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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 3147–3149Cite as

Relational Calculus

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Synonyms

Domain relational calculus; First-order query; Tuple relational calculus

Definition

The relational database model was proposed by Codd in [2] where he assumed that its “data sublanguage” would be based on the predicate calculus (FOL) and where he introduced various algebraic operations on relations. Only in [3] did he introduced the terms relational algebra and relational calculus.

Later, it became customary to talk about the domain relational calculus (detailed below), which is closely related to the syntax of first-order logic and has quantified variables ranging over individual constants, and about the tuple relational calculus which is in fact the one given by Codd in [3] and whose variables range over tuples of constants. The two calculi are equivalent, via easy back and forth translations. However, both calculi allow the formulation of domain dependentqueries which are inappropriate for database languages. While domain independence is undecidable, it is possible to...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Abiteboul S, Hull R, Vianu V. Foundations of databases: the logical level. Reading: Addison Wesley; 1994.

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  2. Codd EF. A relational model of data for large shared data banks. Commun ACM. 1970;13(6):377–387.

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Codd EF. Relational Completeness of Database Sublanguages. In: Rustin R, editor. Courant computer science symposium 6: data base systems. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall; 1972. p. 65–98.

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  4. Ullman JD. Principles of database and knowledge-base systems volume, I. Rockville: Computer Science Press; 1988.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Val Tannen

Authors
  1. Val Tannen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Val Tannen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Dept. of Computer and Inf. Science, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Val Tannen

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Tannen, V. (2018). Relational Calculus. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_972

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