Relational Data Model Ch. 7.1 – 7.3 John Ortiz

Lecture 3Relational Data Model2 Why Study Relational Model?  Most widely used model.  Vendors: IBM, Informix, Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase, etc.  “Legacy systems” in older models  E.G., IBM’s IMS (hierarchical model)  Recent competitor: object-oriented model  ObjectStore, Versant, Ontos, O2  A synthesis emerging: object-relational model  Informix UDS, UniSQL, Oracle, DB2

Lecture 3Relational Data Model3 Anatomy of a Relation  Each relation is a table with a name.  An attribute is a column heading.  The heading is the schema of the relation Students(SSN, Name, Age, GPA) Students Relation name Attribute name Column Tuple

Lecture 3Relational Data Model4 Domain of an Attribute  The domain of an attribute A, denoted by Dom(A), is the set of values that the attribute can take.  A domain is usually represented by a type. E.g.,  SID char(4)  Name varchar(30) --- character string of variable length up to 30  Age number --- a number

Lecture 3Relational Data Model5 Tuples  A tuple of a relation is a row in its table.  If t is a tuple of a relation R and A is an attribute of R, we use t[A] to represent the value of t under A in R. Example: If t is the second tuple in Students t[Name] = ‘Mary Day’ t[Age] = 18, t[Name, Age] = (‘Mary Day’, 18)

Lecture 3Relational Data Model6 Schema and Instance  A relation schema, denoted by R(A1, A2, …, An), consists of the relation name R and a list of attributes A1, …, An.  R.A denotes attribute A of R.  # of attributes = degree  A relation instance (state) of a relation schema R(A1, …, An), denoted by r(R), is a set of tuples in the table of R at some instance of time.  # of tuples = cardinality

Lecture 3Relational Data Model7 Schema & Instance Update  The schema of a relation may change (e.g., adding, deleting, renaming attributes and deleting a table schema) but it is infrequent  The state of a relation may also change (e.g., inserting or deleting a tuple, and changing an attribute value in a tuple) & it is frequent  A schema may have different states at different times.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model8 Relational Database  A relational database schema is a set of relation schemas S={R1, …, Rm}.  A relational database is a set of relations DB(S)={r(R1), …, r(Rm)}.  A database state is a set of relation instances at some instance of time.  In addition, a relational database must satisfy a number of constraints (more to come later).

Lecture 3Relational Data Model9 A University Database see p. 204, Fig. 7.5 StudentsSections Courses Departments

Lecture 3Relational Data Model10 Constraints of Relational DB  Relations must satisfy the following constraints.  Domain (1NF) Constraint.  Access-by-Content Constraint.  Key (Unique Tuple) Constraint.  Entity Integrity Constraint.  Referential Integrity Constraint.  Integrity constraints are enforced by the RDBMS.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model11 Domain Constraint  Also known as the First Normal Form (1NF): Attributes can only take atomic values (I.e., set values are not allowed).  How to handle multivalued attributes?  Use multiple tuples, one per value  Use multiple columns, one per value  Use separate tables  What problems does these solutions have?

Lecture 3Relational Data Model12 Handle Multi-Valued Attributes Employees Multiple Values: Use Multiple Tuples:

Lecture 3Relational Data Model13 Handle Multi-Valued Attributes Employees Dependents Use Multiple Columns: Use Separate Relations:

Lecture 3Relational Data Model14 Non-1NF Relations*  Tables allowing multivalued attributes are called non-first normal form (NFNF) tables which are supported by some non-standard relational database systems.  Some database models permit multi-valued attributes. For example, most object-oriented databases do.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model15 Access-by-Content Constraint  A tuple is retrieved only by values of its attributes, i.e., the order of tuples is not important.  This is because a relation is a set of tuples.  Although the order of tuples is insignificant for query formulation, it is significant for query evaluation.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model16 Superkey  A superkey of a relation is a set of attributes whose values uniquely identify the tuples of the relation.  Every relation has at least one superkey (default is all attributes together?).  Any superset of a superkey is a superkey.  From a state of a relation, we may determine that a set of attributes is not a superkey, but can not determine that a set of attributes is a superkey.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model17 Superkey Example  Find all superkeys of the Students relation. Students R  With the only state of R, is A a superkey? What about {A, B}?

Lecture 3Relational Data Model18 Candidate Key  A candidate key of a relation is a set of attributes of the relation such that  it is a superkey, and  none of its proper subsets is a superkey.  Find all candidate keys in Students relation.  Is it true that every relation has at least candidate key? Why?  Can candidate keys be found from a state?  If AB is a candidate key of a relation, can A also be a candidate key? What is ABC called?

Lecture 3Relational Data Model19 Primary Key  A primary key of a relation is a candidate key designated (with an underline) by a database designer.  Often chosen at the time of schema design, & once specified to DBMS, it cannot be changed.  Better be the smallest candidate key for improvement of both storage and query processing efficiencies.  What should be the primary key of Students?

Lecture 3Relational Data Model20 Key Constraint  Every relation must have a primary key.  Why is key constraint needed?  Every tuple has a different primary key value.  Only the primary key values need to be checked for identifying duplicate when new tuples are inserted (index is often used).  Primary key values can be referenced from within other relations

Lecture 3Relational Data Model21 Entity Integrity Constraint  A null value is a special value that is  unknown,  yet to be assigned, or  inapplicable.  Entity Integrity Constraint: No primary key values can be null.  Why?

Lecture 3Relational Data Model22 Foreign Key  A foreign key in relation R1 referencing relation R2 is a set of attributes FK of R1, such that,  FK is compatible with a candidate (or primary) key PK of R2 (with same number of attributes and compatible domains); and  for every tuple t1 in R1, either there exists a tuple t2 in R2 such that t1[FK] = t2[PK] or t1[FK] = null.  Foreign keys need to be explicitly defined.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model23 Foreign Key Example EmployeesDepartments  DName of Employees is a foreign key referencing Name of Departments  A foreign key may reference its own relation. Employee(EID, Name, Age, Dept, ManegerID)

Lecture 3Relational Data Model24 Referential Integrity Constraint  Referential Integrity Constraint: No relation can contain unmatched foreign key values.  Using foreign keys in a relation to reference primary keys of other relations is the only way in the relational data model to establish relationships among different relations.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model25 Update Operations  Insert  Can violate any of the 4 previous constraints – what were they again?  1 solution: reject the insert  Delete  Can only violate referential integrity – why?  3 solutions: reject deletion, propagate deletion, modify referencing attributes  Modify  Can violate any of the 4 previous constraints

Lecture 3Relational Data Model26 Relational Model: Summary  A tabular representation of data.  Simple and intuitive, currently the most widely used.  Integrity constraints can be specified by the DBA, based on application semantics. DBMS checks for violations.  Two important ICs for primary and foreign keys  In addition, we always have domain constraints.

Lecture 3Relational Data Model27 Relational Model: Summary  ICs are based upon the semantics of the real- world enterprise that is being described in the database relations.  We can check a database instance to see if an IC is violated, but we can never infer that an IC is true by looking at an instance.  Powerful and natural query languages exist.  Guidelines to translate ER to relational model (next class…)

Lecture 3Relational Data Model28 Look Ahead  Next topic: Relational Algebra  Read Textbook:  Chapter 7.4 – 7.6