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Chapter 3

THE RELATIONAL DATABASE MODEL

Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

 Understand the concept of relations as the relational model’s basic component.

 Understand the characteristics of a relational table.
 Know the different data types applicable to the relational database model.
 Know the concept keys in a relational database model and how each keys may differ
from one another.

 THE LOGICAL VIEW OF THE RELATIONAL DATABASE MODEL

The idea of the relational database model is that data in a specific table is directly
associated with all other items in that same table. The logical view of the relational database
model is facilitated by the creation of data relationships based on a logical construct known
as a relation. Because a relation is a mathematical construct, end users find it much easier
to think of a relation as a table.

A table is perceived as a two – dimensional structure composed of rows and columns. A

table is also called a relation because the relational model’s creator, E. F. Codd, used the
term relation as a synonym for table. It was based on the mathematical set theory from
which Codd derived his model. Because the relational model uses attribute values to
establish relationships among tables, many database users incorrectly assume that the term
relation refers to such relationships. Many then incorrectly conclude that only the relational
model permits the use of relationships.

Table 1 shows the characteristics of a table in lieu of the relational database model.

Table 1. Characteristics of Relational Table

Figure 8 shows the illustration a relational table’s characteristics as listed in Table 1.

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Figure 8. Curriculum Table Attribute Values

 THE CONCEPT OF DATA TYPES IN A RELATIONAL DATABASE MODEL

A data type comprises the forms data can take inside the database. There are many
different types of data types, which vary often more in name than anything else with respect
to different to DBMS software.

They can be divided into three separate categories:

 Simple Data Types. This includes basic validation and formatting

requirements placed on to individual values (this will also discussed in details on
Chapter 4). Simple data types may also be sub – categorized into the following:

 Strings. A string is a sequence of one or more characters. Strings can

be fixed – length strings in which it will always store the specified length
declared for that data type. They can be also variable – fixed length
strings in which it allows storage into a data type as the actual length of
string, as long as a maximum limit is not exceeded.

 Numbers. Numeric data types are often the most numerous field data
types in many database tables. Here are some of them:

 Integers
 Fixed – length decimals
 Floating points
 Dates and times

 Complex Data Types. This encompasses object data types. Available object
data types vary for different relational databases. Some relational databases
provide more object – relational attributes and functionality than others. Complex

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data types include any data types breaching the object – relational database
divide including items such as binary objects, reference pointers, collection arrays
and even the capacity to create user – defined types.

 Specialized Data Types. These are present in more advanced relational

databases catering to inherently structured data such as XML documents, spatial
data, multimedia objects and even dynamically definable data types.

 WHAT IS A KEY?

A key consists of one or more attributes that determine other attributes in a relational
table. In relational databases, keys are important because they are used to ensure that each
row in a table is uniquely identifiable. They are also used to establish relationships among
tables and to ensure the integrity of the data. Therefore, a proper understanding of the
concept and use of keys in the relational model is very important.

 WHAT ARE THE TYPE OF KEYS COMMONLY USED IN A RELATIONAL

DATABASE?

The following keys are often found on relational tables in which they play important roles
to the functionality on the whole relational database:

 Primary Key. It is used to uniquely identify a record in a table. Unique

identification for each record is critical because there is no other way to find a
record without the possibility of finding more than one record, if the said unique
identifier is not used. A primary key can be also used to define relationships
between tables.

 Candidate Keys. Sometimes called as a unique key, it is created on a field

containing only unique values throughout the entire table similar to a primary key.
However, candidate keys are not used to define relationships between tables
compare to primary keys. They only ensure uniqueness across a table.

 Foreign Keys. They are copies of primary keys created into child tables to
form the opposite side of the link in an inter – table relationship in which it
establishes a “relational database relation”. A foreign key defines the reference
for each record in the child table, referencing back to the primary key in the
parent table.

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Figure 9. Illustration on the Use of Primary and Foreign Keys

 WHAT IS DATA INTEGRITY?

In a relational database, data integrity refers to a condition in which the data in the
database is in compliance with all entity and referential integrity constraints. The integrity of
data is the validity of data, wherein possible compromises to data integrity include human
error at data entry, network transmission errors, software bugs and virus infections,
hardware malfunction, disk errors, and natural disasters.

To counter these compromises to data integrity, the most significant prevention

mechanisms are regular database backups, computer security in all forms, and a properly
designed interfaces restricting how data is entered by data users.

 INTEGRITY RULES

Relational database integrity rules are very important to good database design. Many
(but by no means all) RDBMSs enforce integrity rules automatically. However, it is much
safer to make sure that your application design conforms to the entity and referential integrity
rules as shown in Table 2.

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Table 2. Entity and Referential Integrity Rules

From Figure 8, the following features can be established based from the entity and
referential integrity rules from Table 2:

 In terms of entity integrity, the Curriculum table’s primary key is SUBJ_ENT_ID.

Notice that the Curriculum table’s primary key column has no null entries and all
entries are all unique. Similarly, the Subject_Offering table’s primary key is
SUBJ_CODE, and its column is all free of null entries.

 In terms of referential integrity, the Curriculum table contains a foreign key,

SUBJ_CODE that links entries in the Curriculum table to the Subject_Offering
table.

Basically, primary and foreign keys automatically verify against each other. Primary
and foreign key references are the connections establishing and enforcing referential
integrity between tables.

On the other hand, a table’s primary key should never have null values or duplicate
entries. That is because each row in the table should have a unique identity that will be
based from the table’s primary key.

 RELATIONAL SET OPERATORS

The data in relational tables are of limited value unless the data can be manipulated to
generate useful information. Relational algebra defines the theoretical way of manipulating
table contents using the following relational operators that are typically implemented using
the Structured Query Language:

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 SELECT – also known as RESTRICT, it yields values for all rows found in a table
that satisfy a given condition. SELECT can be used to list all of the row values, or
it can yield only those row values that match a specified criterion. In other words,
SELECT yields a horizontal subset of a table.

Figure 10. SELECT Relational Operator Illustration

 PROJECT – This relational operator yields all values for selected attributes. In
other words, PROJECT yields a vertical subset of a table.

Figure 11. PROJECT Relational Operator Illustration

 UNION – It combines all rows from two tables, excluding duplicate rows. The
tables must have the same attribute characteristics which included the columns
and domains must be compatible to be used in the UNION. When two or more

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tables share the same number of columns, and when their corresponding columns
share the same or compatible domains, they are said to be union – compatible.

Figure 12. UNION Relational Operator Illustration

 INTERSECT – This relational operator yields only the rows that appear in both
tables. As was true in the case of UNION, the tables must be union – compatible
to yield valid results. For example, the INTERSECT relation operator cannot be
used if one of the attributes is numeric and one is character – based.

Figure 13. INTERSECT Relational Operator Illustration

 DIFFERENCE – DIFFERENCE yields all rows in one table that are not found in
the other table; that is, it subtracts one table from the other. As was true in the
case of UNION, the tables must be union – compatible to yield valid results.

Figure 14. SELECT Relational Operator Illustration

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 PRODUCT – This relational operator yields all possible pairs of rows from two
tables also known as the Cartesian product.

Figure 15. PRODUCT Relational Operator Illustration

 JOIN – JOIN allows information to be combined from two or more tables. JOIN is
the real power behind the relational database, allowing the use of independent
tables linked by common attributes. Types of JOIN implementation can be
explained further through the utilization of SQL during data manipulation queries.

 WHAT IS A DATA DICTIONARY?

A data dictionary generally provides a detailed description of all tables found within the
created database made by the database designer.

Thus, the data dictionary contains at least all of the attribute names and characteristics
for each table in the system. In short, the data dictionary contains metadata that typically
describes the “data about the data” as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16. A Sample Data Dictionary from a single database

***END OF CHAPTER 3***

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