Chapter 5:

Relational Algebra
1 Jan - 2014
Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
2
Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
3
4
Relational Algebra Overview
Relational algebra is the basic set of operations
for the relational model.
These operations enable a user to specify basic
retrieval requests (or queries).
The result of an operation is a new relation,
which may have been formed from one or more
input relations.
This property makes the algebra closed (all objects
in relational algebra are relations).
A sequence of relational algebra operations
forms a relational algebra expression.

Unary Relational Operations:
SELECT (symbol: (sigma))
PROJ ECT (symbol: (pi))
RENAME (symbol: (rho))
Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory:
UNION (), INTERSECTION (), DIFFERENCE (or
MINUS, )
CARTESIAN PRODUCT ( x )
Binary Relational Operations:
J OIN (several variations of J OIN exist)
DIVISION
Additional Relational Operations:
OUTER J OINS, OUTER UNION
AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS (SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN,
MAX)
5
Relational Algebra Overview
6
COMPANY Database Schema
7
The following query results refer to this database state
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The following query results refer to this database state
The SELECT operation (denoted by
(sigma)) is used to select a subset of the
tuples from a relation based on a selection
condition.
Examples:
Select the EMPLOYEE tuples whose department
number is 4:

DNO = 4
(EMPLOYEE)
Select the employee tuples whose salary is greater
than $30,000:

SALARY > 30,000
(EMPLOYEE)
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Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
In general, the select operation is denoted by

<selection condition>
(R) where
(sigma) is used to denote the select operator.
<selection condition> is a Boolean expression
specified on the attributes of relation R.
Tuples that make the condition true appear in the
result of the operation, and tuples that make the
condition false are discarded from the result of
the operation.
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Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
11
Unary Relational Operations: SELECT
SELECT Operation Properties
The relation S =
<selection condition>
(R) has the same schema
(same attributes) as R.
SELECT is commutative:

<cond1>
(
<cond2>
(R)) =
<cond2>
(
<cond1>
(R))

Because of commutativity property, a cascade (sequence)
of SELECT operations may be applied in any order:

<cond1>
(
<cond2>
(
<cond3>
(R))
=
<cond2>
(
<cond3>
(
<cond1>
(R)))
=
<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.

Example of SELECT operation
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PROJ ECT Operation is denoted by (pi).
This operation keeps certain columns
(attributes) from a relation and discards the
other columns.
PROJ ECT creates a vertical partitioning: the list of
specified columns (attributes) is kept in each
tuple, the other attributes in each tuple are
discarded.
Example: To list each employees first and
last name and salary, the following is used:

LNAME, FNAME,SALARY
(EMPLOYEE)
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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
The general form of the project operation is:

<attribute list>
(R)

<attribute list> is the desired list of attributes from
relation R

The project operation removes any
duplicate tuples because the result of the
project operation do not allow duplicate
elements.


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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
PROJ ECT Operation Properties
The number of tuples in the result of projection

<list>
(R) is always less than or equal to the
number of tuples in R.
If the list of attributes includes a key of R, then the
number of tuples in the result of PROJ ECT is equal to
the number of tuples in R.
PROJ ECT is not commutative

<list1>
(
<list2>
(R) ) =
<list1>
(R) as long as <list2>
contains the attributes in <list1>
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Unary Relational Operations: PROJECT
Example of PROJECT operation
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Examples of applying SELECT and
PROJECT operations
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.

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Relational Algebra Expressions
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:

FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
(
DNO=5
(EMPLOYEE))

OR We can explicitly show the sequence of operations,
giving a name to each intermediate relation:
DEP5_EMPS
DNO=5
(EMPLOYEE)
RESULT
FNAME, LNAME, SALARY
(DEP5_EMPS)
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Single expression versus sequence of
relational operations
The RENAME operator is denoted by (rho).
In some cases, we may want to rename the
attributes of a relation or the relation name or
both.
Useful when a query requires multiple operations.
Necessary in some cases (see J OIN operation
later).

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Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
The general RENAME operation can be
expressed by any of the following forms:

S (B1, B2, , Bn )
(R) changes both:
the relation name to S, and
the column (attribute) names to B1, B1, ..Bn

S
(R) changes:
the relation name only to S

(B1, B2, , Bn )
(R) changes:
the column (attribute) names only to B1, B1, ..Bn
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Unary Relational Operations:
RENAME
Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
22
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: UNION
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).

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Example of the result of a UNION
operation
Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory
Type Compatibility of operands is required for
the binary set operation UNION , (also for
INTERSECTION , SET DIFFERENCE ).

The resulting relation for R1R2 (also for
R1R2, or R1R2) has the same attribute
names as the first operand relation R1 (by
convention).
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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 the attribute names in R.
The two operand relations R and S must be
type compatible.

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Relational Algebra Operations from
Set Theory: SET DIFFERENCE
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.

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Example to
illustrate the
result of
UNION,
INTERSECT,
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
because both are associative operations:
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
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Some properties of UNION,
INTERSECT, and DIFFERENCE
Relational Algebra Operations from Set
Theory: CARTESIAN PRODUCT
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CARTESIAN (or CROSS) PRODUCT
Operation
Denoted by R(A1, A2, ..., An) x S(B1, B2, ..., Bm)
Result is a relation with degree n + m attributes:
Q(A1, A2, ..., An, B1, B2, ..., Bm), in that order.
Hence, if R has n
R
tuples (denoted as |R| = n
R
),
and S has n
S
tuples, then R x S will have n
R
* n
S

tuples.
The two operands do NOT have to be "type
compatible.

Example of CARTESIAN
PRODUCT operation
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Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
32
Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
J OIN 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

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
J OIN Operation (denoted by )
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.

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Binary Relational Operations: JOIN
Example: Suppose that we want to retrieve the
name of the manager of each department.
To get the managers name, we need to combine each
DEPARTMENT tuple with the EMPLOYEE tuple
whose SSN value matches the MGRSSN value in
the department tuple.
DEPT_MGRDEPARTMENT
MGRSSN=SSN
EMPLOYEE
MGRSSN = SSN is the join condition
Combines each department record with the employee
who manages the department.
The join condition can also be specified as:
DEPARTMENT.MGRSSN= EMPLOYEE.SSN


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COMPANY Database Schema
37
The following query results refer to this database state
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The following query results refer to this database state
DEPT_MGR DEPARTMENT
MGRSSN=SSN
EMPLOYEE

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Example of applying the JOIN
operation
Example of JOIN operation
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Some properties of JOIN
Consider the following J OIN operation:
R(A1, A2, . . ., An) S(B1, B2, . . ., Bm)
R.Ai=S.Bj
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 - r from R and s from S, but only if
they satisfy the join condition r[Ai]=s[Bj].
Hence, if R has n
R
tuples, and S has n
S
tuples, then the
join result will generally have less than n
R
* n
S
tuples.
Only related tuples (based on the join condition) will appear
in the result.
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Some properties of JOIN
The general case of J OIN operation is called
a Theta-join: R
<theta>
S

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)
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A join, where the only comparison operator
used is =, is called an EQUIJ OIN.
In the result of an EQUIJ OIN we always have one
or more pairs of attributes (whose names need
not be identical) that have identical values in
every tuple.
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Binary Relational Operations:
EQUIJOIN
Binary Relational Operations:
NATURAL JOIN Operation
NATURAL J OIN Operation
Another variation of J OIN called NATURAL J OIN, denoted by *,
was created to get rid of the second (superfluous) attribute in an
EQUIJ OIN condition.
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.
If this is not the case, a renaming operation is applied first
Example: Q R(A,B,C,D) * S(C,D,E)
The implicit join condition includes each pair of attributes with the
same name, AND ed together: R.C = S.C AND R.D = S.D
Result keeps only one attribute of each such pair:
Q(A,B,C,D,E)
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Example of NATURAL JOIN
operation
45
*
Example of NATURAL JOIN
operation
46
The set of operations {, , , - , X} is called
a complete set because any other relational
algebra expressions can be expressed by a
combination of these five operations.

For example:
R S = (R S ) ((R S) (S R))
R
<join condition>
S =
<join condition>
(R X S)
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Complete Set of Relational Operations
DIVISION Operation
The division operation is applied to two relations R(Z)
S(X), where Z = X Y (Y is the set of attributes of R
that are not attributes of S).
The result of DIVISION is a relation T(Y) that includes
a tuple t if tuples t
R
appear in R with t
R
[Y] = t, and with
t
R
[X] = t
s
for every tuple t
s
in S, i.e., for a tuple t to
appear in the result T of the DIVISION, the values in t
must appear in R in combination with every tuple in S.
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Binary Relational Operations:
DIVISION
Example of the
DIVISION
operation

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Operations of Relational Algebra
Operations of Relational Algebra
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Notation for Query Trees
Query tree
Represents the input relations of query as leaf
nodes of the tree.
Represents the relational algebra operations as
internal nodes.
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Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
54
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.
Examples of such functions include retrieving the
average or total salary of all employees or the total
number of employee tuples.
Common functions applied to collections of numeric
values include SUM, AVERAGE, MAXIMUM, and
MINIMUM. The COUNT function is used for counting
tuples or values.
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Examples of applying aggregate functions
and grouping


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Use of the Functional operator

MAX Salary
(Employee) retrieves the maximum salary
value from the Employee relation

MIN Salary
(Employee) retrieves the minimum Salary
value from the Employee relation

SUM Salary
(Employee) retrieves the sum of the Salary
from the Employee relation

DNO

COUNT SSN, AVERAGE Salary
(Employee) groups
employees by DNO (department number) and
computes the count of employees and average salary
per department
Note: count just counts the number of rows,
without removing duplicates.
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Additional Relational Operations
Recursive Closure Operations
Another type of operation that, in general, cannot be
specified in the basic original relational algebra is
recursive closure. This operation is applied to a
recursive relationship.
An example of a recursive operation is to retrieve all
SUPERVISEES of an EMPLOYEE e at all levels.
Although it is possible to retrieve employees at each
level and then take their union, we cannot, in general,
specify a query such as retrieve the supervisees of
J ames Borg at all levels without utilizing a looping
mechanism.
The SQL3 standard includes syntax for recursive
closure.
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Additional Relational Operations
The OUTER J OIN Operation
In NATURAL J OIN and EQUIJ OIN, 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.
Outer Union operations: homework !!


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Additional Relational Operations
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.
A similar operation, right outer join, keeps every
tuple in the second or right relation S in the
result of R S.
A third operation, full outer join, denoted by
keeps all tuples in both the left and the right
relations when no matching tuples are found,
padding them with null values as needed.

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Additional Relational Operations
Additional Relational Operations
Example: List all employee names and also
the name of the departments they manage if
they happen to manage a department (if they
do not manage one, we can indicate it with a
NULL value)


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The following query results refer to this database state
Additional Relational Operations



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Example of LEFT OUTER JOIN
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Example of RIGHT OUTER JOIN
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Example of FULL OUTER JOIN
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Contents
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
67
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
A relational calculus expression creates a new relation,
which is specified in terms of variables that range over
rows of the stored database relations (in tuple calculus)
or over columns of the stored relations (in domain
calculus).
In a calculus expression, there is no order of operations
to specify how to retrieve the query resulta calculus
expression specifies only what information the result
should contain. This is the main distinguishing feature
between relational algebra and relational calculus.
Relational calculus is considered to be a nonprocedural
language. This differs from relational algebra, where we
must write a sequence of operations to specify a retrieval
request; hence relational algebra can be considered as a
procedural way of stating a query.
68
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
The tuple relational calculus is based on specifying a number
of tuple variables. Each tuple variable usually ranges over a
particular database relation, meaning that the variable may
take as its value any individual tuple from that relation.
A simple tuple relational calculus query is of the form {t |
COND(t)} where t is a tuple variable and COND (t) is a
conditional expression involving t.
Example: To find the first and last names of all employees whose
salary is above $50,000, we can write the following tuple calculus
expression:
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME | EMPLOYEE(t) AND t.SALARY>50000}

The condition EMPLOYEE(t) specifies that the range relation of
tuple variable t is EMPLOYEE. The first and last name (
FNAME,
LNAME
) of each EMPLOYEE tuple t that satisfies the condition
t.SALARY>50000 (
SALARY >50000
) will be retrieved.
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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
Two special symbols called quantifiers can
appear in formulas; these are the universal
quantifier () and the existential quantifier
().

Informally, a tuple variable t is bound if it is
quantified, meaning that it appears in an ( t)
or ( t) clause; otherwise, it is free.
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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
Example 1: retrieve the name and address of
all employees who work for the Research
department.
{t.FNAME, t.LNAME, t.ADDRESS | EMPLOYEE(t) and
( d) (DEPARTMENT(d) and d.DNAME=Research
and d.DNUMBER=t.DNO) }
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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
Example 2: find the names of employees
who work on all the projects controlled by
department number 5.
{e.LNAME, e.FNAME | EMPLOYEE(e) and (( x)
(not(PROJECT(x)) or not(x.DNUM=5)
OR (( w)(WORKS_ON(w) and w.ESSN=e.SSN and
x.PNUMBER=w.PNO))))}

Details: [1] Chapter 6
72
Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
Another variation of relational calculus called the domain
relational calculus, or simply, domain calculus is equivalent
to tuple calculus and to relational algebra.
QBE (Query-By-Example): see Appendix D
Domain calculus differs from tuple calculus in the type of
variables used in formulas: rather than having variables range
over tuples, the variables range over single values from
domains of attributes. To form a relation of degree n for a
query result, we must have n of these domain variables -
one for each attribute.
An expression of the domain calculus is of the form
{x1, x2, . . ., xn | COND(x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . .,
xn+m)}, where:
x1, x2, . . ., xn, xn+1, xn+2, . . ., xn+m are domain variables that range
over domains (of attributes)
COND is a condition or formula of the domain relational calculus.
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Brief Introduction to Relational
Calculus
Example: Retrieve the birthdate and address
of the employee whose name is J ohn B.
Smith.

{uv | ( q) ( r) ( s) ( t) ( w) ( x) ( y) ( z)
(EMPLOYEE(qrstuvwxyz) and q=John and r=B and
s=Smith)}

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Summary
1 Unary Relational Operations
2 Relational Algebra Operations from Set Theory
3 Binary Relational Operations
4 Additional Relational Operations
5 Brief Introduction to Relational Calculus
75
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Exercise 1
Using relational algebra: retrieve the name
and address of all employees who work for
the Research department
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Exercise 2
Using relational algebra: For every project
located in Stafford, list the project number,
the controlling department number, and the
department managers last name, address,
and birthdate.

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Exercise 3
Using relational algebra: Find the names of
employees who work on all the projects
controlled by department number 5.
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Exercise 4
Using relational algebra: List the names of all
employees with two or more dependents.
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Exercise 5
Using relational algebra: Retrieve the names of
employees who have no dependents.
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Review questions
1) List the operations of relational algebra and the
purpose of each.
2) What is union compatibility? Why do the UNION,
INTERSECTION, and DIFFERENCE operations
require that the relations on which they are applied
be union compatible?
3) How are the OUTER J OIN operations different
from the INNER J OIN operations? How is the
OUTER UNION operation different from UNION?
4) In what sense does relational calculus differ from
relational algebra, and in what sense are they
similar?
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