SQL and Relational Theory, 2nd Edition

RANGE VARIABLES

As we saw in Chapter 10, a range variable in the relational model is a variable—a variable in the sense of logic, that is, not the usual programming language sense—that ranges over the set of tuples in some relation (or the set of rows in some table, in SQL terms). In SQL, such variables are defined by means of AS specifications in the context of either FROM or explicit JOIN. Here’s a simple example of the FROM case:

     SELECT SX.SNO
     FROM   S AS SX
     WHERE  SX.STATUS > 15

SX here is a range variable that ranges over table S; in other words, its permitted values are rows of table S. You can think of the SELECT expression overall as being evaluated as follows. First, the range variable takes on one of its permitted values, say the row for supplier S1. Is the status value in that row greater than 15? If it is, then supplier number S1 appears in the result. Next, the range variable moves on to another row of table S, say the row for supplier S2; again, if the status value in that row is greater than 15, then the relevant supplier number appears in the result. And so on, exhaustively, until variable SX has taken on all of its permitted values.

Note: SQL calls a name such as SX in the example a correlation name. However, it doesn’t seem to have a term for the thing that such a name names; certainly there’s no such thing in SQL as a “correlation.” (Note in particular that the term doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with correlated subqueries, which are discussed in the next ...