important, because the attribute name appears with its value. By this definition, the two tuples shown in Figure 3.3 are identical. This makes sense at an abstract level, since there really is no reason to prefer having one attribute value appear before another in a tuple. When a relation is implemented as a file, the attributes are physically ordered as fields within a record. We will generally use the first definition of relation, where the attributes and the values within tuples are ordered, because it simplifies much of the notation.However,the alternative definition given here is more general.5
Values and NULLs in the Tuples. Each value in a tuple is an atomic value; that is, it is not divisible into components within the framework of the basic relational model. Hence, composite and multivalued attributes (see Chapter 7) are not allowed.This model is sometimes called the flat relational model.Much of the theory behind the relational model was developed with this assumption in mind, which is called the first normal form assumption.6 Hence, multivalued attributes must be represented by separate relations,and composite attributes are represented only by their simple component attributes in the basic relational model.7 An important concept is that of NULLvalues,which are used to represent the values of attributes that may be unknown or may not apply to a tuple. A special value, calledNULL,is used in these cases.For example,in Figure 3.1,some STUDENT tuples have NULL for their office phones because they do not have an office (that is, office phone does not apply to these students). Another student has a NULL for home phone,presumably