Ch01 Relational Algebra

Query Languages
● Query language is a language in which user requests information from the database.
● Categories of languages
● Procedural
● Non-procedural, or declarative
● “Pure” languages(Procedural Languages):
● Relational algebra
● Tuple relational calculus
● Domain relational calculus
● Pure languages form underlying basis of query languages that people use.
 Relational Algebra
● Procedural language
● Six basic operators
● select: σ
● project: ∏
● union: ∪
● set difference: –
● Cartesian product: x
● rename: ρ
● The operators take one or two relations as inputs and produce a new
relation as a result.
 Relational Algebra Example
● Consider Player Relation

Player_id Team_id Country Name Age Runs Wickets

1001 101 India ABC 25 300 40

1002 102 Pak Riyaz 30 500 10

1003 101 India ABZ 23 500 1

1004 103 Aus Garry 34 800 0

 Select σ
● It will Works on a single relation R and defines a relation that contains only those tuples (rows)
of R that satisfy the specified condition (predicate). It selects all the columns from the relation.
It includes the duplicate values also. We can combine the conditions by ^ (and) ˬ(or). We can
use the conditions such as >,<,=,!=,>=,<= <> etc.
● Syntax: σ column_name condition if any (relation name)
● e.g.
● List all staff with a salary greater than £10,000.
● σ salary > 10000 (Staff)
● E.g. From Player Relation Find all tuples for which country is India
● σ Country = “India” (Player)
● E.g. From Player Relation Find all tuples for which country is India and runs score >=500
● σ Country = “India” ^ runs>=500 (Player)
 Select Operation
● Notation: σ p(r)
● p is called the selection predicate
● Defined as:

σp(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:

σ branch_name=“Perryridge”(account)
 Select Operation – Example
● Relation r
A B C D

α α 1 7
α β 5 7
β β 12 3
β β 23 10

◼ σA=B ^ D > 5 (r)

A B C D

α α 1 7
β β 23 10
 Project π
● Project /Projection (π):It is used to project the distinct values from the relations. It can project the
mentioned attributes. It will project all the attributes from the relation. It will removes the duplicate values.
It reduces the arity of the relation.

● Syntax: π column_name (relation_name) e.g.

● e.g. List all the countries in player relation
● π county(Player)
● e.g. List all the teamid,countries in player relation
● π team_id,county(Player)
● Compatible Relation: Two relations R & S are said to be compatible relations if they satisfy following two
conditions:
● The relations R & S are of same arity. i.e. the no. of attributes are same.
● The domain of ith attribute of R and ith attribute of S must be same for all i
 Project Operation – Example
● Relation r: A B C

α 10 1
α 20 1
β 30 1
β 40 2

∏A,C (r) A C A C

α 1 α 1
α 1 = β 1
β 1 β 2
β 2
 Project Operation
● Notation:

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
● Example: To eliminate the branch_name attribute of account

∏account_number, balance (account)

 Union Operation – Example
● Relations r, s: A B A B

α 1 α 2
α 2 β 3
β 1
s
r

A B

● r ∪ s: α 1
α 2
β 1
β 3
 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 (example: 2nd column
of r deals with the same type of values as does the 2nd
column of s)
● Example: to find all customers with either an account or a loan
∏customer_name (depositor) ∪ ∏customer_name (borrower)
● Union Operation(U) :If R & S are compatible relations, then union of R & S is the set theoretic
union of R & S. The resultant relation P=R U S has tuples drawn from R & S such that, a tuple
in P is either in R or S or in both of them. Union eliminates the all the duplicates. Union
operation does not change the arity of resultant relation but change the cardinality

Depositor   Borrower
Acc_No Name   Loan_No Name
A-231 Rahul   P-3261 Sachin
A-432 Omkar   Q-6934 Raj
R-321 Sachin   S-4321 Ramesh
S-231 Raj   T-6281 Anil
T-239 Sumit      

Name
Find the name of customer having an account/loan Rahul
Omkar
Raj
π name(Depositor) U π Name(Borrower) Sumit
Sachin
Ramesh
Anil
 Set Difference Operation – Example
● Relations r, s:
A B A B

α 1 α 2
α 2 β 3
β 1
s
r

● r – s:
A B

α 1
β 1
 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
● Set Difference Operation(-) : The difference operations removes common tuples from the first relation. It
is denoted by (-). The expression R-S results in a relation containing those tuples in R but not is S. For set
difference operation relations must be compatible. Set difference operation does not change the arity of
resultant relation but change the cardinality.
P
R   S P=R-S
Id Name   ID Name Id Name
1 Raj   1 Raj 2 Rahul
2 Rahul   4 Anil
3 Sachin   6 Kapil 3 Sachin
4 Anil   7 Sumit 5 Prasad
5 Prasad      

From Depositor and Borrower relation find the name Name

π name(Depositor) - π Name(Borrower) Rahul
of customers having an account but not loan Omkar
Sumit

From Depositor and Borrower relation find π name(Borrower) - π Name(Depositor) Name

Ramesh
the name of customers having an loan but Anil
not account
 Cartesian-Product Operation – Example
● Relations r, s:
A B C D E

α 1 α 10 a
β 10 a
β 2
β 20 b
r γ 10 b
s
● r x s:
A B C D E
α 1 α 10 a
α 1 β 10 a
α 1 β 20 b
α 1 γ 10 b
β 2 α 10 a
β 2 β 10 a
β 2 β 20 b
β 2 γ 10 b
 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.
● Cartesian Product Operations: Cartesian product of two relations is the concatenation of tuples belonging to
the two relations. It is denoted by X. If R & S are two relations then P=R X S, which contains all possible
combinations of tuples in R & S. For Cartesian product does not required compatible relations.
Employee   Project
Emp_id Name   Project_Id
R= Employee x Project
101 Sachin   DBMS1
103 Rahul   DBMS2
104 Omkar  

Emp_ID Name Project_ID

101 Sachin DBMS1
101 Sachin DBMS2
103 Rahul DBMS1
103 Rahul DBMS2
104 Omkar DBMS1
104 Omkar DBMS2

Rename Operation : used to rename. It is denoted as ρ (rho).

Syntax : ρ( (Existing Relation Name)
New Relationname)
● Set Intersection Operation (∩) : It selects common tuples from two relations. The relations
must be compatible. It does not change the arity of the resultant relations but it may change
the cardinality. The result can be obtained as R ∩ S =R-(R-S)
● Division Operation(÷) : Let R and S be relations and let S ⊆ R. i.e. any attribute of S is also in
R. The relation R ÷ S is a relation on R-S i.e. on the schema containing all the attributes of
schema R that are not in schema S.
● Assignment Operation(🡨) : It works similar to assignment in a programming language.
● e.g. R1🡨 π name(Borrower)
● R2🡨 π name(Depositor)
● R🡨 R1-R2
 Set-Intersection Operation – Example

● Relation r, s:
A B A B
α 1 α 2
α 2 β 3
β 1

r s

● r∩s

A B

α 2
 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:
ρ x (E)

returns the expression E under the name X

● If a relational-algebra expression E has arity n, then

returns the result of expression E under the name X, and with the
attributes renamed to A1 , A2 , …., An .
● The Natural join it is a binary operation and a combination of certain selections and a
Cartesian product into one operation. It is denoted as It is associative. It forms a
Cartesian product of its two arguments. Then performs a selection forcing equality on those
attributes those appear in both the relations. And finally removes duplicates attributes.
Employee Salary
ID Name ID Salary
101 Sachin 101 65000
103 Rahul 103 35000
104 Kapil 104 22000
107 Ajay 107 21910

ID Name Salary
101 Sachin 65000
103 Rahul 35000
104 Kapil 22000
107 Ajay 21910
 Composition of Operations
● Can build expressions using multiple operations
● Example: σA=C(r x s)
● rxs
A B C D E
α 1 α 10 a
α 1 β 10 a
α 1 β 20 b
α 1 γ 10 b
β 2 α 10 a
β 2 β 10 a
β 2 β 20 b
β 2 γ 10 b
● σA=C(r x s)

A B C D E
α 1 α 10 a
β 2 β 10 a
β 2 β 20 b
 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 E1 and E2 be relational-algebra expressions; the following are all relational-algebra expressions:

● E ∪E
1 2
● E1 – E2

● E1 x E2

● σp (E1), P is a predicate on attributes in E1

● ∏s(E1), S is a list consisting of some of the attributes in E1

● ρ x (E1), x is the new name for the result of E1

 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
 Division Operation – Example
● Relations r, s:
A B
B
α 1
α 2 1
α 3
β 1 2
γ 1
δ 1
δ 3
δ 4
s
∈ 6
∈ 1
β 2
● r ÷ s: A r
α
β
 Another Division Example
● Relations r, s:
A B C D E D E

α a α a 1 a 1
α a γ a 1 b 1
α a γ b 1 s
β a γ a 1
β a γ b 3
γ a γ a 1
γ a γ b 1
γ a β b 1
r
● r ÷ s:
A B C

α a γ
γ a γ
 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.

 Assignment Operation
● The assignment operation (←) provides a convenient way to express complex queries.
● Write query as a sequential program consisting of
4 a series of assignments
4 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.
 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)
 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 t from r and t from s.

r 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

4 t has the same value as t on r

r
4 t has the same value as t on s
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 (σr.B = s.B ∧ r.D = s.D (r x s))
 Natural Join Operation – Example
● Relations r, s:

A B C D B D E

α 1 α a 1 a α
β 2 γ a 3 a β
γ 4 β b 1 a γ
α 1 γ a 2 b δ
δ 2 β b 3 b ∈
r s

● r s
A B C D E
α 1 α a α
α 1 α a γ
α 1 γ a α
α 1 γ a γ
δ 2 β b δ
 Division Operation
r
● Notation: ÷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 ) }
Where tu means the concatenation of tuples t and u to
produce a single tuple
 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)

 Example Queries
● Find all loans of over $1200

σamount > 1200 (loan)

● Find the loan number for each loan of an amount greater than
$1200

∏loan_number (σamount > 1200 (loan))

● Find the names of all customers who have a loan, an account, or

both, from the bank

∏customer_name (borrower) ∪ ∏customer_name (depositor)

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

∏customer_name (σbranch_name=“Perryridge”
(σborrower.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.
∏ (σ
customer_name branch_name = “Perryridge”

(σ (borrower x loan))) –
borrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number
∏ (depositor)
customer_name
 Example Queries
● Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the Perryridge branch.

● Query 1
∏customer_name (σbranch_name = “Perryridge” (
σborrower.loan_number = loan.loan_number (borrower x loan)))

● Query 2

∏customer_name(σloan.loan_number = borrower.loan_number (
(σbranch_name = “Perryridge” (loan)) x borrower))
 Example Queries
● Find the largest account balance
● Strategy:
4 Find those balances that are not the largest
– Rename account relation as d so that we can compare each
account balance with all others
4 Use set difference to find those account balances that were not found
in the earlier step.
● The query is:

∏balance(account) - ∏account.balance
(σaccount.balance < d.balance (account x ρd (account)))
 Bank Example Queries
● Find the names of all customers who have a loan and an account at
bank.

∏customer_name (borrower) ∩ ∏customer_name (depositor)

● Find the name of all customers who have a loan at the bank and the
loan amount

∏customer_name, loan_number, amount (borrower loan)

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

∏customer_name (σbranch_name = “Downtown” (depositor account )) ∩

∏customer_name (σbranch_name = “Uptown” (depositor account))

● Query 2

∏customer_name, branch_name (depositor account)

÷ ρtemp(branch_name) ({(“Downtown” ), (“Uptown” )})
Note that Query 2 uses a constant relation.
 Bank Example Queries
● Find all customers who have an account at all branches located in
Brooklyn city.

∏customer_name, branch_name (depositor account)

÷ ∏branch_name (σbranch_city = “Brooklyn” (branch))
 Extended Relational-Algebra-Operations
● Generalized Projection
● Aggregate Functions
● Outer Join
 Generalized Projection
● Extends the projection operation by allowing arithmetic functions to be used in the projection list.

● E is any relational-algebra expression

● Each of F1, F2, …, Fn 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)
 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.
4 We shall study precise meaning of comparisons with nulls later
 Outer Join – Example
● Relation loan

loan_number branch_name amount

L-170 Downtown 3000
L-230 Redwood 4000
L-260 Perryridge 1700

● Relation borrower
customer_na
loan_number
me
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155
 Outer Join – Example
● Join

loan borrower

customer_na
loan_number branch_name amount
me
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith

● Left Outer Join

loan borrower
customer_na
loan_number branch_name amount
me
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
 Outer Join – Example
● Right Outer Join
loan borrower

customer_na
loan_number branch_name amount
me
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes
● Full Outer Join
loan borrower
customer_na
loan_number branch_name amount
me
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
L-155 null null Hayes
 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
● 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
 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
● Group By Functions in Relational Algebra :
● Sum: It will take the sum of the attribute.
● e.g. sum salary(employee)
● Average: It will take the avg of the attribute.
● e.g. Avg salary(employee)
● Count : Counts the no. of records
● e.g. Count branch_name( employees)
● Min and Max : min salary(employee), max salary (employee)
 Aggregate Operation – Example
● Relation r:

A B C

α α 7
α β 7
β β 3
β β 10

● g sum(c) (r) sum(c

)
27
 Aggregate Operation – Example
● Relation account grouped by branch-name:

account_numbe
branch_name balance
r
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 sum(balance)
Perryridge 1300
Brighton 1500
Redwood 700
 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)
 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.
 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.
 Deletion Examples
● Delete all account records in the Perryridge branch.

account ← account – σ (account )

branch_name = “Perryridge”

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

loan ← loan – σ (loan)

amount ≥ 0 and amount ≤ 50

● Delete all accounts at branches located in Needham.

r1 ← σ branch_city = “Needham” (account branch )

r2 ← ∏ account_number, branch_name, balance (r1)

r3 ← ∏ customer_name, account_number (r2 depositor)

account ← account – r2
depositor ← depositor – r3
 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.
 Insertion Examples
● Insert information in the database specifying that Smith has $1200 in
account A-973 at the Perryridge branch.

account ← account ∪ {(“A-973”, “Perryridge”,

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
as the account number for the new savings account.

r1 ← (σbranch_name = “Perryridge” (borrower loan))

account ← account ∪ ∏loan_number, branch_name, 200 (r1)
depositor ← depositor ∪ ∏customer_name, loan_number (r1)
 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

● Each Fi is either
● the I th attribute of r, if the I th 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
 Update Examples

● Make interest payments by increasing all balances by 5 percent.

account ← ∏ account_number, branch_name, balance * 1.05 (account)

● Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000 6 percent interest

and pay all others 5 percent

account ← ∏ account_number, branch_name, balance * 1.06 (σ BAL > 10000 (account ))

∪ ∏ account_number, branch_name, balance * 1.05 (σBAL ≤ 10000
(account))
Figure 2.3. The branch relation
Figure 2.6: The loan relation
Figure 2.7: The borrower relation
 Figure 2.9
Result of σbranch_name = “Perryridge” (loan)
 Figure 2.10:
Loan number and the amount of the loan
Figure 2.11: Names of all customers who
have either an account or an loan
 Figure 2.12:
Customers with an account but no loan
Figure 2.13: Result of borrower |X| loan
Figure 2.14
Figure 2.15
Figure 2.16
 Figure 2.17
Largest account balance in the bank
Figure 2.18: Customers who live on the
same street and in the same city as
Smith
Figure 2.19: Customers with both an
account and a loan at the bank
Figure 2.20
Figure 2.21
Figure 2.22
Figure 2.23
Figure 2.24: The credit_info relation
Figure 2.25
Figure 2.26: The pt_works relation
 Figure 2.27
The pt_works relation after regrouping
Figure 2.28
Figure 2.29
 Figure 2.30
The employee and ft_works relations
Figure 2.31
Figure 2.32
Figure 2.33
Figure 2.34