Relational Algebra

Dashiell Fryer
 What is Relational Algebra?
 Relational algebra is a procedural query
language.
 It consists of the select, project, union, set
difference, Cartesian product, and rename
operations.
 Set intersection, division, natural join, and
assignment combine the fundamental
operations.
 Select Operation
 Select operation returns a relation that satisfies
the given predicate from the original relation.
 Denoted by lowercase sigma σ.
 Example: σbranch-name = “Perryridge”(loan) from page 89
returns a relation of the tuples from relation loan
whose branch is Perryridge.
 =,≠,≤,≥,<,>, Λ,¬,v are legal in the predicate.
 Project
 Unary operation
 Denoted by uppercase pi Π.
 Returns a relation with only the specified
attributes.
 Example: page 90 Πloan-number, amount (loan) lists
all of the loan numbers and the amounts.
 Composition of Operations
 Results of relational operations are
relations themselves.
 Compositions of operations form a
relational-algebra expression.
 Union
 Denoted, as in set theory, by .
 Binary operation
 Results in a relation with all of the tuples
that appear in either or both of the
argument relations.
 Union (Cont’d)
 Unions must be between compatible
relations
 Both relations must have the same
number of attributes.
 Domains of the ith attribute of the first
and the ith attribute of the second must
be the same for all i.
 Set Difference
 Denoted by -
 Binary operation
 R – S produces all tuples in R but not in S
 Relations must be compatible under the
same conditions as the union operation.
 Cartesian-Product
 Denoted by a cross (×)
 Binary operation
 Combines any two relations
 R × S is the Cartesian-Product of R and S
 Output has the attributes of both relations
 Cartesian-Product (Cont’d)
 Repeated attribute names are preceded by
the relation they originated from.
 Example: page 93 r= borrower × loan
(borrower.customer-name,
borrower.loan-number, loan.loan-number,
loan.branch-name, loan.amount)
 Rename
 Unary operation
 Denoted by lowercase Greek letter rho ρ
 Useful for naming the unnamed relations
returned from other operations.
 Formal Definition
 Relational Algebra acts on either a relation
in the database or a constant relation.
 Suppose E1 and E2 are relational-algebra
expressions
 Formal Definition (Cont’d)
 All relational-algebra expressions are:
E1  E 2
E1 – E 2
E1 × E 2
σP(E1), P is the predicate
ΠS(E1), S is a list of attributes in E1
ρx(E1), x is the new name of E1
 Additional Operations
 The fundamental operations can be
composed to make new, simpler
operations.
 Set-Intersection
 Natural-Join
 Division
 Assignment
 Set-Intersection
 Denoted by the symbol .
 Results in a relation that contains only the
tuples that appear in both relations.
 R  S = R – (R – S)
 Since set-intersection can be written in
terms of set-difference, it is not a
fundamental operation.
 Natural-Join
 Denoted by |x|.
 Binary operation
 Creates a Cartesian-product of the
arguments then performs selection to
force equality on attributes that appear in
both relations
 Division
 Denoted by 
 Binary Operation
 Used in queries that include the phrase
“for all”.
 Division (Cont’d)
 Division is an operation on schema R – S
 A tuple t is in r  s if and only if:
 t is in ΠR – S(r) and
 For every tuple ts in s, there is a tuple tr in
r satisfying both of the following:
a. tr[S] = ts[R]
b. tr[R – S] = t
 Assignment
 Denoted by the  symbol
 Works like assignment operations in
programming languages
 Assignment must always be made to a
temporary relation
 Does not result in display to the user
 Summary
 Relational Algebra defines a set of
operations that operate on relations and
result in new tables.
 Operations can be composed
 Additional operations simplify the algebra
but do not add any additional power.
The End