Errata

View Updating and Relational Theory

Errata for View Updating and Relational Theory

Submit your own errata for this product.

The errata list is a list of errors and their corrections that were found after the product was released. If the error was corrected in a later version or reprint the date of the correction will be displayed in the column titled "Date Corrected".

The following errata were submitted by our customers and approved as valid errors by the author or editor.

Color key: Serious technical mistake Minor technical mistake Language or formatting error Typo Question Note Update

Version Location Description Submitted By Date submitted Date corrected
Printed
Page 138
Paragraph beginning "Explanation:"

In line 2 of the paragraph, replace "that SP tuple" by "that SP tuple (except that the SNO attribute is projected away)".

C.J. Date
C.J. Date
 
Sep 29, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 3639-3642
Kindle Locations 3639-3642

A concrete example of a database value satisfying the foregoing conditions can be obtained by extending Figure � 8-1 to reinstate the usual tuple for supplier S5 (see Figure � 8-2 overleaf, and observe in particular that the relations shown as the current values of relvar SP and SSP in that figure are the same as they were in Figure � 8-1).

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 3639-3642). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

As remarked previously by the author regarding an explicit printed page number, I know that 'overleaf' is likewise inapplicable in the Kindle edition but I take liberty to mention it since so far there is not a preponderance of these kind of constructs and to have none should be considered. (Or is it that I'm annoyed that I didn't buy a paper edition?)

Note from the Author or Editor:
When I wrote this book I didn't even know there was going to be a Kindle edition. All such Kindle-specific comments will be acted on in future writings.

Kevin Davis  Mar 08, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 3617-3619
Kindle Locations 3617-3619

6. Suppose we delete the tuple (S1,20) from relvar S. The effect will be to delete all tuples for supplier S1 from relvar SSP. Of course, the rule governing deletes on SSP will now come into play, which will (not unreasonably) have the effect of deleting all tuples for supplier S1 from relvar SP as well.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 3617-3619). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

20 s/b London

Kevin Davis  Mar 08, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 3612-3613
Kindle Locations 3612-3613 [ Ch 8 Ex 1, turning to updates ... ]

2. Suppose we delete all tuples for supplier S1 from relvar SP. The effect will be to delete all tuples for supplier S1 from relvar SSP and also to delete the tuple (S1,20) from relvar S.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 3612-3613). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

20 s/b London

Kevin Davis  Mar 08, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 3413-3418
Kindle Locations 3413-3418

In the Kindle edition there is a �White Sun With Rays� as the JD symbol between the SCP: and the line starting with {{SNO.:

�Actually I don�t think there�s all that much to be said. Recall from Chapter 5 that if DB1 contains just a single relvar R and DB2 contains just projections of R, then DB1 and DB2 are information equivalent only if those projections are obtained by decomposing R in accordance with some join dependency (JD) that holds in R. Well, the following JD does hold in SCP:

<a white sun with rays with white background instead of the asterisk against the page sepia background I expected> { { SNO , CITY } , { PNO , CITY } }

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 3413-3418). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

I appreciate beautiful mathematical and physics texts and I would have likely passed over the symbols flamboyance if it were not for the fact that the background for the symbol is white instead of the full page sepia background. In An Intro to Database Systems: 8th Ed. there is an asterisk with a hollow center for JD but it is still an asterisk. In The Relational Database Dictionary an asterisk is used. In Logic and Databases. the white sun with rays is used. My recollection of other JD denotations involve an asterisk. With all due respect, this reader is not a fan of the white sun with rays!

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/263c/index.htm

Knowing this book has unfortunate differences between media types I was inclined to mention this symbol difference and to also express my appreciation to Don Knuth for his motivations for TeX.

A punter, I be! a pedant, maybe?

Note from the Author or Editor:
But I quite like it. It's not important.

Kevin Davis  Mar 07, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1961-1964
Kindle Locations 1961-1964

An attempt is made to insert a new tuple for supplier S2, with CITY value London, into relvar NLS. That attempt fails, however, because it violates the constraint on relvar NLS that the CITY value in that relvar can never be London. So the update fails overall; the previous step (viz., deleting the original tple for supplier S2 from NLS) is undone, and the net effect is that the database remains unchanged.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1961-1964). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

tple s/b tuple

Kevin Davis  Feb 27, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1942-1945
Kindle Locations 1942-1945

nit ".Note" in:

The existing tuple for supplier S2 is deleted from relvar NLS and a new tuple for that supplier, with CITY value Oslo, is inserted into that same relvar. .Note: I assume for simplicity here (and in examples throughout the book, wherever it?s helpful to do so) that we can talk in terms of deleting and inserting individual tuples as such, rather than relations. Technically, however, you should understand such talk as referring to sets of tuples, where the sets in question just happen to have cardinality one.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1942-1945). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Kevin Davis  Feb 27, 2013 
Printed
Page 66
3rd block of code (of 4), 3rd line

Delete closing parenthesis before the colon at the end of the line.

C.J. Date
C.J. Date
 
Feb 27, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1930-1932
Kindle Locations 1930-1932

S := ( S WHERE CITY &#8800; 'Paris' OR STATUS = 30 ) UNION ( EXTEND S WHERE CITY = 'Paris' AND STATUS &#8800; 30 ) : { STATUS := 30 } ) ;

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1930-1932). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

unbal. parens. L-paren needed following union

Note from the Author or Editor:
There's a bug here but the suggested fix is wrong. The correct fix is: Delete the closing parenthesis before the colon at the end of line 3.

Kevin Davis  Feb 27, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1868-1869
Kindle Locations 1868-1869

One reviewer of an early draft of this book asked why, in the example of relvars S, LS, and NLS, the compensatory actions all had to be cascades. To be specific, he � the reviewer was male �

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1868-1869). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

I just don't know what to make of that!

Note from the Author or Editor:
A bit of political correctness, that's all.

Kevin Davis  Feb 26, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1801-1806
Kindle Locations 1801-1806 [ Section: More on Compensatory Actions ]

It will often be the case that the compensatory actions can be stated in a variety of syntactically distinct but semantically equivalent forms. For example, the delete rule from S to LS and NLS ? ON DELETE d FROM S : DELETE ( d WHERE CITY = 'London' ) FROM LS , DELETE ( d WHERE CITY &#8838; 'London' ) FROM NLS ;

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1801-1806). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

subset? I.e. this part is, only, a reference to the prior:

ON DELETE d FROM S : DELETE ( d WHERE CITY = 'London' ) FROM LS , DELETE ( d WHERE CITY &#8800; 'London' ) FROM NLS ;

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1780-1783). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

P.S. I did notice that two of my posts have been removed (disjoint union cf. math disjoint union; seeming conflict with views and security). With all due humility, what's with that? This O'Reilly errata page led me to believe that "Question or Request for Clarification" was a reasonable submission. And elsewhere the author has solicited ideas on this topic so I trust that, although I may at times be, a wee bit, strident, I am not out of bounds.

Note from the Author or Editor:
In the 3rd bullet point, the Kindle version shows:
DELETE ( d WHERE CITY &#8838; 'London' ) FROM NLS ;

Instead of:
DELETE ( d WHERE CITY &#8800; 'London' ) FROM NLS ;

Kevin Davis  Feb 26, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 4131-4133
Kindle Locations 4131-4133

Example 1: Disjoint Union This example is essentially the inverse of the motivating example from Chapters Chapter � 1 and Chapter � 4.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 4131-4133). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

"Chapters Chapter" is stilted

Note from the Author or Editor:
Another copyeditor addition of which I was unaware.

Kevin Davis  Feb 22, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1447-1457
Kindle Locations 1447-1457

S is equal to the (disjoint) union of LS and NLS:FORALL x &#8712; S ( UNIQUE y &#8712; LS ( x = y ) OR UNIQUE y &#8712; NLS ( x = y ) ) AND FORALL y &#8712; LS ( UNIQUE x &#8712; S ( x = y ) AND FORALL y &#8712; NLS ( UNIQUE x &#8712; S ( x = y )

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1447-1457). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

unbal. parens

Note from the Author or Editor:
Page 45 of the printed book, 4th bullet, 2nd and 3rd lines of the code both need an additional closing paren following the sole closing paren already present.

Kevin Davis  Feb 21, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1282-1284
just before How Not to do it in Ch 3

Second, (a) the mapping between a view and the relvars in terms of which it�s defined should be specified separately and concealed from the user, just as (b) the mapping between a base relvar and physical storage already is specified separately and concealed from the user.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1282-1284). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Strange nit. On the Kindle version the "(a) the" has the expected space following the rt. paren but "(b) the" appears as "(b)the" for all font resizings. I wonder how this looks in the print version? Interesting that the Kindle copy and Windows paste into this buffer shows the requisite space. I'm regretting having purchased the Kindle version in an aesthetic sense. In a practical sense there is lot less drat and bother when it comes to providing feedback.

Note from the Author or Editor:
I wasn't involved in producing the Kindle version and have no access to it.

Kevin Davis  Feb 17, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1232-1233
Ch 3, last paragraph before section: Views Serve a Variety of Purposes

"It follows that we must solve this problem, for otherwise we have to give up on the goal of data independence. (Logical ...

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1232-1233). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

The "mus" in must is italicized but the "t" is not.

Kevin Davis  Feb 15, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1178-1179
Ch 3, Section: The View Update Problem

"Personally I do think views should be supported, for reasons I�ll explain in the section Data Independence on page 34; further, ...

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1178-1179). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Page 34? I still have my vinyl records and paper books so maybe it is just me and the fact that this is my second Kindle book but I don't see any page 34 using a Kindle Reader. soon, or following, and drop the page number?

Note from the Author or Editor:
The reference to page 34 was added by the copyeditor! It's OK for the printed book. I'm sure it's nonsense in the Kindle version, but I don't have access to that.

Kevin Davis  Feb 15, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1110-1111
Ch 2, end note 30

In a sense, therefore, NOT MATCHIG is actually more fundamental than MINUS is.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1110-1111). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

s/b NOT MATCHING

Kevin Davis  Feb 15, 2013 
Other Digital Version
Kindle Locations 1014-1016
Kindle Locations 1014-1016

The Lisp hacker in me sensed mismatched brackets:
SPDB := TUPLE { S ( ( S FROM SPDB ) WHERE NOT ( SNO = 'S1' ) , P ( P FROM SPDB ) , SP ( ( SP FROM SPDB ) WHERE NOT ( SNO = 'S1' ) ) } ;

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 1014-1016). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Rt. paren needed before first comma

Kevin Davis  Feb 14, 2013 
Other Digital Version
729
Kindle location

"For reasons of simplicity and familiarity, however, I?ll stay with the conventional DELETE and INSERT operators throughout the remainder of this book, and I?ll assume throughout the texty

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations 729-730). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Note from the Author or Editor:
This error shows up in the mobi and epub versions, but not in print or pdf.

Kevin Davis  Feb 13, 2013 
Printed
Page 236
Final para., line 2

Delete closing parenthesis following the word ?type?.

C.J. Date
C.J. Date
 
Feb 13, 2013 
Other Digital Version
xvi
Kindle location

"As this latter view is a projection of a restriction, we can infer the effects of updates on it by invoking Date?s rules for updating through projection to determine the effects on the underlying restriction, then invoke the rules for updating though restriction to determine the effects on the underlying base relvar S.

Date, C. J. (2012-12-20). View Updating and Relational Theory (Kindle Locations xvi). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

though s/b through

Kevin Davis  Feb 13, 2013