Chapter 6: The Relational Data Model and Relational

Database Constraints.

Outline:

6.1Relational Model Concepts

Informal Definitions

Formal Definitions

Characteristics of Relations

6.2 Keys' Types

Super key

Key

Primary Key

Alternative Key

6.3 Relational Integrity Constraints

Domain constraints

Key constraints

Entity integrity constraints

Referential integrity constraints

Semantic Integrity Constraints

6.4 Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint Violations

Insert Operation

Delete Operation

Update Operation

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

1
6.1 Relational Model Concepts

The relational Model of Data is based on the concept of a Relation.

A Relation is a mathematical concept based on the ideas of sets.

The model was first introduced by Tod Codd of IBM Research in 1970 in the following paper:
"A Relational Model for Large Shared Data Banks," Communications of the ACM, June 1970.

Informal Definitions

Informally, a relation looks like a table of values.

A relation typically contains a set of rows.

The data elements in each row represent certain facts that correspond to a real-world entity or
relationship
o In the formal model, rows are called tuples

Each column has a column header that gives an indication of the meaning of the data items in
that column
o In the formal model, the column header is called an attribute

Example of a Relation

Formal Definitions

١. Schema
o The Schema (or description) of a Relation:

Denoted by R(A1, A2, .....An)

R is the name of the relation

The attributes of the relation are A1, A2, ..., An
o Example:
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#)

CUSTOMER is the relation name

Defined over the four attributes: Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#

o Each attribute has a domain or a set of valid values.

o For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

2
 o The data domain may have a data-type and/or format.

٢. Tuple

o A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled brackets ‘< … >’)

o Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
o A tuple can be considered as a set of (<attribute>, <value>) pairs. Thus the following
two tuples are identical:
t1 = <(Name, B. Bayer),(SSN, 305-61-2435),(HPhone,
3731616),(Address, 291 Blue Lane),(WPhone, null),(Age,
23),(GPA, 3.25)>

t2 = <(HPhone, 3731616),(WPhone, null),(Name, B. Bayer),(Age,

23),(Address, 291 Blue Lane),(SSN, 305-61-2435),(GPA, 3.25)>

٣. State
o The relation state is a subset of the Cartesian product of the domains of its attributes
o Each domain contains the set of all possible values the attribute can take.
o Example: attribute Cust-name is defined over the domain of character strings of
maximum length 25
dom(Cust-name) is varchar(25)

٤. Summary

Table 6.1: Formal / Informal Summary

Characteristics of Relations:

١. Ordering of tuples in a relation r(R): The tuples are not considered to be ordered, even though
they appear to be in the tabular form.
٢. Ordering of attributes in a relation schema R (and of values within each tuple): We will
consider the attributes in R(A1, A2, ...,An) and the values in t=<v1, v2, ..., vn> to be ordered.
٣. Values in a tuple:

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

3

All values are considered atomic (indivisible).

Each value in a tuple must be from the domain of the attribute for that column

If tuple t = <v1, v2, …, vn> is a tuple (row) in the relation state r of R(A1, A2,
…, An)

Then each vi must be a value from dom(Ai)

A special null value is used to represent values that are unknown or unapplicable to
certain tuples.

6.2 Keys' Types

In order to understand the Relational Integrity Constraints we need to understand the Types of
keys before
١. Superkey of R (SK)

SK is a set of attributes 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] ≠ t2[SK]
٢. Key of R

A "minimal" superkey

That is, a key is a superkey K such that removal of any attribute from K results in a set
of attributes that is not a superkey (does not possess the superkey uniqueness property)

Each of the keys is called candidate key
٣. Primary key (PK)

Choice one of the candidate key

It is usually better to choose a primary key with a single attribute or a small number of
attributes.
٤. Alterative key

all candidate keys except primary key

Example (1):
Consider the EMPLOYEE relation schema:
Employee (SSN,Empid,Fname,Mname,Lname,Add,Age)
١. Superkey of R:
{SSN},{Empid},{SSN,Empid},{SSN,Fname},{SSN,Mname},{SSN,Lname},{
SSN,Add} , {SSN,Age},{ SSN,Empid,Fname},{ SSN,Empid,Lname},{
SSN,Empid,Mname},{ SSN,Empid,Add},{ SSN,Empid,Age},{Fname, Mname,
Lname},…etc.
٢. Key of R:
{SSN}, {Empid},{Fname,Mname,Lname}
٣. Primary key:
{SSN}
٤. Alterative key:
{Empid},{Fname,Mname,Lname}

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

4
 Example (2):
Consider the following relation:
X Y Z
1 A 20
3 B 21
4 A 15
1 C 30
١. Superkey of R:
{Z},{X,Y},{X,Z},{Y,Z},[X,Y,Z}
٢. Key of R:
{Z}, {X, Y}
٣. Primary key:
{Z}
٤. Alterative key:
{X, Y}

Find superkeys, candidate keys, primary keys, alternative keys in the following CAR
relation schema?
CAR (State, Reg#, SerialNo, Model, Year)

Find superkeys, candidate keys, primary keys, alternative keys in the following relation?

A B C D E
A1 Hh 101 D10 10
A2 Mm 200 D30 20
A3 Ff 50 D90 30
A4 Ll 60 D53 30
A1 Ff 70 D6 10

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

5
6.3 Relational Integrity Constraints

Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid relation states.

There are five types of constraints in the relational model:
١. Domain constraints
٢. Key constraints
٣. Entity integrity constraints
٤. Referential integrity constraints
٥. Semantic Integrity Constraints

Domain Constraints

Every value in a tuple must be from the domain of its attribute (or it could be null, if allowed
for that attribute). A data type or format is also specified for each domain.

Special case of this constraint Constraints on Null (not allowed null values for attribute)

Key Constraints

For any two distinct tuples t1 and t2 in a relation state r of R we have t1[SK] ≠ t2[SK] (the
subset of attributes SK is called a superkey of the relation schema R).

A superkey SK specifies a uniqueness constraint.

Entity Integrity

The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema R in S cannot have null values in any
tuple of r(R). t[PK] ≠ null for any tuple t in r(R)
o This is because primary key values are used to identify the individual tuples.
o If PK has several attributes(composite), null is not allowed in any of these attributes

Referential Integrity

A constraint involving two relations (the previous constraints involve a single relation). Used
to specify a relationship among tuples in two relations: the referencing relation and the
referenced relation.

Referential Integrity is used to maintain the consistency among tuples of the two relations.

The referential integrity constraint states that a tuple in one relation that refers to another
relation must refer to an existing tuple in that relation.

Tuples in the referencing relation R1 have attributes FK (called foreign key attributes) that
reference the primary key attributes PK of the referenced relation R2. A tuple t1 in R1 is said to
reference a tuple t2 in R2 if

t1[FK] = t2[PK]

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

6

A referential integrity constraint can be displayed in a relational database schema as a directed
arc from R1 FK to R2 PK.

The value in the foreign key column (or columns) FK of the referencing relation R1 can be
either:
١. A value of an existing primary key value of acorresponding primary key PK in the
referenced relation R2, or
٢. A null (if it is not part of its own primary key)

Semantic Integrity Constraints

Based on application semantics and cannot be expressed by the model.

Example1: the max. no. of hours per employee for all projects he or she works on is 56 hrs per
week.

Example2: the salary of an employee should not exceed the salary of the employee’s supervisor.

SQL-99 allows triggers and ASSERTIONS to express for some of these

6.4 Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint Violations

Operations of the relational model:

١. Updates:
o Insert - to insert a new tuple or tuples in a relation,

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

7
 o Delete - to delete tuples from a relation, and
o Update (or Modify) - to change the values of some attributes in existing tuples.

٢. Retrievals - these operations do not change the current state of the databases.

Integrity constraints should not be violated by the update operations: INSERT, DELETE,
MODIFY

In case of integrity violation, several actions can be taken, such as:
o Cancel the operation that causes the violation (RESTRICT or REJECT option)
o Trigger additional updates so the violation is corrected (CASCADE option, SET NULL
option)

Insert Operation

INSERT may violate any of the constraints:

o Domain constraint: if one of the attribute values provided for the new tuple is not of
the specified attribute domain.
o Key constraint: if the value of a key attribute in the new tuple already exists in another
tuple in the relation
o Entity integrity: if the primary key value is null in the new tuple
o Referential integrity: if a foreign key value in the new tuple references a primary key
value that does not exist in the referenced relation

Delete Operation

DELETE may violate only referential integrity: If the primary key value of the tuple being
deleted is referenced from other tuples in the database

Can be remedied by several actions: RESTRICT, CASCADE ,SET NULL
o RESTRICT option: reject the deletion
o CASCADE option: delete the tuples that reference the tuple that is being deleted
o SET NULL option: set the foreign keys of the referencing tuples to NULL

One of the above options must be specified during database design for each foreign key
constraint

Update Operation

It may violate any of the constraints.

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

8
 Which relational constraints would be violated if the following operation were applied
to the COMPANY database snapshot illustrated bellow?

Employee

FName LName SSN BDate Salary SuperSSN DNo

Smith Jone 123 1/2/1979 2100JD NULL 10
Susan Adams 432 3/6/1982 1547JD 123 10
James Ford 587 20/9/1980 3650JD 983 20
Sali Miller 983 1/12/1970 890JD 123 30

Department

DNo DName
10 Headquarter
20 Accounting
30 IT

Insert
٢. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani', 321, 3/9/1982, 3000, NULL, 30> into EMPLOYEE.

٣. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani', 923, 3/19/1980, '3000JD', NULL, 30> into EMPLOYEE.

٤. Insert <123456, 'Rani', 321, 3/9/1985, '3000$', 432, 10> into EMPLOYEE.

٥. Insert <400,'Planning'> into DEPARTMENT.

٦. Insert <123456, 'Rani', 123, 3/9/1985, '3500JD', 432, 10> into EMPLOYEE.

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

9
٧. Insert <30,'Planning'> into DEPARTMENT.

٨. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani',NULL, 30/9/1977, '4000JD', 587, 10> into EMPLOYEE.

٩. Insert <NULL,'Planning'> into DEPARTMENT.

١٠. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani',222, 3/2/1980, 3000, 587, 50> into EMPLOYEE .

١١. Insert < 'Alice', 'Rani',222, 30/2/1976, 3000, 687, 10> into EMPLOYEE.

١٢. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani',NULL, 3/22/1976, '1000JD', 587, 50> into EMPLOYEE.

١٣. Insert < 'Sali', 'Rani', 'NULL', 3/2/1969, '6000JD', 587, 40> into EMPLOYEE.

١٤. Insert < 'Jasmine', 'Rani', 123, 3/2/76, '3200JD', 587, 60> into EMPLOYEE.

Delete

١. Delete the DEPARTMENT tuple with DNo =20

٢. Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with FName ='Smith'

٣. Delete the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN=432

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

10
Modify
١. Update the SALARY of the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN=432 to 2800.

٢. Update the DNO of the EMPLOYEE tuple with SSN=432 to 70.

٣. Update the DNO of the DEPARTMENT tuple with DName ='IT' to 40.

٤. Update the DNO of the DEPARTMENT tuple with DName ='IT' to 10.

٥. Update the SSN of the EMPLOYEE tuples with FName ='Smith' to NULL.

٦. Update the SSN of the EMPLOYEE tuples to 566.

Prepared by: Randa Al_Dallah and Sawsan Abu_Taleb©٢٠٠٩

11