DATABASE SYSTEMS

DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

ROB • CORONEL • CROCKETT

Chapter 3 and 4
The Relational Database Model
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And so the fun begins

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 In this chapter, you will learn:
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A. That the relational database model takes a logical view of data.

1. The relational model’s basic components are relations implemented
through tables in a relational DBMS
2. How relations are organized in tables composed of rows and columns

B. The different types of keys and what they are used for
C. How to set rules to ensure the integrity of the data
D. About the data dictionary, and the system catalog
E. The different types of relationships within a relational database
F. How data redundancy is handled in the relational database
G. Why indexing is important
H. Codd’s 12 relational database rules
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Relational data structure

• A relation is a table with columns and rows

• An attribute is a named column of a relation
• Record – logically connected set of one or more
fields that describe a person, place or thing
• A domain is the set of allowable values for one
or more attributes

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Characteristics of a relational table

1. A table is perceived as a two dimensional
structure composed of rows and columns
2. Each row (tuple) represents a single entity and
must be distinct
3. Each table column represents an attribute, and
each column has a distinct name
4. Each cell should contain an atomic value –
single cell value
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Characteristics of a relational table

5. All values in a column must conform to the same
data format
6. Each column has a specific range of values
known as the attribute domain
7. The order of the rows and columns is
immaterial to the DBMS
8. Each table must have an attribute that
uniquely identifies each row
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2 dimension structure ?

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2 dimension structure ?

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Each table row represents a single

entity occurrence within the entity set

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Each table column represent an

attribute, and each column has a
distinct name

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Each table column represent an

attribute, and each column has a
distinct name

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Each intersection of a row and column

represents a single data value

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All values in a column must conform to

the same data format

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Each table must have an attribute or

combination of attributes that uniquely
identifies each row

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The order of the rows and columns is

immaterial to the DBMS

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Is This a Relational Database?

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Relational schema
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• A textual representation of database tables, where

each table is described by its name followed by a list
of its attributes in parenthesis
– R = {a1 , a2 , a3 …. an}
– Student (Stud_Num, FirstName, Surname, Age)

Student

Stud_Num FirstName Surname Age

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Cardinality and Degree

• The cardinality of a relation is the number of its

rows
• The degree of a relation is the number of its
attributes/columns

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DATABASE
NorthwindSYSTEMS: Design Implementation
Traders databaseand Management
has (Rob,
a CATEGORIES table. 2
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How many cardinalities?
How many degrees of relation?

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DATABASE
NorthwindSYSTEMS: Design Implementation
Traders databaseand Management
has (Rob,
a CATEGORIES table. 2
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How many cardinalities?
How many degrees of relation?

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So cardinality is ?? and degree of ??

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DATABASE
But theSYSTEMS: Design Implementation
PRODUCTS table and Management (Rob, 2
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has 95 products and
10 columns or attributes

So cardinality is ?? and degree of ??

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B. Keys
• Keys consist of one or more attributes that determine other
attributes
• Candidate key is an attribute that determines all the other
attributes in the relation. Choose primary key from these
• A candidate key is a column, or set of columns, in a table that
can uniquely identify any database record without referring to
any other data. Each table may have one or more candidate
keys, but one candidate key is unique, and it is called the
primary key. This is usually the best among the candidate keys
to use for identification.

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Keys

• Primary key (PK) is an attribute that uniquely

identifies any given row
• Composite key is a key composed of more than
one attribute eg in a Dependent table, Employee
number and Department number might be a
composite key
• Foreign key (FK) is an attribute whose values
match primary key values in the related table
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B. Keys - Example

Foreign key
232 and 235
Occur twice
In PRODUCT
table
Primary key in VENDOR table 29
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B. Keys - Composite

Primary key in VENDOR table 30

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B. Keys and determination

• Key’s role is based on determination

– If you know the value of attribute A, you can look up (determine)
the value of attribute B
– A → B eg Student number → Student name
– Functional dependence – Attribute B is functionally dependent
on attribute A, if each value in column A determines one and only
one value in column B e.g. unique

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B. Keys – Avoid Nulls

• Nulls
– No data entry
– Not permitted in primary key
– Should be avoided in other attributes
– Can represent
• An unknown attribute value
• A known, but missing, attribute value
• A “not applicable” condition
– Can create problems when functions such as COUNT,
AVERAGE, and SUM are used

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B. Keys - Redundancy
• Controlled redundancy
– Tables within the database share primary/foreign keys that
enable the tables to be linked together
– Multiple occurrences of values in a table are not redundant
when they are required to make the relationship work, for
example the foreign key
– Redundancy exists only when there is duplication of
attribute values
– Having a foreign key means that you do not duplicate the
attributes in the table to which the foreign key links this
table. Therefore, it controls redundancy
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B. Keys - Example

Foreign key
232 and 235
Occur twice
In PRODUCT
table
Primary key in VENDOR table 34
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C. Integrity
• Two types
1. Entity integrity
2. Referential integrity

1. Entity integrity
– Ensures that each row is uniquely identified by the primary
key.
– It means that a proper search for an existing row will
always be successful.
– The failure to find a match on a row search will always
mean that the row for which the search is conducted does
not exist in that table.

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C1. Entity Integrity question
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– Question: Based on the database

shown in Figure 1, do the tables
exhibit entity integrity? Answer yes
or no and explain your answers.
– Answer: PLAN table does not
display entity integrity because one
Plan_Code value is Null.
Plan_Code is the primary key and
a primary key cannot be null.

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C2. Referential Integrity
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– Referential integrity concerns how 2 tables reference each

other.
• This is through the foreign key (FK)
• FK can EITHER be null or must be a valid entry in the table to which
it is related
• E.g. it must reference an existing primary key value
– Purpose:
• It IS possible for an attribute NOT to have a corresponding value,
but it will be impossible to have an invalid entry
Example
• A customer may not yet have an assigned sales representative
(number)
• but it will be impossible to have an invalid sales representative
(number)

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Integrity RulesEdition, - Example

Source: Database Systems: Design, Implementation, &
Management, International Rob, Coronel & Crockett

null

No nulls or duplicates in PKs Valid FKs

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 C2. Referential Integrity
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question
• Based on the database shown in
Figure 2, do the tables exhibit
referential integrity? Answer yes
or no and explain your answers.
Write NA (Not Applicable) if the
table does not have a foreign key.

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D. The Data Dictionary and System Catalog

• Data dictionary
– Provides detailed accounting of all tables found within
the database
– Contains (at least) all the attribute names and
characteristics for each table in the system
– Hence, it contains metadata—data about data

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D. A Sample Data Dictionary

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D. The Data Dictionary and System Catalog

• System catalogue
– Is a detailed system data dictionary
• describes all objects within the database
• including data about table names, the table’s creator & creation date
• number of columns in each table, the data type of each column
• index filenames, index creators
• authorized users and access privileges
– Generally the DBMS only provides a system catalogue from
which the database designer can construct his/her data
dictionary

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G. Indexes
• Arrangement used to logically access rows in a table like
finding a book in the library or a topic in a book

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Index

• An index is composed of an index key and a set of

pointers
– Index key is an index’s reference point. Eg the primary key
– Pointers are identifiers, eg numbers that point to the data location
identified by the key

• A unique index is one in which the index key can

have only one pointer value (row) associated with
it

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E. Relationships within the Relational

Database

E1. 1:* relationship

– Relational modeling ideal
– Should be the norm in any relational database design

E2. 1:1 relationship

– Should be rare in any relational database design

E3. *:* relationships

– Cannot be implemented as such in the relational model
– *:* relationships can be changed into two 1:* relationships

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E1. The 1:* Relationship

• Relational database norm

• Found in any database environment

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E1. The 1:* Relationship

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E2. The 1:1 Relationship

• One entity can be related to only one other
entity, and vice versa
• Sometimes means that entity components were
not defined properly
• Could indicate that two entities actually belong in
the same table
• As rare as 1:1 relationships should be, certain
conditions absolutely require their use

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E2. The 1:1 Relationship

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E3. The *:* Relationship

• Can be implemented by breaking it up to produce

a set of 1:* relationships
• Can avoid problems inherent to *:* relationship
by creating a composite entity or bridge entity

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E3. The *:* Relationship

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H. Codd’s Relational Database Rules

• In 1985, E F Codd published a list of 12 rules to

define a relational database system
• The reason was the concern that many vendors
were marketing products as “relational” even
though those products did not meet minimum
relational standards

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Dr. Codd's 12 Relational Database Rules
1) Information – All data must be stored in tables
2) Guaranteed Access – Access every value using Table + Column + Key
3) Systematic treatment of nulls – Nulls must be represented and treated in a
systematic way, independent of data type.
4) Dynamic on-line catalogue based on the relational model – The metadata
must be stored and managed as ordinary data, that is, in tables within the database.
Such data must be available to authorized users, using the standard database
relational language.
5) Comprehensive data sublanguage – The relational database may support many
languages. However it must support one well-defined declarative language with
support for data definition, view definition, data manipulation (interactive and by
program), integrity constraints, authorization and transaction management (begin,
commit and rollback)
6) View updating – Any view that is theoretically updatable must be updatable
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7) High-level insert, update and delete – The database must support set-level
inserts, updates and deletes
8) Physical data independence – Application programs and ad hoc facilities are
logically unaffected when physical access methods and storage structures are
changed
9) Logical data independence – Application programs and ad hoc facilities are
logically unaffected when changes are made to the table structures that preserve
the original table values (changing order of column or inserting columns)
10) Integrity independence – All relational integrity constraints must be definable
in the relational language and stored in the system catalog, not at the application
level
11) Distribution independence – The end users and application programs are
unaware and unaffected by the data location (distributed vs local databases)
12) Non-subversion – If the system supports low-level access to the data, there
must not be a way to bypass the integrity rules of the database
Rule Zero – All preceding rules are based on the notion that in order for a
database to be considered relational, it must use its relational facilities exclusively
to Database
manage the Design,
Systems: database.
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