I know some of you are users of Notion, one of my favorite note-taking apps. For Homework 02 in my CS 3200 - Database Design class, you will need to produce relational algebra expressions for some questions. LaTeX is a popular typesetting language used extensively in research and academia. Some of you may even already know it. However, even if you don’t, you can produce some nice-looking equations that you can screenshot and paste into your homework submission.

Here is a quick overview of the general features of writing LaTeX Math Equations from the Notion Team: https://www.notion.so/help/math-equations

I’ll also provide some examples below for you to work from as well as a list of important commands you might need.

Start by adding a Block Equation to a Notion Document

That will provide you a popup where you can type your LaTeX equation. Here are some of the primitives you’ll need for relational algebra:

• $\sigma$ - \\sigma
• $\pi$ - \\pi
• $\pi_{(A)}(R)$ - \\pi_{(A)}(R)
  • The _ indicates subscript. Anything in the {...} after the _ will be part of the subscripted text.
• $\rho$ - \\rho
• $\leftarrow$ as in $TempRel \leftarrow \sigma_{a<10}(R)$ - \\leftarrow
• $\times$ - \\times for Cartesian Product
• $\Join$ - \\Join for the join operator… notice the capital J.
• $\land$ - \\land for logical and
• $\cup$ - \\cup for Union