Relational Algebra
Relational Algebra
Chapter Outline
■ Relational Algebra
■ Unary Relational Operations
■ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
■ Binary Relational Operations
■ Additional Relational Operations
■ Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
■ Example Database Application (COMPANY)
Slide 6- 2
Relational Algebra Overview
Slide 6- 3
Relational Algebra Overview (continued)
Slide 6- 4
Relational Algebra Overview
■ Relational Algebra consists of several groups of operations
■ Unary Relational Operations
■ SELECT (symbol: σ (sigma))
■ PROJECT (symbol: π (pi))
■ RENAME (symbol: ρ (rho))
■ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
■ UNION ( ∪ ), INTERSECTION ( ∩ ), DIFFERENCE (or MINUS, – )
■ CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )
■ Binary Relational Operations
■ JOIN (several variations of JOIN exist)
■ DIVISION
■ Additional Relational Operations
■ OUTER JOINS, OUTER UNION
■ AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS
■ for example, SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX
Slide 6- 5
Database State for COMPANY
■ All examples discussed below refer to the COMPANY database
shown here.
Slide 6- 6
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
■ The SELECT operation (denoted by σ (sigma)) is used to select a
subset of the tuples from a relation based on a selection condition.
■ The selection condition acts as a filter
■ Keeps only those tuples that satisfy the qualifying condition
■ Tuples satisfying the condition are selected whereas the
other tuples are discarded
■ Examples:
■ Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department number is 4:
σ DNO = 4 (EMPLOYEE)
■ Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater than $30,000:
σ SALARY > 30,000 (EMPLOYEE)
Slide 6- 7
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
Slide 6- 8
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
(contd.)
■ SELECT Operation Properties
■ The SELECT operation σ <selection condition>(R) produces a relation
S that has the same schema (same attributes) as R
■ SELECT σ is commutative:
■ σ
<condition1>
(σ < condition2> (R)) = σ <condition2> (σ < condition1> (R))
■ Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence) of
SELECT operations may be applied in any order:
■ σ (σ
<cond1> <cond2>
(σ<cond3> (R)) = σ<cond2> (σ<cond3> (σ<cond1> ( R)))
■ A cascade of SELECT operations may be replaced by a single
selection with a conjunction of all the conditions:
■ σ (σ
<cond1> < cond2>
(σ<cond3>(R)) = σ <cond1> AND < cond2> AND < cond3>(R)))
■ The number of tuples in the result of a SELECT is less than
(or equal to) the number of tuples in the input relation R
Slide 6- 9
The following query results refer to this
database state
Slide 6- 10
Example of applying SELECT
σ (Dno = 4 AND Salary > 25000) OR (Dno = 5 AND Salary > 30000)(EMPLOYEE)
Slide 6- 11
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
■ PROJECT Operation is denoted by π (pi)
■ This operation keeps certain columns (attributes) from a
relation and discards the other columns.
■ PROJECT creates a vertical partitioning
Slide 6- 12
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
(cont.)
■ The general form of the project operation is:
π<attribute list>(R)
■ π (pi) is the symbol used to represent the project
operation
■ <attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from
relation R.
■ The project operation removes any duplicate tuples
■ This is because the result of the project operation must
be a set of tuples
■ Mathematical sets do not allow duplicate elements.
Slide 6- 13
Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
(contd.)
Slide 6- 14
Relational Algebra Expressions
■ We may want to apply several relational algebra
operations one after the other
■ Either we can write the operations as a single
relational algebra expression by nesting the
operations, or
■ We can apply one operation at a time and create
intermediate result relations.
■ In the latter case, we must give names to the
relations that hold the intermediate results.
Slide 6- 15
Single expression versus sequence of
relational operations (Example)
■ To retrieve the first name, last name, and salary of all
employees who work in department number 5, we must
apply a select and a project operation
■ We can write a single relational algebra expression as
follows:
■ π
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
(σ DNO=5(EMPLOYEE))
■ OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations,
giving a name to each intermediate relation:
■ DEP5_EMPS ← σ (EMPLOYEE)
DNO=5
■ RESULT ← π (DEP5_EMPS)
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
Slide 6- 16
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME
Slide 6- 17
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME
(contd.)
Slide 6- 18
Unary Relational Operations: RENAME
(contd.)
■ For convenience, we also use a shorthand for renaming
attributes in an intermediate relation:
■ If we write:
• If we write:
• RESULT (First_name, Last_name, Salary) ←
π FNAME, LNAME, SALARY (DEP5_EMPS)
Slide 6- 19
Example of applying multiple operations
and RENAME
σ DNO=5(EMPLOYEE)
Slide 6- 20
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory
■ Type Compatibility of operands is required for the binary
set operation UNION ∪, (also for INTERSECTION ∩, and
SET DIFFERENCE –, see next slides)
■ R1(A1, A2, ..., An) and R2(B1, B2, ..., Bn) are type
compatible if:
■ they have the same number of attributes, and
■ the domains of corresponding attributes are type compatible
(i.e. dom(Ai)=dom(Bi) for i=1, 2, ..., n).
■ The resulting relation for R1∪R2 (also for R1∩R2, or
R1–R2, see next slides) has the same attribute names as
the first operand relation R1 (by convention)
Slide 6- 21
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
■ UNION Operation
■ Binary operation, denoted by ∪
■ The result of R ∪ S, is a relation that includes all
tuples that are either in R or in S or in both R and S
■ Duplicate tuples are eliminated
■ The two operand relations R and S must be “type
compatible” (or UNION compatible)
■ R and S must have same number of attributes
■ Each pair of corresponding attributes must be type
compatible (have same or compatible domains)
Slide 6- 22
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
■ Example:
■ To retrieve the social security numbers of all
employees who either work in department 5 (RESULT1
below) or directly supervise an employee who works in
department 5 (RESULT2 below)
■ UNION Example
Slide 6- 24
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: INTERSECTION
■ INTERSECTION is denoted by ∩
■ The result of the operation R ∩ S, is a relation that
includes all tuples that are in both R and S
■ The attribute names in the result will be the same as
Slide 6- 25
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: SET DIFFERENCE (cont.)
■ SET DIFFERENCE (also called MINUS or EXCEPT) is
denoted by –
■ The result of R – S, is a relation that includes all tuples
that are in R but not in S
■ The attribute names in the result will be the
same as the attribute names in R
■ The two operand relations R and S must be “type
compatible”
Slide 6- 26
Example to illustrate the result of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE
Slide 6- 27
Some properties of UNION, INTERSECT,
and DIFFERENCE
■ Notice that both union and intersection are commutative
operations; that is
■ R ∪ S = S ∪ R, and R ∩ S = S ∩ R
■ Both union and intersection can be treated as n-ary
operations applicable to any number of relations as both
are associative operations; that is
■ R ∪ (S ∪ T) = (R ∪ S) ∪ T
■ (R ∩ S) ∩ T = R ∩ (S ∩ T)
■ The minus operation is not commutative; that is, in
general
■ R–S≠S–R
Slide 6- 28
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
■ CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT Operation
■ This operation is used to combine tuples from two relations
in a combinatorial fashion.
■ Denoted by R(A1, A2, . . ., An) x S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
■ Result is a relation Q with degree n + m attributes:
■ Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order.
■ The resulting relation state has one tuple for each
combination of tuples—one from R and one from S.
■ Hence, if R has nR tuples (denoted as |R| = nR ), and S has
nS tuples, then R x S will have nR * nS tuples.
■ The two operands do NOT have to be "type compatible”
Slide 6- 29
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)
■ Generally, CROSS PRODUCT is not a
meaningful operation
■ Can become meaningful when followed by other
operations
■ Example (not meaningful):
■ FEMALE_EMPS ← σ SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
■ EMPNAMES ← π FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
■ EMP_DEPENDENTS ← EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
■ EMP_DEPENDENTS will contain every combination of
EMPNAMES and DEPENDENT
■ whether or not they are actually related
Slide 6- 30
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT (cont.)
■ To keep only combinations where the DEPENDENT is
related to the EMPLOYEE, we add a SELECT operation
as follows
■ Example (meaningful):
■ FEMALE_EMPS ← σ SEX=’F’(EMPLOYEE)
■ EMPNAMES ← π FNAME, LNAME, SSN (FEMALE_EMPS)
■ EMP_DEPENDENTS ← EMPNAMES x DEPENDENT
■ ACTUAL_DEPS ← σ SSN=ESSN(EMP_DEPENDENTS)
■ RESULT ← π FNAME, LNAME, DEPENDENT_NAME (ACTUAL_DEPS)
■ RESULT will now contain the name of female employees and their
dependents
Slide 6- 31
Example of applying CARTESIAN
PRODUCT
Slide 6- 32
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
■ JOIN Operation (denoted by )
■ The sequence of CARTESIAN PRODECT followed by
SELECT is used quite commonly to identify and select
related tuples from two relations
■ A special operation, called JOIN combines this sequence
into a single operation
■ This operation is very important for any relational database
with more than a single relation, because it allows us
combine related tuples from various relations
■ The general form of a join operation on two relations R(A1,
A2, . . ., An) and S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm) is:
R <join condition>S
■ where R and S can be any relations that result from general
relational algebra expressions.
Slide 6- 33
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN (cont.)
■ Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the name of the
manager of each department.
■ To get the manager’s name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple whose SSN
value matches the MGRSSN value in the department tuple.
■ We do this by using the join operation.
■
Slide 6- 34
Slide 6- 35
Example of applying the JOIN operation
Slide 6- 36
Some properties of JOIN
■ Consider the following JOIN operation:
■
Slide 6- 37
Some properties of JOIN
■ The general case of JOIN operation is called a
Theta-join: R S
theta
■ The join condition is called theta
■ Theta can be any general boolean expression on
the attributes of R and S; for example:
■ R.Ai<S.Bj AND (R.Ak=S.Bl OR R.Ap<S.Bq)
■ Most join conditions involve one or more equality
conditions combined with “AND”; for example:
■ R.Ai=S.Bj AND R.Ak=S.Bl AND R.Ap=S.Bq
Slide 6- 38
Binary Relational Operations: EQUIJOIN
■ EQUIJOIN Operation
■ The most common use of join involves join conditions with
equality comparisons only
■ Such a join, where the only comparison operator used is
=, is called an EQUIJOIN.
■ In the result of an EQUIJOIN we always have one or
more pairs of attributes (whose names need not be
identical) that have identical values in every tuple.
■
Slide 6- 39
Binary Relational Operations:
NATURAL JOIN Operation
■ NATURAL JOIN Operation
■ Another variation of JOIN called NATURAL JOIN — denoted
by * — was created to get rid of the second (superfluous)
attribute in an EQUIJOIN condition.
■ because one of each pair of attributes with identical values is
superfluous
■ The standard definition of natural join requires that the two
join attributes, or each pair of corresponding join attributes,
have the same name in both relations
Slide 6- 40
Binary Relational Operations
NATURAL JOIN (contd.)
■ Example: To apply a natural join on the DNUMBER attributes of
DEPARTMENT and DEPT_LOCATIONS, it is sufficient to write:
■ DEPT_LOCS ← DEPARTMENT * DEPT_LOCATIONS
■ Only attribute with the same name is DNUMBER
■ An implicit join condition is created based on this attribute:
DEPARTMENT.DNUMBER=DEPT_LOCATIONS.DNUMBER
Slide 6- 41
Example of NATURAL JOIN operation
Slide 6- 42
Complete Set of Relational Operations
■ The set of operations including SELECT σ, PROJECT π ,
UNION ∪, DIFFERENCE − , RENAME ρ, and
CARTESIAN PRODUCT X is called a complete set
because any other relational algebra expression can be
expressed by a combination of these five operations.
■ For example:
■ R ∩ S = (R ∪ S ) – ((R − S) ∪ (S − R))
■ R S = σ <join condition> (R X S)
<join condition>
Slide 6- 43
Binary Relational Operations: DIVISION
■ DIVISION Operation
■ The division operation is applied to two relations
■ R(Z) ÷ S(X), where X subset Z. Let Y = Z - X (and hence Z
= X ∪ Y); that is, let Y be the set of attributes of R that are
not attributes of S.
Slide 6- 44
Example of DIVISION
Slide 6- 45
Recap of Relational Algebra Operations
Slide 6- 46
In Class Exercise
Suppliers(sID, sName, address)
Parts(pID, pName, colour)
Catalog(sID, pID, price)
• Find all prices for parts that are red or green. (A part may have different
prices from different manufacturers.)
• Find the sIDs of all suppliers who supply a part that is red or green.
• Find the names of all suppliers who supply a part that is red or green.
Slide 6- 47
Additional Relational Operations:
Aggregate Functions and Grouping
■ A type of request that cannot be expressed in the basic
relational algebra is to specify mathematical aggregate
functions on collections of values from the database.
Slide 6- 48
Aggregate Function Operation
■ Use of the Aggregate Functional operation ℱ
■ ℱMAX Salary (EMPLOYEE)
■ retrieves the maximum salary value from the EMPLOYEE
relation
■ ℱMIN Salary (EMPLOYEE)
■ retrieves the minimum Salary value from the EMPLOYEE
relation
■ ℱSUM Salary (EMPLOYEE)
■ retrieves the sum of the Salary from the EMPLOYEE relation
■ ℱCOUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary (EMPLOYEE)
■ computes the count (number) of employees and their average
salary
■ Note: count just counts the number of rows, without removing
duplicates
Slide 6- 49
Using Grouping with Aggregation
■ The previous examples all summarized one or more attributes for a set of
tuples
■ Maximum Salary or Count (number of) Ssn
■ Example: For each department, retrieve the DNO, COUNT SSN, and
AVERAGE SALARY
Slide 6- 50
Slide 6- 51
Examples of applying aggregate functions
and grouping
Slide 6- 52
Illustrating aggregate functions and
grouping
Q24. For each department, retrieve the department number, the number
of employees in the department, and their average salary.
SELECT Dno, COUNT (*), AVG (Salary)
FROM EMPLOYEE
GROUP BY Dno;
Slide 6- 53
Illustrating aggregate functions and
grouping by two attributes
■ Query 25. For each project, retrieve the project
number, the project name, and the number of
employees who work on that project.
Slide 6- 54
Illustrating aggregate functions and
grouping by two attributes
2 Product Y 3
3 Product Z 2
10 Computerization 3
20 Reorganization 3
30 Newbenefits 3
Slide 6- 55
Illustrating aggregate functions, grouping
and having
■ Query 26. For each project on which more than two employees work,
retrieve the project number, the project name, and the number of
employees who work on the project.
Slide 6- 56
Illustrating aggregate functions,
grouping and having
Slide 6- 57
Illustrating aggregate functions,
grouping and having
Slide 6- 58
Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
■ The OUTER JOIN Operation
■ In NATURAL JOIN and EQUIJOIN, tuples without a
matching (or related) tuple are eliminated from the join
result
■ Tuples with null in the join attributes are also eliminated
■ This amounts to loss of information.
■ A set of operations, called OUTER joins, can be used when
we want to keep all the tuples in R, or all those in S, or all
those in both relations in the result of the join, regardless of
whether or not they have matching tuples in the other
relation.
Slide 6- 59
Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
■ The left outer join operation keeps every tuple in the first
or left relation R in R S; if no matching tuple is found in
S, then the attributes of S in the join result are filled or
“padded” with null values.
Slide 6- 60
Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
■ List of all employee names as well as the name of the
departments they manage, if they do not manage one, we
can indicate it with a NULL value.
■ We can apply an operation LEFT OUTER JOIN to retrieve
the result
TEMP ← (EMPLOYEE Ssn=Mgr_ssn
DEPARTMENT)
RESULT ← πFname, Minit, Lname, Dname(TEMP)
Slide 6- 61
Additional Relational Operations (cont.)
Slide 6- 62
Left Outer Join
Slide 6- 63
Right Outer Join
Slide 6- 64
Full Outer Join
Slide 6- 65
Slide 6- 66
Examples of Queries in Relational
Algebra
■ Q1: Retrieve the name and address of all employees who work for the
‘Research’ department.
ALL_EMPS ← π SSN(EMPLOYEE)
EMPS_WITH_DEPS(SSN) ← π ESSN(DEPENDENT)
EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS ← (ALL_EMPS - EMPS_WITH_DEPS)
RESULT ← π LNAME, FNAME (EMPS_WITHOUT_DEPS * EMPLOYEE)
Slide 6- 67
Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
■ Query 3. Find the names of employees who work on all the projects
controlled by department number 5.
DEPT5_PROJS ← ρ(Pno)(πPnumber(σDnum=5(PROJECT)))
EMP_PROJ ← ρ(Ssn, Pno)(πEssn, Pno(WORKS_ON))
RESULT_EMP_SSNS ← EMP_PROJ ÷ DEPT5_PROJS
RESULT ← πLname, Fname(RESULT_EMP_SSNS * EMPLOYEE)
Slide 6- 68
Slide 6- 69
Chapter Summary
■ Relational Algebra
■ Unary Relational Operations
■ Relational Algebra Operations From Set Theory
■ Binary Relational Operations
■ Additional Relational Operations
■ Examples of Queries in Relational Algebra
Slide 6- 70