INT 306

Database Management System

Lecture 9
Relational Algebra Part 3
Example
• Schema Example:
• Sailors(sid : integer, sname : string ,rating : integer, age: real)
• Boats(bid: integer, bname: string, color: string)
• Reserves(sid: integer, bid: integer, day: date)
• Instance s1 of sailors Instance s2 of sailors Instance r1 of reserves
sid sname rating age sid sname rating age sid bid day
22 Lia 8 40 23 Ruby 8 37 22 101 30/07/2018
23 Ruby 8 37 25 Lee 6 35.5 23 104 2/08/2018
24 John 6 34 27 Robin 9 40
29 Jack 7 35.5
Natural Join
• 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))
Example
R S
sid sname rating age sno sname age
22 Lia 8 40 1 Lia 40
23 Ruby 8 37 2 Ruby 37
24 John 6 34 3 John 34
25 Jack 8 45 4 Lee 45
26 Robin 6 35 5 Robin 30
Compute R ⋈ S
sid sname rating age sno
22 Lia 8 40 1
23 Ruby 8 37 2
24 John 6 34 34
Theta Join
• Condition join is also called as Theta join.
• The theta join operation r ⋈ s is defined as
• r ⋈  s =  (r x s)
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.
Example Outer Join
Instance s1 Join s1⋈r1
sid sname rating age sid sname rating age bid day
22 Lia 8 40 22 Lia 8 40 101 30/07/218
23 Ruby 8 37 23 Ruby 8 37 104 2/08/2018
24 John 6 34

Instance r1 Left Outer Join s1 r1

sid bid day sid sname rating age bid day
22 101 30/07/2018 22 Lia 8 40 101 30/07/218
23 104 2/08/2018 23 Ruby 8 37 104 2/08/2018
45 107 3/08/2018 24 John 6 34 null null
34 112 7/08/2018
Example Outer Join
Instance s1 Right Outer Join s1 r1
sid sname rating age sid sname rating age bid day
22 Lia 8 40 22 Lia 8 40 101 30/07/218
23 Ruby 8 37 23 Ruby 8 37 104 2/08/2018
24 John 6 34 45 null null null 107 3/08/2018
34 null null null 112 7/08/2018
Instance r1
sid bid day Full Outer Join s1 r1
22 101 30/07/2018
sid sname rating age bid day
23 104 2/08/2018
22 Lia 8 40 101 30/07/218
45 107 3/08/2018 23 Ruby 8 37 104 2/08/2018
34 112 7/08/2018 24 John 6 34 null null
45 null null null 107 3/08/2018
34 null null null 112 7/08/2018
Division
• What would you do to “find the names of sailors who have reserved
all boats”?
• Instance S3 of Sailors Instance R2 of Reserves Instance B1 of Boats
sid sname rating age sid bid day bid bname color

22 Dustin 7 45.0 22 101 10/10/98 101 Interlake blue

29 Brutus 1 33.0 22 102 10/10/98 102 Interlake red

31 Lubber 8 55.5 22 103 10/8/98 103 Clipper green

32 Andy 8 25.5 22 104 10/7/98 104 Marine red

58 Rusty 10 35.0 31 102 11/10/98

64 Horatio 7 35.0 31 103 11/6/98

71 Zorba 10 16.0 31 104 11/12/98

74 Horatio 9 35.0 64 101 9/5/98

85 Art 3 25.5 64 102 9/8/98

95 Bob 3 63.5 74 103 9/8/98

Division (cont..)
• Let A have 2 fields, x and y; B have only field y:
A/B = { <x> | ꓱ <x,y> ∈ A ꓯ <y> ∈ B}
• Two ways to interpret:
• A/B contains all x tuples such that for every y tuple in B, there is an xy
tuple in A
• If the set of y values associated with an x value in A contains all y
values in B, the x value is in A/ B
Division (cont..)
• Analogy with integer division:
For integers A and B, A/B is the largest integer Q such that
Q*B <= A
For relation instances A and B, A/B is the largest relation
instance Q such that
QxB⊆A
Example of A/B
sno pno pno sno
A s1 p1 B1 p2 A/B1 s1

s1 p2 s2

s1 p3 s3
pno
s1 p4 B2 s4
p2
s2 p1
p4
s2 p2 sno

s3 p2
A/B2 s1

s4 p2 pno s4

s4 p4 B3 p1

p2 sno
A/B3 s1
p4
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 (as in SQL)
• For duplicate elimination and grouping, null is treated like any other
value, and two nulls are assumed to be the same (as in SQL)
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
Extended Relational-Algebra-Operations
• Generalized Projection
• Aggregate Functions
Generalized Projection
• Extends the projection operation by allowing arithmetic functions to be
used in the projection list.
F , F , …, F (E)
1 2 n

• 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 instructor(ID, name, dept_name, salary) where salary is
annual salary, get the same information but with monthly salary
ID, name, dept_name, salary/12 (instructor)
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

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
Aggregate Operation Example
• Find the average salary in each department
dept_name avg(salary) (instructor)