Chapter One

Query Processing

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2.1 Query and Query Language
Query
Is a piece of code that is sent to a database in order to get
information back from the database.
It is used as the way (refers to the action) of retrieving the
data/information from database.
A database "query" is basically a "question" that you ask
the database.
The term 'query' means to search, to question, or to find.
When you query a database, you're searching for
information in the database.
Queries are one of the things that make databases so
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powerful.
Cont.…
The result of the query is the information that is returned
by the database management system.
Queries are usually constructed using SQL (structured
query language) which resembles a high-level
programming language.
As with many other tasks, you can query a database either
programmatically or via a user interface.
An example of query can be this:
SELECT DISTINCT Credit_Hr FROM COURSE ORDER BY
CName;
The query searches the 'Credit_Hr' field from the
COURSE table and sorts the list by CName.
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 Why Query?
Usually, you will be selective with how much data you
want returned.
If you have a lot of data in your database, you probably
don't want to see everything.
More likely, you'll only want to see data that fits a certain
criteria.
For example,
you might only want to see how many individuals in
your database live in a given city.
Or you might only want to see which individuals have
registered with your database within a given time
period.
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 Query Language
Are computer languages used to make queries into
databases and information systems.
Broadly, can be classified according to whether they are
database query languages or information retrieval query
languages.
The difference is that a database query language attempts
to give factual answers to factual questions,
While an information retrieval query language attempts to
find documents containing information that is relevant to
an area of inquiry.
Query Languages != programming languages
QLs not intended to be used for complex calculations but
support easy, efficient access to large data sets.
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Examples include:
Contextual Query Language (CQL) a formal language for
representing queries to information retrieval systems such
as web indexes or bibliographic catalogues.
QUEL is a relational database access language, similar in
most ways to SQL;
SQL is a well known query language and Data
Manipulation Language for relational databases;
XQuery is a query language for XML data sources;
.QL is a proprietary object-oriented query language for
querying relational databases; successor of Data log;
DMX is a query language for Data Mining models;
Datalog is a query language for deductive databases;
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Cont…
Different query languages exist for different type of
databases.
For example MS Access uses SQL, which stands for
Structured Query Language.
MS Access contains Tables, Forms, and Queries.
The Forms are used to enter or display the data,
The Tables are where the data is saved, and
The Queries are used to search for specific data.
Relational model (database) supports simple, powerful
query languages that called Relational Query Languages.
Example Relational Query Languages : QUEL, SQL

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 Relational Query Languages
There are varieties of QLs used by relational DBMS for
manipulating relations.
Some of them are procedural
User tells the system exactly what and how to manipulate the
data
Others are non-procedural
User states what data is needed rather than how it is to be
retrieved.
Two mathematical Query Languages form the basis for
Relational languages
Relational Algebra:
Relational Calculus:
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Cont…
Relational Algebra: Described as procedural language
More operational, very useful for representing execution
plans.
used to tell the DBMS how to build a new relation from
one or more relations in the database.
Relational Calculus: Described as non-procedural
language
Lets users describe what they want, rather than how to
compute it. (Nonoperational, declarative.)
used to formulate the definition of a relation in terms of
one or more database relations.
All tuples, possibly from several relations, are
manipulated in one statement with out looping
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Cont.…
Both are the bases for relational languages
Both the algebra and calculus are formal, non user
friendly languages.
They have been used as the basis for other, high level
data manipulation languages(DMLs) for relational
databases.
Both are equivalent to each other. For every expression in
the algebra, there is an equivalent expression in the
calculus.
Both the operands and the results are relations and so the
output from one operation can become the input to
another operation.
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 Relational Algebra
These operations enable a user to specify basic retrieval
requests.
The result of the retrieval is a new relation, which may
have been formed from one or more relations.
The new relations, can be further manipulated using
operations of the same algebra.
A sequence of relational algebra operations forms a
relational algebra expression, whose result will also be
a relation that represents the result of a database query.
The output from one operation can become the input to
another operation (nesting is possible)
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Fundamental operations in relational algebra are:
Selection ( )
Projection (  )
Cross/Cartesian-Product ( x )
Set-Difference ( - )
Union ( )
Intersection ()
Join
Division operations
Using these we can build up sophisticated database
queries.

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The first five of those operations perform most of the data
retrieval operation that we are intersected in.
Intersection, Join, Division operations are operations that
can be expressed in terms of the five basic operations.
The selection and projection are unary operations, since
they operate on one relation.
The other operations work on pairs of relations and are
therefore called binary operations.

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 R
R S
X S
a 1 = a 1
2 a 2
b
3 a 3
b 1
b 2
(a) Selection (b) Projection b 3
(c) Cartesian Product
R-S
R U S
R n
S R
R

S S

(d) Union (e) Intersection

(f) Set Difference
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 • Branch
branchNo Street City postCode

• Staff
StaffN fName lName Positio Sex DOB Salar branch
o n y No

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16
 1) Selection (Or Restriction)
Selects subset of tuples/rows in a relation that satisfy
selection condition.
The Selection operation is applied to each tuple
individually
The degree of the resulting relation is the same as the
original relation but the cardinality (no. of tuples) is less
than or equal to the original relation.
The Selection operator is commutative.
Set of conditions can be combined using Boolean
operations [(AND), (OR), and ~(NOT)]
No duplicates in result!
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 Cont…
Notation: σ<Selection Condition><Relation Name>
Selection condition general form
<attribute name><comparison operators><constant value>
<attribute name><comparison operators>< attribute name>
comparison operators: =, >, >=, <, <=, !=
Example: List all staff with a salary greater than $10,000.
 salary > 10000 (Staff)

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 2) Projection
Selects certain attributes while discarding the other from
the base relation.
Creates a vertical partitioning:
 one with the needed columns (attributes) containing
results of the operation and other containing the
discarded Columns.
Deletes attributes that are not in projection list.
Projection operator has to eliminate duplicates! Because
duplication removal is necessary to insure that the
resulting table is also a relation.
 Notation: ∏<Selected Attributes><Relation Name>

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Or ∏a1,…an(R)
 Cont…
Example: Produce a list of salaries for all staff, showing
only staffNo, fName, lName, and salary details.
 staffNo, fName, lName, salary(Staff)

 Exercise:
 List all staff with a salary greater than $10,000,
showing only staffNo, fName, lName, and salary
details
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 3) Union Operation
Denoted as R U S
The union of two relations R and S defines a relation that
contains all the tuples of R or S or both R and S, duplicate
tuples being eliminated.
R and S must be union-compatible
Same number of fields.
Corresponding fields have the same type.
Example:
S1 U S2

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 Cont…

sid sname rating age sid sname rating age

S1
22 dustin 7 45.0 22 dustin 7 45.0
31 lubber 8 55.5 31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0 58 rusty 10 35.0
44 guppy 5 35.0
sid sname rating age 28 yuppy 9 35.0
S2
28 yuppy 9 35.0
31 lubber 8 55.5
S1 S2
44 guppy 5 35.0
58 rusty 10 35.0

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 4) Intersection Operation
Denoted as R n S
The intersection operation defines a relation consisting of
the set of all tuples that are in both R and S.R and S must
be union compatible
R and S must be union-compatible
Example:
S1 n S2

sid sname rating age

31 lubber 8 55.5
58 rusty 10 35.0

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 5) Set Difference
Denoted as R-S
The set difference operation defines a relation consisting
of the tuples that are in relation R, but not in S.
R and S musts be Union compatible.
Example:
S1 - S2

sid sname rating age

22 dustin 7 45.0

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 6) Cartesian Product
Denoted as R x S
The Cartesian product operation defines a relation that is
the concatenation of every tuple of relation R with every
tuple of relation S
Each row of S1 is paired with each row of R1
The result of R x S is a relation Q with degree n + m
attributes Q(A1, A2, . . ., An, B1, B2, . . ., Bm), in that order.
The resulting relation Q has one tuple for each
combination of tuples—one from R and one from S.
If R has n tuples, and S has m tuples, then | R x S | will
have n* m tuples.
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 Cartesian Product Example

Employee
Name SSN
John 999999999
Tony 777777777

Dependents
EmployeeSSN Dname
999999999 Emily
777777777 Joe

Employee x Dependents
Name SSN EmployeeSSN Dname
John 999999999 999999999 Emily
John 999999999 777777777 Joe
Tony 777777777 999999999 Emily
Tony 777777777 777777777 Joe
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 7) Join Operation
Typically we want only combinations of the Cartesian
product that satisfy certain conditions and so we would
normally use a Join Operation instead of the Cartesian
product operation.
Join is a derivative Cartesian product, equivalent to
performing a selection operation, using the join predicate
as the selection formula ,over the Cartesian product of the
operand relations.
join operation is one of the most difficult operations to
implement efficiently in a RDBMS and is one of the
reasons why relational systems have intrinsic
performance problems.
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 Cont…
There are various forms of Join operations ,each with
subtle differences
 Theta join (Ө-join)
 Equijoin(a particular type of Theta join)
 Natural join
 Outer join
 Semi join

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 • Client
clientNo fName lName tellNo PrefType maxRent

• Viewing
clientNo propertNo viewDate comment

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  Theta join (Ө-join)
R FS
The theta join operation defines a relation that contains
tuples satisfying the predicate F from the Cartesian
product of R and S
The predicate F is of the form R.ai Ө S.bi where Ө may
be one of the comparison operators(<,<=,>,>=,≠)
In the case where the predicate F contains only equality
(=), the term Equijoin is used instead.
Can rewrite Theta join using basic Selection and
Cartesian product operations.
R FS = F(R  S)

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 Example
List the names and comments of all clients who have
viewed a property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) Client.clientNo = Viewing.clientNo (clientNo,
propertyNo, comment (Viewing))

SELECT table.column, table.column FROM table1, table2

WHERE table1.column1 comparison table2.column2;

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  Natural Join
R S
The natural join is an Equijoin of the two relations R and
S over all common attributes x.
One occurrence of each common attribute is eliminated
from the result.
Ex. List the names and comments of all clients who have
viewed a property for rent
Natural join(to remove one of the similar attributes)

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 Example

• List the names and comments of all clients who have

viewed a property for rent.
(clientNo, fName, lName(Client)) (clientNo,
propertyNo, comment(Viewing))

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 Another Natural Join Example
R= A B B C
S=
X Y Z U
X Z V W
Y Z Z V
Z V

A B C
R S= X Z U
X Z V
Y Z U
Y Z V
Z V W

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  Outer/left join
R S
The outer join is a join in which tuples from R that do not
have matching values in the common attributes of S are
also included in the result relation.
Missing values in the second relation are set to null.
Example:
A B C
R S
X Y NULL
X Z U
X Z V
Y Z U
Y Z V
Z V W
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  Semijoin
R FS
Defines a relation that contains the tuples of R that
participate in the join of R with S.
It decreases the number of tuples that need to be handled
to form the join.
It is particularly useful for computing joins in distributed
systems
Example:
List complete details of all staff who work at branch in Glascow

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 Cont…
 Staff staff.branchNo=Branch.branchNo Branch.city=’Glasgow’
Branch

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 8) Division Operation
R ÷ S
Let table R is defined over the attributes set A and
relation S is defined over the attribute set B such that B C
A.
C= A-B, that is, C is the set of attributes of R that are not
attributes of S.
The Division operation defines a relation over the
attributes C that consists of the set of tuples from R that
match the combination of every tuple in S.
Example: Identify all clients who have viewed all
properties with three rooms
(∏clientNo,propertyNo(viewing))÷(∏propertyNo
38 (σrooms=3(PropertyForRent)))
 Example of Division A/B

Pno Pno
Sn Pn Pno
o o P2 P1
P2
S1 P1 P4 P2
B
S1 P2 B2 P4
1
S1 P3 B3
S1 P4
Sno
S2 P1
S1
S2 P2 Sn Sn
S2 o
S3 P2 o
S3 S1
S4 P2 S1
S4 S4 A/B3
S4 p4 A/B2
A A/B1

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