relational_algebra外文电子书籍.pdfVIP

Querying the Database • Goal: specify what we want from our database UIUC-employee ( SSN, name, address, salary) IRS-IL (SSN, city, year-of-filed-return) • Find all the employees who earn more than $50,000 and pay taxes in Champaign-Urbana. 1 Querying the Database • Could write in C++/Java, but bad idea • Instead use high-level query languages – Theoretical: Relational Algebra, Datalog – Practical: SQL – Relational algebra: a basic set of operations on relations that provide the basic principles. • Worry free 2 What is an “Algebra”? • Mathematical system consisting of: – Operands variables or values from which new values can be constructed. – Operators symbols denoting procedures that construct new values from given values. 3 Q: Example algebra? • Arithmetic algebra. Linear algebra. • What are operands? • What are operators? 4 What is Relational Algebra? • An algebra whose operands are relations or variables that represent relations. • Operators are designed to do common things that we need to do with relations in a database. • The result is an algebra that can be used as a query language for relations. 5 Relational Algebra at a Glance • Operators: relations as input, new relation as output • Five basic RA operations: – Basic Set Operations • union, difference (no intersection, no complement) – Selection: σ – Projection: π – Cartesian Pro