CS 222

Database Management
System
Spring 2010-11

Lecture 3 b
Korra Sathya Babu
Department of Computer Science
NIT Rourkela
03/15/15

Lecture 3

Query Language (QUEL)

QBE is graphical based
QUEL is a relational database access language similar to SQL
It was created as a part of theIngres effort atUniversity of
California, Berkeley, based on Codd's earlier suggested but not
implemented Data Sub-Language ALPHA
QUEL was used for a short time in most products based on the
freely-available Ingres source code, most notablyInformix
QUEL continues to be available as a part of the Ingres DBMS
QUEL is purely based on TRC
It can be embedded with C only

03/15/15

Lecture 3

Example
Sn
o

Sname

22
29

Sid

bid

day

bid

bname

color

22

101

10/10/08

101

Interlake

Blue

22

102

10/10/08

102

Interlake

Red

33.
0

22

103

10/08/08

103

Clipper

Green

22

104

10/07/08

104

Marine

red

Ratin
g

Age

Dustin
e

45.
0

Brutus

31

Lubbe
r

55.
5

31

102

10/10/08

32

Andy

25.
5

31

103

11/06/08

31

104

11/12/08

58

Rusty

10

35.
0

64

101

09/05/08

64

102

09/08/08

74

103

09/08/08

64

Horati
o

35.
0

71 Instance
Zorba of 10

16.
0

74

Sailors

85

Horati
o

35.
0

Art

25.
5

03/15/15

Instance of Boats

Instance of Reserves

Lecture 3

Query Language (QUEL)

Query Language (QUEL)

Has three
clauses

range of
retrieve
where

All queries are

represented with
these clauses

Syntax
range of of t is
R
retrieve t
where Predicate

Similar to (t(R))
Similar to Select Clause in
SQL
Similar to where in
SQL

Relational Operators used in the Predicate are

<,>,,,,=, ,,

Equivalence
{U r | (t )....(t )( R (t ) ... R (t ) U [1] t [ j ] ... U [ r ] t [ j ] Conditon )}
1

i1

ir

The above TRC query can be written in QUEL as

range of t1 is R1
.
.

range of tk is Rk
retrieve (ti1.A1,,tir.Ar)
where (condition)

Statements in QUEL
Retrieve into :

Used to create a newfile and insert tuples

range of t1 is R1
.
.

range of of tk is Rk
retrieve into S (A1=W1,,An=Wn)
where (t1 ,,tn)
The above query creates a newfile and insert tuples into
the file
Retrieve is similar to SELECT operation in Relation Algebra

Statements in QUEL
Delete:

Used to calculate the set difference

range of t is R
delete t
where (t)
Delete from R all tuples where (t)

Statements in QUEL
append to:

to append tuples to existing relation

range of t1 is R1
.
.

range of of tk is Rk
append to S (A1=W1,,An=Wn)
where (t1 ,,tn)
append to is similar to Set Union operation of Relational
Algebra

Completeness of QUEL
Lets evaluate with the Five basic
operations
Suppose R(A1,...,An) and S(B1,...,Bm) are two relations and T is
a new relation name
Union (T=R U S) (assuming m=n)
range of r is R
append to T (C1=r.A1,, Cn=r.An)
range of s is S
append to T (C1=s.A1,, Cn=s.Bn)

Completeness of QUEL
Suppose R(A1,...,An) and S(B1,...,Bm) are two relations and T is
a new relation name
Set Difference(T=R - S) (assuming m=n)
range of r is R
append to T (C1=r.A1,, Cn=r.An)
range of s is S
range of t is T
delete t where s.B1=t. C1 and and s.Bn=t.Cn)

Completeness of QUEL
Suppose R(A1,...,An) and S(B1,...,Bm) are two relations and T is
a new relation name
Cartesian Product (T=R X S)
range of r is R
range of s is S
append to T (C1=r.A1,, Cn=r.An, Cn+1=s.B1 , ,

Cn+m=s.Bm)

Completeness of QUEL
Suppose R(A1,...,An) and S(B1,...,Bm) are two relations and T is
a new relation name
Selection (F(R))
range of r is R
append to T (C1=r.A1,, Cn=r.An) where F

Completeness of QUEL
Suppose R(A1,...,An) and S(B1,...,Bm) are two relations and T is
a new relation name
Projection (i ,... i (R) )
1

range of r is R
append to T (C1=r.A i ,, Ck=r.A i )
1

Example
Find the name and rating of Sailors whose rating is greater
than 7
range of t is Sailors
retrieve into SN (S=s.Name,R=s.Rating)
where rating > 7

Summary
QUEL is purely based on TRC.
It is quite expressive (relationally
complete).
Majority of the DBMS incorporated earlier
with QUEL are replaced by SQL.
Still lives in the open source community.