Some High Level Language Constructs for Data of Type Relation

Some High Level Language Constructs for Data of Type Relation Author: Joachim W. Schmidt (Hamburg university, west Germany) From ACM Transactions on Database Systems, September 1977 Presented by: Shnaiderman Lila

Motivation • Fact:(almost) All Programs Use Persistent Data • File Based Approach: open, close, get, put, printf, etc. • Pain in the neck! • Relational Algebra: • Traditional: invoke SQL from Pascal/C/ … • Cumbersome. • Not type safe, checked only at runtime. • DB types may be different from Pascal types. • This Work: Language mechanisms for • Data Query (a la relational algebra). • Data Modification (insert, delete, etc). • missing in Relational Algebra. • Reminder of RA • Selection (σ) - Selects a subset of rows • Cartesian-product(X) Allows us to combine two relations. • Projection (π) - Deletes unwanted columns from relation. • Set-difference (-) Tuples in R1, but not in R2. • Union(U) Tuples in R1 or in R2. • Renaming (ρ) – renames a column in a relation

Outline • To propose language constructs for performing database operations in a declarative manner: • A repetition statement controlled by relations. • Predicates as a generalization of Boolean expressions. • A constructor for relations using predicates.

Main Concepts • Tuple - implemented as a recordwith fields of type string or scalar. • Relation - a set of tuples, while some of the fields of the relation serves as a key • Key – Uniquely determine a tuple in a relation. • Key Order: automatically defined • Natural order of each primitive type (Integer, String) • Lexicographic order if multiple keys. • Example: for key  <City,Price> • Jerusalem, $12 • Jerusalem, $13 • Jerusalem, $14 • Tel-Aviv, $11

Defining a Relation in Pascal-R • Example: instructors are characterized by the attributes: ID (unique), status and name: type iRecord = record ID, Status : integer; Name : string end; iRelation = relation<ID>of iRecord; var instructors : iRelation; Just like Pascal record type relation key

Elementary Operators on Relations Example: rel1 rel2 • Elementary Altering Operations: • Insertion operator:rel1 :+ rel2; • Deletion operator:rel1 :- rel2; • Replacement operator:rel1 :& rel2; • Assignment operator:rel1 := rel2; Result: rel1

Similarity to Sets in Pascal • Pascal sets operations: • Equivalents to operations on relations: • S1 := S2  Assign a set to a set variable. • S1 + S2  Union of sets. • S1 - S2  Difference between two sets. • Other: Intersection, Symmetric difference, comparison operators, membership test

Literals of Type Relation • An elementary Relation Constructor • Constructed from a record variable : ‘rel := [rec]’ • Empty relation : ‘[]’. Example: var instructors : iRelation; i : iRecord; begin … i.ID := 222; i.Status := 1; i.Name := ‘Michal’ instructors := [i] end.

Bad Old File-Like Operations on Relations • Elementary Retrieval Operation – allows tuple-wise reading of relation variables. Defined with: • rel↑ - buffer variable for the current tuple. • low(rel) –updates the buffer with the tuple with the lowest key value. • Next(rel) – updates the buffer with the tuple with the next highest key value. • aor(rel) – returns true if all the tuples already passed else false.

Implementation programDBuser(DB) type … iRecord = … ; iRelation = … ; var DB:database instructors:iRelation; … end; result1, … : iRelation; result7 : relation<rname, rtitle>of record … end; beginwith DB do … end. • Compiler was modified to accept the syntax • Run time library was added to handle the execution of the new constructs • Database counts as an external variable • Similar to PASCAL files • Can be connected to via a parameter in the program header

Elementary Retrieval example • Find instructors with status = 2 (senior lecturer). result = []; low(instructors); whilenotaor(instructors) do begin if instructors↑. Status = 2 then result :+ [instructors↑]; next(instructors) end

Problems with the old file model • The ordering of tuple access is irrelevant • Almost no possibilities for automatic optimization. • The language construct for relation is inadequate • File concept • Only one global file pointer per relation • The notation can be more declarative.

The Repetition Statement foreach • Example: Find instructors with Status = 2 (senior lecturer). result = []; low(instructors); whilenotaor(instructors) do begin if instructors↑.Status = 2 then result :+ [instructors↑]; next(instructors) end. • Example: Find instructors with Status = 2 (senior lecturer). result = []; foreach i in instructors do if i.Status = 2 then result :+ [i] Foreach in Java 5 void printAll(Collection<instructor> c) { for (instructor i : c) i.print(); } Control record variable Range relation variable for instructor i : c foreach i in instructors statement

Nested foreach • Example : Find all those instructors who has lecture on Friday type … tRecord = record ID, CourseID, Time : integer; Day, Room : string end; tRelation = relation< ID, CourseID, Day >of tRecord; var instructors,result : iRelation; timetable : tRelation; begin … result = []; foreach i in instructors do foreacht intimetable do if (e.ID = t.ID) and (t.Day = ‘Friday’) then result :+ [i] end. • The inner loop traversed too often… • Redundant operations performed in runtime… • The inner loop used only as test condition.

foreach as ∃ logical condition • Example: Find all those instructors whose lecture of Friday var … hasLecOnFriday : boolean; begin … result = []; foreach i in instructors do begin hasLecOnFriday := false; foreacht intimetable do hasLecOnFriday := hasLecOnFriday or (i.ID = t.ID) and (t.Day = ‘Friday’) if hasLecOnFriday then result :+ [i] end end. The logical condition can be replaced with: somerecin rel (<logical expression>)

foreach as ∀ logical condition • Example: Find all instructors who give no lecture. var … hasNoLecture : boolean; begin … result = []; foreach i in instructors do begin hasNoLecture := true; foreacht intimetable do hasNoLecture := hasNoLecture and (i.ID ≠ t.ID); if hasNoLecture then result :+ [i] end end. The logical condition can be replaced with: allrecin rel (<logical expression>)

Extending Pascal with advanced logic expressions • In “regular Pascal”: • A and B • A or B • Not A • Pascal-R has First Order Predicate Logic • ∃xs.p(x) • ∀xs.p(x) Lets rewrite the previous examples Predicate calculus

some Predicate • “whilenot aor(timetable) do”– sequential tuple-wise processing ordered by key values • “foreach t in timetable do”– still tuple-wise and sequentially but with no specific order • “some t in timetable” - Gives possibility for efficient implementation (processing tuple sets in parallel) • Example : Find all those instructors whose lecture is on Friday result = []; foreach i in instructors do if somet intimetable ((i.ID = t.ID) and (t.Day = ‘Friday’)) then result :+ [i]

All predicate • Example: Find all instructors who give no lecture. result = []; foreach i in instructors do if alltintimetable (t.ID ≠ t.instructorID); thenresult :+ [i]

Nested predicates • Example: Find those instructors who give no lectures above the first year (courses with level 1) result = []; foreach i in instructors do if alltintimetable ((i.ID ≠ t.instructorID) or some c in courses ((t.CourseID = c.ID) and (c.Level = 1))) then result :+ [i] end.

Generalizing the Relation Constructor • So far all literals have one or zero records • Construction of bigger relations – by adding one record at a time. • Sequential process… • Let’s use the constructs we already created: res = [each i in instructors : i.Status = 2] This is like‘SELECT’ statement in SQL: SELECT * FROM instructors WHERE Status = 2;

General Relation Constructor examples var … ,res3,res4,res5,res6 : iRelation; begin … res3:=[each i in instructors : i.Status = 2]; res4 := [ each i in instructors : somet intimetable ((i.ID = t.instructorID) and (t.Day = ‘Friday’))]; res5 := [each i in instructors : allt intimetable (i.ID ≠ t.instructorID)]; res6 := [each i in instructors : allt intimetable ((i.ID ≠ t.instructorID) or some c in courses ((t.CouseID = c.ID) and (c.cLevel = 1)))] end. • Structural equivalence Problem • Pascal uses name equivalence method. • The assignment of “each” constructor into the target relation requires structural equivalence method… • Requires changes that contradict the spirit of Pascal… SELECT * FROM instructors WHERE Status = 2; SELECT * FROM instructors i, timetable t WHERE (i.ID = t.instructorID) AND (t.Day = ‘Friday’);

Generalizing the Relation Constructor (continue) • Example: For those instructors who give lectures, find the names and the title and year of their publications. res : relation<rname, rtitle>of record rname, rtitle : string ryear : integer end; begin … res := [each(i.Name; p.title; p.year) for i, p in instructors, papers : (i.ID = p.instructorID) and some t in timetable ((i.ID = t.instructorID)] end. • Advantages of this constructor: • Declarative • similar to RA • opens the door for optimizations. • SELECT i.Name, p.title, p.year • FROM instructors i, papers p, timetable t • WHERE (i.ID = p.instructorID) and • (i.ID = t.instructorID)]

PLAIN RIGEL Adaplex SQL Pascal-R development DBPL Codd relational Model Pascal-R 1979/ 1983 1988 1970 1978 Additional topics of interest • Unsolved issues: • Tools for altering data consistently • Taking care of simultaneous processing of a database by several users • Security issues • Error handling • Similar modification in many modern languages (like we will see in the continuation of the course)

Conclusion • What was achieved • Declarative! • Leaves a lot of space for optimization! • Includes Powerful retrieval facilities on relations (tuples sets level)! • The expressive power of the proposed constructs is satisfactory! • Type checking is possible, but requires the database schema to be known at compile time and remain unchanged in runtime… • Contradicts the spirit of Pascal…

Some High Level Language Constructs for Data of Type Relation