Chapter 3: Relational

Model
• Structure of Relational Databases
• Relational Algebra
• Tuple Relational Calculus
• Domain Relational Calculus
• Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations
• Modification of the Database
• Views
Example of a Relation
 Basic Structure
• Formally, given sets D1, D2, …. Dn a relation r is a subset of

D1 x D2 x … x Dn
Thus a relation is a set of n-tuples (a1, a2, …, an) where
ai  Di
• Example: if
customer-name = {Jones, Smith, Curry, Lindsay}
customer-street = {Main, North, Park}
customer-city = {Harrison, Rye, Pittsfield}
Then r = { (Jones, Main, Harrison),
(Smith, North, Rye),
(Curry, North, Rye),
(Lindsay, Park, Pittsfield)}
is a relation over customer-name x customer-street x
customer-city
Attribute Types
• Each attribute of a relation has a name
• The set of allowed values for each attribute is called
the domain of the attribute
• Attribute values are (normally) required to be atomic,
that is, indivisible
• E.g. multivalued attribute values are not atomic
• E.g. composite attribute values are not atomic
• The special value null is a member of every domain
• The null value causes complications in the definition of
many operations
• we shall ignore the effect of null values in our main
presentation and consider their effect later
Relation Schema
• A1, A2, …, An are attributes
• R = (A1, A2, …, An ) is a relation schema
E.g. Customer-schema =
(customer-name, customer-street,
customer-city)
• r(R) is a relation on the relation schema R
E.g. customer (Customer-schema)
Relation Instance
• The current values (relation instance) of a
relation are specified by a table
• An element t of r is a tuple, represented by a row
in a table attributes

customer-name customer-street customer-city

Jones Main Harrison

Smith North Rye tuples
Curry North Rye
Lindsay Park Pittsfield

customer
 Relations are Unordered
 Order of tuples is irrelevant (tuples may be stored in an arbitrary order)
 E.g. account relation with unordered tuples
Database
• A database consists of multiple relations
• Information about an enterprise is broken up into parts,
with each relation storing one part of the information
E.g.: account : stores information about accounts
depositor : stores information about which
customer owns which account
customer : stores information about customers
• Storing all information as a single relation such as
bank(account-number, balance, customer-name, ..)
results in
• repetition of information (e.g. two customers own an account)
• the need for null values (e.g. represent a customer without an
account)
• Normalization theory (Chapter 7) deals with how to design
relational schemas
The customer Relation
The depositor Relation
E-R Diagram for the Banking
Enterprise
Keys
• Let K  R
• K is a superkey of R if values for K are sufficient to
identify a unique tuple of each possible relation r(R) by
“possible r” we mean a relation r that could exist in the
enterprise we are modeling.
Example: {customer-name, customer-street} and
{customer-name}
are both superkeys of Customer, if no two customers
can possibly have the same name.
• K is a candidate key if K is minimal
Example: {customer-name} is a candidate key for
Customer, since it is a superkey {assuming no two
customers can possibly have the same name), and no
subset of it is a superkey.
Determining Keys from E-R
Sets
• Strong entity set. The primary key of the entity set
becomes the primary key of the relation.
• Weak entity set. The primary key of the relation
consists of the union of the primary key of the strong
entity set and the discriminator of the weak entity set.
• Relationship set. The union of the primary keys of the
related entity sets becomes a super key of the
relation.
• For binary many-to-one relationship sets, the primary key of
the “many” entity set becomes the relation’s primary key.
• For one-to-one relationship sets, the relation’s primary key
can be that of either entity set.
• For many-to-many relationship sets, the union of the primary
keys becomes the relation’s primary key
Schema Diagram for the Banking Enterprise
Query Languages
• Language in which user requests information from
the database.
• Categories of languages
• procedural
• non-procedural
• “Pure” 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
• project
• union
• set difference
• Cartesian product
• rename
• The operators take two or more relations as inputs
and give a new relation as a result.
Select Operation –
Example
• Relation r A B C D

  1 7
  5 7
  12 3
  23 10

A=B ^ D > 5 (r)

A B C D

  1 7
  23 10
Select Operation
• Notation:  p(r)
• p is called the selection predicate
• Defined as:
p(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:
 branch-name=“Perryridge”(account)
Project Operation –
Example
• Relation r: A B C

 10 1
 20 1
 30 1
 40 2

 A,C (r) A C A C

 1  1
 1 =  1
 1  2
 2
Project Operation
• Notation:
A1, A2, …, Ak (r)
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
• E.g. To eliminate the branch-name attribute of account
account-number, balance (account)
Union Operation – Example
• Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r  s:
A B

 1
 2
 1
 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 (e.g., 2nd column
of r deals with the same type of values as does the 2nd
column of s)
• E.g. to find all customers with either an account or a loan

customer-name (depositor)  customer-name (borrower)

Set Difference Operation –
Example
• Relations r, s:
A B A B

 1  2
 2  3
 1 s
r

r – s:
A B

 1
 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
 Cartesian-Product Operation-
Example
Relations r, s: A B C D E

 1  10 a
 10 a
 2  20 b
r  10 b
s
r x s:
A B C D E
 1  10 a
 1  10 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  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.
Composition of Operations
• Can build expressions using multiple operations
• Example: A=C(r x s)
•rxs A B C D E
 1  10 a
 1  19 a
 1  20 b
 1  10 b
 2  10 a
 2  10 a
 2  20 b
 2  10 b

A B C D E

 1  10 a
• A=C(r x s)  2  20 a
 2  20 b
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:
 x (E)
returns the expression E under the name X
If a relational-algebra expression E has arity n, then
x (A1, A2, …, An) (E)
returns the result of expression E under the name X, and
with the
attributes renamed to A1, A2, …., An.
Banking Example
branch (branch-name, branch-city, assets)

customer (customer-name, customer-street,

customer-only)

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
amount > 1200 (loan)
• Find the loan number for each loan of an amount
greater than $1200
loan-number (amount > 1200 (loan))
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan,
an account, or both, from the bank
customer-name (borrower)  customer-name (depositor)
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan
and an account at 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 (branch-name=“Perryridge”
(borrower.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.
customer-name (branch-name = “Perryridge”
(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan)))

– customer-name(depositor)
 Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the
Perryridge branch.
 Query 1
customer-name(branch-name = “Perryridge”
(borrower.loan-number = loan.loan-number(borrower x loan)))
 Query 2
customer-name(loan.loan-number = borrower.loan-number(
(branch-name = “Perryridge”(loan)) x
borrower)
)
Example Queries
Find the largest account balance
• Rename account relation as d
• The query is:
balance(account) - account.balance
(account.balance < d.balance (account x d (account)))
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:
• E1  E2
• E1 - E2
• E1 x E2
• p (E1), P is a predicate on attributes in E1
• s(E1), S is a list consisting of some of the attributes in E1
•  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
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)
Set-Intersection Operation -
Example
A B A B
 1  2
• Relation r, s:  2  3
 1

r s

A B

 2

• rs
Natural-Join Operation
• Notation: r s
• Let r and s be relations on schemas R and S respectively.The result is a relation on
schema R  S which is obtained by considering each pair of tuples tr from r and ts
from s.
• If tr and ts have the same value on each of the attributes in R  S, a tuple t is
added to the result, where
• t has the same value as tr on r
• t has the same value as ts on 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 (r.B = s.B r.D = s.D (r x s))
 Natural Join Operation –
• Example
Relations r, s:
A B C D B D E

 1  a 1 a 
 2  a 3 a 
 4  b 1 a 
 1  a 2 b 
 2  b 3 b 
r s

r s A B C D E
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 1  a 
 2  b 
Division Operation
r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 ) }
 Division Operation –
Example A B
Relations r, s:
B
 1
1
 2
 3 2
 1 s
 1
 1
 3
 4
 6
 1
 2
r  s: A r



 Another Division Example
Relations r, s:
A B C D E D E

 a  a 1 a 1
 a  a 1 b 1
 a  b 1 s
 a  a 1
 a  b 3
 a  a 1
 a  b 1
 a  b 1
r

r  s: A B C

 a 
 a 
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 a
series of assignments 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.
Example Queries
• Find all customers who have an account from at
least the “Downtown” and the Uptown” branches.
• Query 1
CN(BN=“Downtown”(depositor account)) 

CN(BN=“Uptown”(depositor account))

where CN denotes customer-name and BN denotes

branch-name.
Example Queries
• Find all customers who have an account at all
branches located in Brooklyn city.

customer-name, branch-name (depositor account)

 branch-name (branch-city = “Brooklyn” (branch))
 Extended Relational-Algebra-
Operations

• Generalized Projection
• Outer Join
• Aggregate Functions
Generalized Projection
• Extends the projection operation by allowing
arithmetic functions to be used in the projection list.

 (E)
F1, F2, …, Fn

• E is any relational-algebra expression

• Each of F1, F2, …, Fn are 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)
 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
G1, G2, …, Gn g F1( A1), F2( A2),…, Fn( An) (E)
• 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
Aggregate Operation –
Example
• Relation r:
A B C

  7
  7
  3
  10

sum-C
g sum(c) (r)
27
Aggregate Operation –
Example
• Relation account grouped by branch-name:
branch-name account-number balance
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 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)

Outer Join
• An extension of the join operation that avoids loss
of information.
• Computes the join and then adds tuples from 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.
• Will 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-name loan-number
Jones L-170
Smith L-230
Hayes L-155
Outer
•
Join – Example
Inner Join
loan Borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith

 Left Outer Join

loan borrower
loan-number branch-name amount customer-name
L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-260 Perryridge 1700 null
Outer Join – Example
•

loan
Right Outer Join

borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

L-170 Downtown 3000 Jones
L-230 Redwood 4000 Smith
L-155 null null Hayes
 Full Outer Join
loan borrower

loan-number branch-name amount customer-name

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
• Is an arbitrary decision. Could have returned null as result instead.
• We follow the semantics of SQL in its handling of null values
• For duplicate elimination and grouping, null is treated like
any other value, and two nulls are assumed to be the same
• Alternative: assume each null is different from each other
• Both are arbitrary decisions, so we simply follow 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
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 – branch-name = “Perryridge” (account)

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

loan  loan – amount 0and amount  50 (loan)

• Delete all accounts at branches located in Needham.

r1  branch-city = “Needham” (account branch)

r2  branch-name, account-number, 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  {(“Perryridge”, A-973, 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  (branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower loan))
account  account  branch-name, account-number,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
r (r)
F1, F2, …, FI,

• Each F, is either the ith attribute of r, if the ith 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   AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (account)
where AN, BN and BAL stand for account-number,
branch-name and balance, respectively.
• Pay all accounts with balances over $10,000
6 percent interest and pay all others 5 percent

account   AN, BN, BAL * 1.06 ( BAL  10000 (account))

 AN, BN, BAL * 1.05 (BAL  10000 (account))
Views
• In some cases, it is not desirable for all users to see
the entire logical model (i.e., all the actual relations
stored in the database.)
• Consider a person who needs to know a customer’s
loan number but has no need to see the loan
amount. This person should see a relation
described, in the relational algebra, by
customer-name, loan-number (borrower loan)
• Any relation that is not of the conceptual model
but is made visible to a user as a “virtual relation”
is called a view.
View Definition
• A view is defined using the create view statement
which has the form

create view v as <query expression

where <query expression> is any legal relational
algebra query expression. The view name is
represented by v.
• Once a view is defined, the view name can be used to
refer to the virtual relation that the view generates.
• View definition is not the same as creating a new
relation by evaluating the query expression Rather, a
view definition causes the saving of an expression to be
substituted into queries using the view.
View Examples
• Consider the view (named all-customer) consisting of
branches and their customers.
create view all-customer as
branch-name, customer-name (depositor account)
 branch-name, customer-name (borrower loan)

• We can find all customers of the Perryridge branch by

writing:
branch-name
(branch-name = “Perryridge” (all-customer))
Updates Through View
• Database modifications expressed as views must be
translated to modifications of the actual relations in the
database.
• Consider the person who needs to see all loan data in the
loan relation except amount. The view given to the person,
branch-loan, is defined as:
create view branch-loan as
branch-name, loan-number (loan)
• Since we allow a view name to appear wherever a relation
name is allowed, the person may write:

branch-loan  branch-loan  {(“Perryridge”, L-37)}

 Updates Through Views
•(Cont.)
The previous insertion must be represented by an insertion
into the actual relation loan from which the view branch-
loan is constructed.
• An insertion into loan requires a value for amount. The
insertion can be dealt with by either.
• rejecting the insertion and returning an error message to the user.
• inserting a tuple (“L-37”, “Perryridge”, null) into the loan relation
• Some updates through views are impossible to translate
into database relation updates
• create view v as branch-name = “Perryridge” (account))
v  v  (L-99, Downtown, 23)
• Others cannot be translated uniquely
• all-customer  all-customer  (Perryridge, John)
• Have to choose loan or account, and
create a new loan/account number!
Views Defined Using Other
Views
• One view may be used in the expression defining
another view
• A view relation v1 is said to depend directly on a
view relation v2 if v2 is used in the expression
defining v1
• A view relation v1 is said to depend on view relation
v2 if either v1 depends directly to v2 or there is a path of
dependencies from v1 to v2
• A view relation v is said to be recursive if it
depends on itself.
View Expansion
• A way to define the meaning of views defined in terms
of other views.
• Let view v1 be defined by an expression e1 that may
itself contain uses of view relations.
• View expansion of an expression repeats the following
replacement step:
repeat
Find any view relation vi in e1
Replace the view relation vi by the expression
defining vi
until no more view relations are present in e1
• As long as the view definitions are not recursive, this
loop will terminate
Tuple Relational Calculus
• A nonprocedural query language, where each query
is of the form

{t | P (t) }
• It is the set of all tuples t such that predicate P is true
for t
• t is a tuple variable, t[A] denotes the value of tuple t
on attribute A
• t  r denotes that tuple t is in relation r
• P is a formula similar to that of the predicate calculus
Predicate Calculus Formula
1. Set of attributes and constants
2. Set of comparison operators: (e.g., , , , ,
, )
3. Set of connectives: and (), or (v)‚ not ()
4. Implication (): x  y, if x if true, then y is true
x  y x v y
5. Set of quantifiers:
t r (Q(t)) ”there exists” a tuple in t in relation r
such that predicate Q(t) is true
t r (Q(t)) Q is true “for all” tuples t in relation r
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 the loan-number, branch-name, and amount
for loans of over $1200
{t | t  loan  t [amount]  1200}

• Find the loan number for each loan of an amount

greater than $1200
{t |  s loan (t[loan-number] = s[loan-number]
 s [amount]  1200}

Notice that a relation on schema [customer-name] is

implicitly defined by the query
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers having a loan, an account,
or both at the bank
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
 u  depositor(t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])

• Find the names of all customers who have a loan and an

account at the bank

{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name])
 u  depositor(t[customer-name] = u[customer-name])
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers having a loan at the
Perryridge branch
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name]
 u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]))}

• Find the names of all customers who have a loan at the

Perryridge branch, but no account at any branch of the bank
{t | s  borrower(t[customer-name] = s[customer-name]
 u  loan(u[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u[loan-number] = s[loan-number]))
 not v  depositor (v[customer-name] =
t[customer-name]) }
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers having a loan from
the Perryridge branch, and the cities they live in

{t | s  loan(s[branch-name] = “Perryridge”
 u  borrower (u[loan-number] = s[loan-
number]
 t [customer-name] = u[customer-name])
  v  customer (u[customer-name] =
v[customer-name]
 t[customer-city] =
v[customer-city])))}
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers who have an account
at all branches located in Brooklyn:

{t |  c  customer (t[customer.name] = c[customer-

name]) 
 s  branch(s[branch-city] = “Brooklyn” 
 u  account ( s[branch-name] = u[branch-
name]
  s  depositor ( t[customer-name] =
s[customer-name]
 s[account-number] = u[account-
number] )) )}
Safety of Expressions
• It is possible to write tuple calculus expressions
that generate infinite relations.
• For example, {t |  t r} results in an infinite
relation if the domain of any attribute of relation r
is infinite
• To guard against the problem, we restrict the set of
allowable expressions to safe expressions.
• An expression {t | P(t)} in the tuple relational
calculus is safe if every component of t appears in
one of the relations, tuples, or constants that
appear in P
Domain Relational Calculus
• A nonprocedural query language equivalent in
power to the tuple relational calculus
• Each query is an expression of the form:

{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

• x1, x2, …, xn represent domain variables

• P represents a formula similar to that of the predicate
calculus
Example Queries
• Find the branch-name, loan-number, and amount for loans
of over $1200
{ l, b, a  |  l, b, a   loan  a > 1200}
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan of over
$1200
{ c  |  l, b, a ( c, l   borrower   l, b, a   loan  a >
1200)}
• Find the names of all customers who have a loan from the
Perryridge branch and the loan amount:
{ c, a  |  l ( c, l   borrower  b( l, b, a   loan 
b = “Perryridge”))}
or { c, a  |  l ( c, l   borrower   l, “Perryridge”, a  
loan)}
Example Queries
• Find the names of all customers having a loan, an
account, or both at the Perryridge branch:
{ c  |  l ({ c, l   borrower
  b,a( l, b, a   loan  b = “Perryridge”))
  a( c, a   depositor
  b,n( a, b, n   account  b =
“Perryridge”))}

• Find the names of all customers who have an account

at all branches located in Brooklyn:
{ c  |  n ( c, s, n   customer) 
 x,y,z( x, y, z   branch  y = “Brooklyn”) 
 a,b( x, y, z   account   c,a   depositor)}
Safety of Expressions
{  x1, x2, …, xn  | P(x1, x2, …, xn)}

is safe if all of the following hold:

1. All values that appear in tuples of the expression
are values from dom(P) (that is, the values appear
either in P or in a tuple of a relation mentioned in P).
2. For every “there exists” subformula of the form  x
(P1(x)), the subformula is true if an only if P1(x) is true
for all values x from dom(P1).
3. For every “for all” subformula of the form x (P1 (x)),
the subformula is true if and
only if P1(x) is true for all values x from dom
(P1).
End of Chapter 3
Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge”
(loan)
Loan Number and the Amount of the Loan
Names of All Customers Who
Have Either a Loan or an
Account
Customers With An Account But
No Loan
Result of borrower  loan
Result of  branch-name = “Perryridge” (borrower  loan)
Result of customer-name
Result of the
Subexpression
Largest Account Balance in
the Bank
Customers Who Live on the Same Street and In the
Same City as Smith
Customers With Both an Account and a Loan at
the Bank
Result of customer-name, loan-number, amount (borrower
loan)
Result of branch-name(customer-city =
“Harrison”(customer account depositor))
Result of branch-name(branch-city =
“Brooklyn” (branch))
Result of customer-name, branch-name(depositor account)
The credit-info Relation
Result of customer-name, (limit – credit-
balance) as credit-available(credit-info).
The pt-works Relation
The pt-works Relation After
Grouping
Result of branch-name  sum(salary) (pt-
works)
Result of branch-name  sum salary,

max(salary) as max-salary (pt-works)

The employee and ft-works
Relations
The Result of employee
ft-works
The Result of employee
ft-works
Result of employee ft-
works
Result of employee ft-
works
Tuples Inserted Into loan
and borrower
Names of All Customers Who
Have a Loan at the Perryridge
Branch
E-R Diagram
The branch Relation
The loan Relation
The borrower Relation