Introduction to Relational Databases

Informal look to Relational Databases

The relational model is having the three aspects:
Structural aspect:
The data in the database is perceived by the user as
tables
Integrity aspect: Integrity aspect:
Those tables satisfy certain integrity constraints
Manipulative aspect
The operators are available to the user for manipulating
those tables
A formal definition
Relational databases store data in the form of tables
The rows of a table are called as tuples
The columns of a table are known as attributes
Every attribute has a data type associated with it
Every attribute has a domain which provides the set of possible
values
Tables are called as relations
The table names are called as relational variables (relvar)
A Formal Definition
Domains
A relation may be regarded as a set of tuples
A domain has a logical definitions: eg., phone_number are the
set of 10 digit numbers
A domain defines posible values of an attribute, may have a
data-type or a format defined for it data-type or a format defined for it
An attribute is the name of a role played by some domain.
Eg.,domain Date may be used to define attributes Invoice-date
and Payment-date
Relation schema
A relation schema is used to describe a relation
A relation schema R, denoted by R(A1,A2,...,An):
where R is a relation name and
A1,A2,...,An - a list of attributes
The degree of a relation is the number of attributes
Instance r of R : a specific value or population of R Instance r of R : a specific value or population of R
Characteristics
Ordering of tuples in a relation:
The tuples are not considered to be ordered, even though they
appear to be in the tabular form
Ordering of attributes:
We will consider the attributes in R(A1,A2,...,An) and the We will consider the attributes in R(A1,A2,...,An) and the
values in t = <v1,v2,...,vn> to be ordered.
Values in a tuple:
All values are considered atomic (indivisible).
A special null is used to represent unknown or inapplicable values
Characteristics
Relational Integrity
Constraints
Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid relation
instances.
Key Constraints
Super Key
Key Key
Candidate key
Entity integrity Constraints
Primary key
Referential integrity Constraints
Foreign key
Another implicit constraint is the domain constraint Every value
in a tuple must be from the domain of its attribute (or it could be
null, if allowed for that attribute)
SuperKey
Superkey of R:
Is a set of attributes SK of R with the following condition:
No two tuples in any valid relation state r(R) will have the
same value for SK
That is, for any distinct tuples t1 and t2 in r(R), t1[SK] That is, for any distinct tuples t1 and t2 in r(R), t1[SK]
t2[SK]
This condition must hold in any valid state r(R).
Every relation has at least one default superkeythe set of
all its attributes.
{Ssn, Name, Age}is a superkey
Key
Key: A set of attributes K, whose values uniquely identify a tuple
in any instance. And none of the proper subsets of K has this
property.
{ssn} is a key for student relation.
Can be called as minimal superkey, that is, a superkey from Can be called as minimal superkey, that is, a superkey from
which we cannot remove any attributes and still have the
uniqueness constraint can hold.
The superkey {Ssn, Name, Age} is not a key of STUDENT
because removing Name or Age or both from the set still leaves
us with a superkey.
Any superkey formed from a single attribute is called as key.
Candidate Keys
A relation can have more than one key.
Each of the keys is called a candidate key
Consider a car relation where has two candidate keys:
License_number and Engine_serial_number.
Primary Key
A given relation may have two or more candidate keys
Exactly one of those keys be chosen as the primary key, the
others are then called alternate keys
The CAR relation with two candidate keys: LicenseNumber and
EngineSerialNumber EngineSerialNumber
Primary Key
We could choose either {ID} or
{First, Last} as the Primary Key.
ID is more convenient as it is a
single column and we know it will
always be unique (what happens
if another John Smith is added?)
Entity Integrity
The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema R cannot
have null values in any tuple of r(R)
This is because primary key values are used to identify the
individual tuples
Other attributes of R may be constrained to disallow null, even Other attributes of R may be constrained to disallow null, even
though they are not members of the PK
Foreign keys
Foreign key is a set of attributes of some relvar R2 whose values
are required to match values of some candidate key of some
relvar R1.
Can be specified using two terms
the referencing relation the referencing relation
the referenced relation
A foreign key is a set of attributes, say FK, of referencing relation
whose values are required to match values of candidate key CK
of referenced relation.
The FK and CK are the same data type.
The FK must appear as a value of CK.
FK is simple or composite according as CK .
Referential Integrity
Referential integrity the database must not contain any
unmatched foreign key values.
The value in the foreign key column FK of the referencing
relation can be either:
a value of an existing primary key PK in the referenced a value of an existing primary key PK in the referenced
relation, or
a null
In other words, the constraint says simply:
If B references A, then A must exist
Referential Integrity
{DID} is a Candidate Key for {DID} is a Foreign Key in Employee
Department Employee
{DID} is a Candidate Key for
Department Each entry has a
unique value for DID
{DID} is a Foreign Key in Employee
- each Employees DID value is
either NULL, or matches an entry in
the Department relation.
FOREIGN KEY <item commalist> REFERENCES <relvar name>
Referential Integrity
{ID} is a Candidate Key for Employee,
and {Manager} is a Foreign Key, which
refers to the same relation every
tuples Manager value is either NULL or
matches an ID value
FOREIGN KEY Manager REFERENCES Employee(ID)
Referential Integrity
When relations are updated, referential integrity can be violated
When a referenced tuple is updated / deleted, an exception will
be raised
To compensate this, the options are:
Cascade: Actions cascaded to the matching tuples Cascade: Actions cascaded to the matching tuples
Restrict: Restricted to the case where there are no matching
tuples
Nullify: Make values NULL
Triggers: Actions defined by the user
Referential Integrity
What happens if
Marketings DID is
changed to 16 in
Department?
The entry for Accounts
is deleted from
Department?
Referential Actions RESTRICT
RESTRICT stops any action
that violates integrity
You cannot update or delete
Marketing or Accounts
You can change Personnel
Department
You can change Personnel
as it is not referenced Employee
Referential Actions CASCADE
CASCADE allows the changes
made to flow through
If Marketings DID is changed to
16 in Department, then the DIDs
for John Smith and Mark Jones
also change
Department
also change
If Accounts is deleted then so is
Mary Brown
Employee
Referential Actions NULLIFY
NULLIFY sets referenced values to
NULL
If Marketings DID changes then John
Smiths and Mark Jones DIDs are set to
NULL
Department
NULL
If Accounts is deleted, Mary Browns
DID becomes NULL
Employee
SQL Facilities
An SQL candidate key definition takes one of the following:
PRIMARY KEY ( <column name commalist> )
UNIQUE ( <column name commalist> )
An SQL foreign key definition takes the form:
FOREIGN KEY ( <column name commalist> ) FOREIGN KEY ( <column name commalist> )
REFERENCES <base table name> [ (<column name
commalist>) ]
[ ON DELETE <referential action> ]
[ ON UPDATE <referential action> ]
Thank you