Relational-Algebra

Question 1
The following relation records the age of 500 employees of a company, where empNo (indicating the employee number) is the key: empAge (empNo, age) Consider the following relational algebra expression:

What does the above expression generate?
A
Employee numbers of all employees whose age is not the maximum.
B
Employee numbers of only those employees whose age is the maximum.
C
Employee numbers of all employees whose age is not the minimum.
D
Employee numbers of only those employees whose age is more than the age of exactly one other employee.
Question 1 Explanation: 
The given relational algebra expression will result in employees whose age is not minimum. The given conditional join, joins the relations if the age is greater than any of the ages mentioned in the database.
Question 2

Give a relational algebra expression using only the minimum number of operators from (∪, −) which is equivalent to R ∩ S.

A
Out of syllabus (For explanation see below)
Question 2 Explanation: 
R - (R - S)
→ No need of using Union operation here. → In question they gave (∪, −) but we don't use both.
→ And also they are saying that only the minimum number of operators from (∪, −) which is equivalent to R ∩ S.
So, the expression is minimal.
Question 3

Suppose R1(A, B) and R2(C, D) are two relation schemas. Let r1 and r2 be the corresponding relation instances. B is a foreign key that refers to C in R2. If data in r1 and r2 satisfy referential integrity constraints, which of the following is ALWAYS TRUE?

A
B (r1) - ∏C (r2) = ∅
B
C (r2) - ∏B (r1) = ∅
C
B (r1) = ∏C (r2)
D
B (r1) - ∏C (r2) ≠ ∅
Question 3 Explanation: 
Referential integrity means, all the values in foreign key should be present in primary key.
So we can say that r2(C) is the superset of r1(B).
So (subset - superset) is always empty.
Question 4

Consider the following relations A, B, C.

How many tuples does the result of the following relational algebra expression contain? Assume that the schema of AUB is the same as that of A.

(AUB)⋈A.Id>40∨C.Id<15 C
A
7
B
4
C
5
D
9
Question 4 Explanation: 


Performs the cross product and selects the tuples whose A∙Id is either greater than 40 or C∙Id is less than 15. It yields:
Question 5

Given two union compatible relations R1(A,B) and R2(C,D), what is the result of the operation R1A = CAB = DR2?

A
R1 ∪ R2
B
R1 × R2
C
R1 - R2
D
R1 ∩ R2
Question 5 Explanation: 
The join here will be selecting only those tuples where A=C and B=D, meaning it is the intersection.
Question 6

Which of the following query transformations (i.e. replacing the l.h.s. expression by the r.h.s. expression) is incorrect? R1 and R2 are relations, C1, C2 are selection conditions and A1, A2 are attributes of R1?

A
σC1C1(R1)) → σC2C2(R1))
B
σC1A1(R1)) → σA1C1(R1))
C
σC1(R1 ∪ R2) → σC1(R1) ∪ σC1
D
πA1C1(R1)) → σC1A1(R1))
Question 6 Explanation: 
If the selection condition is on attribute A2, then we cannot replace it by RHS as there will not be any attribute A2 due to projection of A1 only.
Question 7

Consider the join of a relation R with a relation S. If R has m tuples and S has n tuples then the maximum and minimum sizes of the join respectively are

A
m + n and 0
B
mn and 0
C
m + n and |m – n|
D
mn and m + n
Question 7 Explanation: 
For maximum:
Suppose there is no common attribute in R and S due to which natural join will act as cross product. So then in cross product total no. of tuples will be mn.
For minimum:
Suppose there is common attribute in R and S, but none of the row of R matches with rows of S then minimum no. of tuples will be 0.
Question 8

The relational algebra expression equivalent to the following tuple calculus expression:

{t| t ∈ r ∧(t[A] = 10 ∧ t[B] = 20)} is
A
σ(A=10∨B=20) (r)
B
σ(A=10) (r) ∪ σ(B=20) (r)
C
σ(A=10) (r) ∩ σ(B=20) (r)
D
σ(A=10) (r) - σ(B=20) (r)
Question 8 Explanation: 
The given relational algebra expression represents tuples having A=10 and B=20 which is equivalent to
σ(A=10) (r) ∩ σ(B=20) (r)
Question 9

Given the relations

   employee (name, salary, deptno) and
   department (deptno, deptname, address)  

Which of the following queries cannot be expressed using the basic relational algebra operations (σ, π, ×, ⋈, ∪, ∩, -)?

A
Department address of every employee
B
Employees whose name is the same as their department name
C
The sum of all employees’ salaries
D
All employees of a given department
Question 9 Explanation: 
The sum of all employee’s salaries can’t be represented by using the given six basic algebra operation. If we want to represent sum of salaries then we need to use aggregation operator.
Question 10

Suppose the adjacency relation of vertices in a graph is represented in a table Adj(X,Y). Which of the following queries cannot be expressed by a relational algebra expression of constant length?

A
List of all vertices adjacent to a given vertex
B
List all vertices which have self loops
C
List all vertices which belong to cycles of less than three vertices
D
List all vertices reachable from a given vertex
Question 10 Explanation: 
(a) Finding a adjacency vertex for the given vertex is too simple i.e., Adj(X,Y).
(b) Finding a self loop is also simple (Oop(X,X))
(c) If a → b, b → c then c!=a, finding this is also simple.
(d) List all the elements reachable from a given vertex is too difficult in Relational Algebra.
Question 11

Let r and s be two relations over the relation schemes R and S respectively, and let A be an attribute in R. Then the relational algebra expression σA=a(r⋈s) is always equal to

A
σA=a (r)
B
r
C
σA=a (r)⨝s
D
None of the above
Question 11 Explanation: 
(a) A=a for all r
(b) Display table
(c) A=a for all Tables r and s
Question 12

With regard to the expressive power of the formal relational query languages, which of the following statements is true?

A
Relational algebra is more powerful than relational calculus.
B
Relational algebra has the same power as relational calculus.
C
Relational algebra has the same power as safe relational calculus.
D
None of the above.
Question 12 Explanation: 
Relational algebra has the same power as safe relational calculus.
A query can be formulated in safe Relational Calculus if and only if it can be formulated in Relational Algebra.
Question 13

Consider the relations r1(P, Q, R) and r2(R, S, T) with primary keys P and R respectively. The relation r1 contains 2000 tuples and r2 contains 2500 tuples. The maximum size of the join r1⋈ r2 is :

A
2000
B
2500
C
4500
D
5000
Question 13 Explanation: 
r1⋈ r2 is a join operation done on the common attribute R. So this can have 2000 tuples.
Question 14

Consider a selection of the form σA≤100(r), where r is a relation with 1000 tuples. Assume that the attribute values for A among the tuples are uniformly distributed in the interval [0, 500]. Which one of the following options is the best estimate of the number of tuples returned by the given selection query ?

A
50
B
100
C
150
D
200
Question 14 Explanation: 
σA≤100(r), r has 1000 tuples.
Values for A among the tuples are uniformly distributed in the interval [0, 500]. This can be split to 5 mutually exclusive and exhaustive intervals of same width of 100 ([0-100], [101-200], [201-300], [301-400], [401-500], 0 makes the first interval larger - this must be type in this question) and we can assume all of them have same number of values due to uniform distribution. So no. of tuples with A value in first interval should be,
Total no. of tuples/5 = 1000/5 = 200
Question 15

Consider the following relation schemas:
b-Schema = (b-name, b-city, assets)
a-Schema = (a-num, b-name, bal)
d-Schema = (c-name, a-number)

Let branch, account and depositor be respectively instances of the above schemas. Assume that account and depositor relations are much bigger than the branch relation.

Consider the following query:

 Пc-nameb-city = "Agra" ⋀ bal < 0 (branch ⋈ (account ⋈ depositor)  

Which one of the following queries is the most efficient version of the above query?

A
Пc-namebal < 0b-city = “Agra” branch ⋈ account) ⋈ depositor)
B
Пc-nameb-city = “Agra”branch ⋈ (σbal < 0 account ⋈ depositor))
C
Пc-nameb-city = “Agra” branch ⋈ σb-city = “Agra” ⋀ bal < 0 account) ⋈ depositor)
D
Пc-nameb-city = “Agra” ⋀ bal < 0 account ⋈ depositor))
Question 15 Explanation: 
Answer should be (A) and not (B), because we are doing a join between two massive tables whereas in (A) we are doing join between relatively smaller table and larger one and the output that this inner table gives (which is smaller in comparison to join that we are doing in (B)) is used for join with depositor table with the selection condition.
Options (C) and (D) are invalid as there is no b-city column in a-schema.
Question 16

Let R1(A,B,C) and R2(D,E) be two relation schema, where the primary keys are shown underlined, and let C be a foreign key in R1 referring to R2. Suppose there is no violation of the above referential integrity constraint in the corresponding relation instances r1 and r2. Which one of the following relational algebra expressions would necessarily produce an empty relation?

A
ΠD(r2) - ΠC(r1)
B
ΠC(r1) - ΠD(r2)
C
ΠD(r1C≠Dr2)
D
ΠC(r1C=Dr2)
Question 16 Explanation: 
C be a foreign key in R1 referring to R2.
→ Based on referral integrity C is subset of values in R2 then,
ΠC(r1) - ΠD(r2) results empty relation.
Question 17

Consider the following relation schema pertaining to a students database:

   Student (rollno, name, address)
   Enroll (rollno, courseno, coursename) 

Where the primary keys are shown underlined. The number of tuples in the Student and Enroll tables are 120 and 8 respectively. What are the maximum and minimum number of tuples that can be present in (Student * Enroll), where '*' denotes natural join ?

A
8, 8
B
120, 8
C
960, 8
D
960, 120
Question 17 Explanation: 
Natural join is a JOIN operation that creates an implicit join cause for you based on common columns in the two tables being joined.
→ In the question only enroll Id's are same with the student table.
→ The no. of minimum and maximum tuples is same i.e., 8, 8.
There are 17 questions to complete.

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