in a tuple/s some relation R
2) It is necessary to specify a condition on the attributes of relation 'R'
to select the tuple/s to be modified.
For e.g.: 1. Modify the salary of emp with empno = 101 to 1000.0
3) Modifying an attribute that is neither a primary key nor a foreign key
usually causes no problems. The DBMS only needs to check to
confirm that the new value is of correct data type and domain.
4) If a foreign key attribute is modified, the DBMS must make sure that
the new value refers to n existing tuple in the referenced relation.
5) If you are modifying a primary key, key constraints are violated if that
modified primary key value already exists
E.g.: modify the salary of the employee tuple with eno = 100 to
10000-Acceptable
E.g.: modify the no. of the department tuple with dno = 10 to 40 not
acceptable, because it violates referential integrity.
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Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (for section 6.3)
1. Write and explain the different operations performed on Relations.
6.4 Relational Algebra
Relational algebra operations are divided into two groups.
1) Set operations like union, intersection, difference, and Cartesian
product.
2) Developed specifically for the relational databases, they are select,
project and join.
6.4.1 The Select Operation
It selects required rows from the table. This operation is used to select the
subset of the tuples from a relation that satisfies a selection condition or
search criteria. Mathematical symbol o [sigma] is used to denote the
SELECT operator. The general syntax for selection operation is shown
below.
Sigma<selection condition>(<relation name>).
The <selection condition> is a Boolean expression, consists of attribute
names, comparison operators like =,!=,<,<=,>,>= and Boolean operations
like AND, OR and NOT.
E.g. 1.Select the employees who are working in department 10, and whose
salary is greater than Rs.5000.
o(DNO=0 AND SLARY>5000)(EMPLOYEE)
E.g. 2. Select the employees who are working in department 10 and earning
more than 5000 or employees who are working in department 20 and whose
earnings are more than 8000 rupees.
o(DNO=10 AND SALARY > 5000) OR (DNO=20 AND SALARY>8000
(EMPLOYEE)
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6.4.2 Project operation:
Projection operation is used to select only few columns from a table. the
mathematical symbol t<ATTRIBUTE LIST>(<relation>)
Here, <attribute list> is a list of attributes from the relation r hence the
degree (number of columns) of the result is equal to the number of attributes
specified in the attribute list.
Eg 1. Select the name and salary of all the employees.
tNAME. SALARY(EMPLOYEE).
This query selected only name and salary attributes from relation
EMPLOYEE
Eg. 2. Select names and addresses of all employees working for department
10.
tNAME, ADDRESS (DNO=10(EMPLOYEE)
6.4.3 Set theoretic operations:
These are used to merge the elements of two sets in various ways,
including union, intersection and difference. Three of these operations
require the table to be union compatible. The two relations are said to
require the table to be union compatible. The two relations are said to be
union compatible if the following conditions are satisfied.
1. The two relation/ tables (say R & S) that have the same number of
columns (have the same degree)
2. Each column of the first relation/table must be either the same data
type as the corresponding column of the second relation/table(s).
Relations R & S
R S
Eno Name Eno Name
1 Jyothi 3 Girija
2 Ganga 4 Ankitha
3 Girija 5 Tanvi
4 Ankitha 6 Manvi
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Intersection ():
The intersection operation selects the common tuples from the two relations.
The result of the operation RS is
RS
Eno Name
3 Girija
4 Ankitha
Union ( ):
The result of this operation denoted by RS, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R or in S or in both. Duplicate tuples will not appear
in the output.
RS
Eno Name
1 Jyothi
2 Ganga
3 Girija
4 Ankitha
5 Tanvi
6 Manvi
Difference ( ):
The result of the difference consists of all tuples in R but not in S
R S
Eno Name
1 Jyothi
2 Ganga
Cartesian products (X):
The Cartesian product or cross-product is a binary operation that is used to
combine two relations. Assuming R & S as relations with n and m attributes
respectively, the Cartesian products R x S can be written as,
R (A
1
, A
2
..A
n
) x S (B
1
, B
2
.B
n
)
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The result of the above set operation is
Q (A
1
, A
2
..A
n
, B
1
, B
2
.B
n
)
Total number of columns in Q: degree (Q) = n + m
Total number of tuples in Q: count (Q) = Number of tuples in R* Number of
tuples in S
R S
Dno Name Pno P name
1 E & C 10 Networking
2 Computer Science 11 Payroll
3 HRD
Cartesian product of R and S can be written as,
RS R x S
R S
Dno Name Pno P name
1 E & C 10 Networking
1 E & C 11 Payroll
2 Computer Science 10 Net working
2 Computer Science 11 Payroll
3 HRD 10 Networking
3 HRD 11 Payroll
The relation R has 2 columns and 3 tuples. The relation S has 2 columns
and 3 tuples. So the Cartesian product has 4 columns (2+2) and 6 tuples
(3 x 2).
The Cartesian product operation applied by itself is generally meaningless.
It is useful only when followed by selection and projection operations.
Renaming (rho):
This operation is used to rename the relations or attributes. The symbol
(rho) is used to denote the rename operator. In some situations, it is better
to break down a complex query into two or more simple querys. We must
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rename the relations that hold the intermediate result relations. It improves
the readability and facilitates better understanding.
The syntax is as follows.
Rename <OLD TABLE> to <NEW TABLE>
1. s(new attribute names)(R) It renames both the relations and its
attributes.
2. s It renames the relation only.
3. (new attribute names)(R) It renames only the attributes.
Here S is new relation and R is original relation.
Ex 1:
E
(Employee)
Renames relation employee into relation E.
Ex.2: To retrieve the employee number and name, who are earning more
than 5000 Rs.
tebim ebane (oSal > 5000
(employee)
We can split into two operation.
Esal o sal>5000(employee)
RESULT t eno,ename
(Esal)
Here intermediate result stored in Esal.
6.4.4 The Join Operation
Join (): The capability of retrieving data from multiple tables using a single
SQL statement is one of the most powerful and useful features of RDBMS.
It is the availability of join operation. We know that one table may not give
all the information about a particular entity.
The join operation, denoted by is used to combine two relations to retrieve
useful information. A join operation matches data from two or more tables;
based on the values of one or more columns in each table, it allows us to
process more than one table at a time.
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For e.g.: The employee table gives only the department id's, if we want to
know the department name, then we have to get the information by joining
employee table and dept. table.
In join, only combinations of tuples satisfying the join condition appear in the
result.
The general form of a Join operation is
R<join condition>S
For example by joining employee and department relations, we can get the
name of the department in which the employee is working (department
name exists in department table).
Select emp_no,ename,dept.dname from emp.dept
Where emp.deptno = dept.dept_no and
emp_no = &emp_no.
Emp_dept<--employee e.deptno=d.deptnoDEPT
Result<-IIemp.enam,dname)emp_dept)
The first operation in the join operation will combine the tuples of the
employee and department relations on the basis of the dept no.to form a
relation called emp_dept. Then the PROJECT operation will create a
relation RESULT with the attributes eno. Ename, and dname. To perform
join between two relations, there should be a common field between them.
Theta Join: A join condition is of the form
<condition>and<condition>and<condition>
where each condition is of the form Ai 0 Bj (dept.deptno = emp.dept_no). Ai
is an attribute of R and Bj is an attribute of S. Ai and Bj have the same
domain (same values) and 0 is one of the comparison operators
(=,<,<=,>,>=,!=). A join operation with such a general join condition is called
a "Theta join".
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Equi Join: While joining if the comparison operator is = then it is equijoin.
Eg. Select emp_no.ename.dept.dname from emp.dept.
Where emp.deptno = dept.dept_no.
Natural Join: It is denoted by symbol. The standard definition of
natural join requires that the join attributes have the same name in both
relations. In general, natural join is performed by equating all attribute pairs
that have the same name in the two relations. The general format is:
Q R <list I> <list2> S
Here list l specifies list of attributes from R and list2 specifies a list of
attributes from S.
Department
DNumber DName
1 Admin
2 Research
3 Accounts
Project
Pnumber Pname DNum
10 Library Management 2
20 ERP 1
30 Hospital Management 3
40 Wireless Network 2
Project Dept.
Pnumber PName DNum Dname
10 Library Management 2 Research
20 ERP 1 Admin
30 Hospital Management 3 Accounts
40 Wireless Network 2 research
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Here, the joining is done over the attribute DNumber of Department relation
and DNum of Project relation. In fact, DNum of Project is a foreign key
which references DNumber of Department. Generally, in a natural join, the
joining attribute is implicitly considered. Suppose the two relations have no
attribute(s) in common, R S is simply the cross product of these two
relation. Joining can be done between any set of attributes and need not be
always with respect to the primary key and foreign key combinations.
The expected size of the join result divided by maximum size i.e. n
R
n
S
leads to a relation called join selectively.
Outer join:
It returns both matching and non matching rows. It differs from the inner join,
in that the rows in one table having no matching rows in the other table will
also appear in the results table, with nulls in the other attribute position,
instead of being ignored as in the case with the inner join. It outputs rows
even if they do not satisfy the join condition; the outer join operator is used
with the table having n matching rows.
Worker Worker Skill
Name Age Addr Name Skill
Adah 23 - Adah work
Andrew 29 - Jones Smithy
Barath 22 - Elbert Discuss
Jone 19 - Helen Driver
Donald 23 - Wilfred Fitter
Elbert 26 - Marg Smithy
George 28 - Rita Fitting
Helen 15 -
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Result
Name Age Addr
Adah 23 Work
Andrew 29
Barath 22
Jone 18 Smithy
Donald 16
Elbert 43 Discuss
George 41
Helen 27 Driver
In the above example even though there is no matching row with B name,
all workers are listed along with age and skill. If there is no match, simply
get an empty skill column. The outer join can be used when we want to
keep all the tuples in R or in S; those in both relations, whether or not they
have matching tuples in the other relation.
Left outer join: It is denoted by . The left outer join operation keeps
every tuple in the first or left relation R in relation R S. If no matching
tuple is found in S in the join, result is filled with null values.
Right outer join: It is denoted by , and keeps every tuple in the
second or right relation S in the result of R
Full outer join: It is denoted by and keeps all tuples in both the left and
right relations and when no matching tuples are found, filled with null values
as needed.
Division
A division operation (denoted by ) is useful for a special kind of query;
occasionally it maybe used to solve certain kind of problems.
Consider the relations P (P) and Q (Q) as shown in the figure. The result of
dividing P by Q is the relation R and it has two tuples. For each tuple in R,
Ex.
Select A.name, age, skill from
worker A, work skill B where
A.name = N.name
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its product with the tuples of Q must be in P. In our example (a
1
, b
1
) must
both be tuples in P: the same is true for (a
5
, b
1
) and (a
5
, b
2
)
Examples of the division operations R = P + Q:
P(P) Q(Q) R(R) result
A B B A
a
1
b
1
b
1
a
1
a
1
b
2
b
2
a
5
a
2
b
1
a
3
b
1
a
4
b
2
a
5
b
1
a
5
b
2
For e.g.: To retrieve the names of employees who work on all the projects
that 'John Smith' works on.
1. Retrieve the list of project numbers that John Smith works on the
intermediate relation SMITH_PNOS:
SMITH < - oNAME =johnsmith (EMPLOYEE)
SMITH_PNOS <- tPNO(WORKS_ON_ESSN=SSN SMITH)
2. create a relation that includes a tuple < PNO,ESSN> whenever the
employee whose social security number is ESSN works on the project
whose number is PNO in the intermediate relation SSN_PNOS.
SSN_PNOS < ESSN.PNO(WORKS_ON)
3. Apply the DIVISION operation to the two relations which gives the
desired employees social security numbers.
SSNS(SSN) <-SSN_PNOS SMITH_NOS
RESULT <- tNAME (SSNA*EMPLOYEE)
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TABLES
SSB_PNOS SSN PNO SMITH_PNOS PNO
123 1 1
123 2 2
666 3
453 1
453 2
353 2 SSNS SSN
333 2 123
333 3 453
Notice here that 123,453 appear in SSN_PNOS in combination with all two
tuples in SMITH_PNOS; that is why they appear in the resulting relation
SSNS.
Grouping and Aggregate functions:
It is often required in data base applications to find an aggregate value over
some column (to find summation). For example, we may wish to find the
sum of salary drawn by all the employees, or to find the total number of
employees working in a department etc. for which aggregate function can be
used.
It is also useful in grouping the tuples in a relation by the value of some of
their attributes, and then applying an aggregate function independently to
each group.
Commonly used aggregate functions are sum, average, count, maximum
and minimum. For example: Group employee tuples by dno, so that each
group includes the tuples for employees working in the same department;
after that we can apply aggregate function to find the average salary of
employees within the department.
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Aggregate function is denoted by (read as calligraphic G)
The general format is:
<grouping attributes> <function list> (R)
Here grouping attributes is a list of attributes of the relation R, and function
list is a list of aggregate functions like SUM.AVERAGE, MIN. MAX, COUNT,
and attributes are column names.
The steps involved in the evaluation of this are:
1. Partition the relation into groups.
2. Apply aggregate function to each group, output group and aggregate
values, one tuple per group.
E.g.: To retrieve each department number, the number of employees
working in the department and their average salary.
DNUM COUNT empno AVG salary (EMPLOYEE)
Resulting relation has the grouping attributes in addition to one attribute for
each element in the function list.
Self Assessment Question(s) (SAQs) (For section 6.4)
1. Explain the concept of select operations.
2. Define and explain Project operation.
3. Write a note on all set theoretic operations.
4. Explain the concept of Join operation.
6.5 Summary
In this unit we have learnt the following
o Relational Database Concepts
o Relational model constraints
o Update Operation on Relations
o The Relational Algebra:
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o The Select Operation
o Project operation:
o Set Theoretic operations
o The Join Operation
6.6 Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. Explain the following terms:
a) Domain
b) Attribute
c) Tuple
d) Degree of relation
e) Relation data base scheme
f) Relation data base state
2. Discuss the Update Operation on Relations.
3. Discuss the relational algebraic operations.
4. Explain the operations: (a) Union (b) Intersection (c) Difference
6.7 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. For each attribute there is a set of permitted values called the .. of
those attributes.
(a) Domain
(b) Design
(c) Database
(d) None of the above
2. . specify that the value of each attribute A must be an atomic value
from the domain dom(A) for that attribute. It also specifies that integer
type hold only integer values but not float values.
(a) Domain constraints
(b) Key constraints
(c) Entity integrity constraints
(d) None of the above
Database Management Systems Unit 6
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3. All tuples in a relation must also be distinct in a Relationship set
(a) Domain constraints
(b) Key constraints
(c) Entity integrity constraints
(d) None of the above
4. . selects required rows from the table
(a) select
(b) product
(c) union
(d) None of the above
6.8 Answers to SAQs, TQs, and MCQs
6.8.1 Answers to Self Assessment Questions (SAQs)
For Section 6.1
1. The relational model represents the database as a collection of relations
having a set of rows and columns. (Refer section 6.1)
For Section 6.2
1. Relational model constraints
These include
Domain constraints
Key constraints
Entity integrity constraints
Referential integrity constraints
Data dependencies [functional and multi valued dependencies]
(Refer section 6.2)
2. Key constraints:
A relation is defined as a set of tuples.
Database Management Systems Unit 6
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 118
All tuples in a relation must also be distinct. This means that no 2
tuples can have the same value [maintains uniqueness]. Tl[sk]
!=2[sk], here sk is a super key.
In any schema there will be a super key [pk], to distinguish tuples.
Every relation can have at least 1 super key.
In general, a relation schema may have more than one key. In this
case each of these keys is called a candidate key.
(Refer section 6.2)
For Section 6.3
1. Insert, Delete and Modify (Refer section 6.3)
For Section 6.4
1. The Select Operation
It selects required rows from the table. This operation is used to select
the subset of the tuples from a relation that satisfy a selection condition
or search criteria. (Refer section 6.4.1)
2. Project operation:
Projection operation is used to select only a few columns from a table.
The mathematical symbol is t<ATTRIBUTE LIST>(<relation>)
(Refer section 6.4.2)
3. Set theoretic operations:
These are used to merge the elements of two sets in various ways,
including union, intersection and difference; three of these operations
require the table to be union compatible. (Refer section 6.4.3)
4. Join (): the capability of retrieving data from multiple tables using a
single SQL (Refer section 6.4.4)
Database Management Systems Unit 6
Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 119
6.8.2 Answers to Terminal Questions (TQs)
1. A domain D is a set of atomic values. For each attribute there is a set of
permitted values called the domain of those attributes.
(Refer section 6.1)
2. Insert: Insert is used to insert a new tuple or tuples in a relation. Insert
can violate any of the 4 types of constraints. (Refer section 6.3)
3. The relational algebra operations are divided into two groups.
Set operations like union, intersection, difference, and Cartesian
product.
Developed specifically for the relational databases, they are select,
project, and join. (Refer section 6.4)
4. The intersection operation selects the common tuples from the two
relations. (Refer section 6.4.3)
6.8.3 Answers to Multiple Choice Question(s) MCQs)
1. A
2. A
3. B
4. A