Relational Playground: Teaching the Duality of Relational Algebra and SQL

Abstract

Students in introductory data management courses are often taught how to write queries in SQL. This is a useful and practical skill, but it gives limited insight into how queries are processed by relational database engines. In contrast, relational algebra is a commonly used internal representation of queries by database engines, but can be challenging for students to grasp. We developed a tool we call Relational Playground for database students to explore the connection between relational algebra and SQL.