🐷
BabySqueel
Have you ever used the Squeel gem? It's a really nice way to build complex queries. However, Squeel monkeypatches Active Record internals, because it was aimed at enhancing the existing API with the aim of inclusion into Rails. However, that inclusion never happened, and it left Squeel susceptible to breakage from arbitrary changes in Active Record, eventually burning out the maintainer.
BabySqueel provides a Squeel-like query DSL for Active Record while hopefully avoiding the majority of the version upgrade difficulties via a minimum of monkeypatching.
Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'baby_squeel'
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install baby_squeel
Introduction
With Active Record, you might write something like this:
Post.where('created_at >= ?', 2.weeks.ago)
But then someone tells you, "Hey, you should use Arel!". So you convert your query to use Arel:
Post.where(Post.arel_table[:created_at].gteq(2.weeks.ago))
Well, that's great, but it's also pretty verbose. Why don't you give BabySqueel a try:
Post.where.has { created_at >= 2.weeks.ago }
Quick note
BabySqueel's blocks use instance_eval
, which means you won't have access to your instance variables or methods. Don't worry, there's a really easy solution. Just give arity to the block:
Post.where.has { |post| post.created_at >= 2.weeks.ago }
Usage
Okay, so we have some models:
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :author
has_many :comments
end
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :posts
has_many :comments, through: :posts
end
class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :post
end
Selects
Post.selecting { (id + 5).as('id_plus_five') }
# SELECT ("posts"."id" + 5) AS id_plus_five FROM "posts"
Post.selecting { id.sum }
# SELECT SUM("posts"."id") FROM "posts"
Post.joins(:author).selecting { [id, author.id] }
# SELECT "posts"."id", "authors"."id" FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
Wheres
Post.where.has { title == 'My Post' }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# WHERE "posts"."title" = 'My Post'
Post.where.has { title =~ 'My P%' }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# WHERE ("posts"."title" LIKE 'My P%')
Author.where.has { (name =~ 'Ray%') & (id < 5) | (name.lower =~ 'zane%') & (id > 100) }
# SELECT "authors".* FROM "authors"
# WHERE ("authors"."name" LIKE 'Ray%' AND "authors"."id" < 5 OR LOWER("authors"."name") LIKE 'zane%' AND "authors"."id" > 100)
Post.joins(:author).where.has { author.name == 'Ray' }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# WHERE "authors"."name" = 'Ray'
Post.joins(author: :posts).where.has { author.posts.title =~ '%fun%' }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# INNER JOIN "posts" "posts_authors" ON "posts_authors"."author_id" = "authors"."id"
# WHERE ("posts_authors"."title" LIKE '%fun%')
Orders
Post.ordering { [id.desc, title.asc] }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# ORDER BY "posts"."id" DESC, "posts"."title" ASC
Post.ordering { (id * 5).desc }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# ORDER BY "posts"."id" * 5 DESC
Post.select(:author_id).group(:author_id).ordering { id.count.desc }
# SELECT "posts"."author_id" FROM "posts"
# GROUP BY "posts"."author_id"
# ORDER BY COUNT("posts"."id") DESC
Post.joins(:author).ordering { author.id.desc }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# ORDER BY "authors"."id" DESC
Joins
Post.joining { author }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
Post.joining { [author.outer, comments] }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# INNER JOIN "comments" ON "comments"."post_id" = "posts"."id"
Post.joining { author.comments }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# INNER JOIN "posts" "posts_authors_join" ON "posts_authors_join"."author_id" = "authors"."id"
# INNER JOIN "comments" ON "comments"."post_id" = "posts_authors_join"."id"
Post.joining { author.outer.comments.outer }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "posts" "posts_authors_join" ON "posts_authors_join"."author_id" = "authors"."id"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "comments" ON "comments"."post_id" = "posts_authors_join"."id"
Post.joining { author.comments.outer }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "posts" "posts_authors_join" ON "posts_authors_join"."author_id" = "authors"."id"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "comments" ON "comments"."post_id" = "posts_authors_join"."id"
Post.joining { author.outer.posts }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# INNER JOIN "posts" "posts_authors" ON "posts_authors"."author_id" = "authors"."id"
Post.joining { author.on((author.id == author_id) | (author.name == title)) }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON ("authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id" OR "authors"."name" = "posts"."title")
Post.joining { |post| post.author.as('a').on { (id == post.author_id) | (name == post.title) } }
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" "a" ON ("a"."id" = "posts"."author_id" OR "a"."name" = "posts"."title")
Picture.joining { imageable.of(Post) }
# SELECT "pictures".* FROM "pictures"
# INNER JOIN "posts" ON "posts"."id" = "pictures"."imageable_id" AND "pictures"."imageable_type" = 'Post'
Picture.joining { imageable.of(Post).outer }
# SELECT "pictures".* FROM "pictures"
# LEFT OUTER JOIN "posts" ON "posts"."id" = "pictures"."imageable_id" AND "pictures"."imageable_type" = 'Post'
Grouping
Post.selecting { id.count }.grouping { author_id }.when_having { id.count > 5 }
# SELECT COUNT("posts"."id") FROM "posts"
# GROUP BY "posts"."author_id"
# HAVING (COUNT("posts"."id") > 5)
Functions
Post.selecting { coalesce(author_id, 5).as('author_id_with_default') }
# SELECT coalesce("posts"."author_id", 5) AS author_id_with_default FROM "posts"
Subqueries
Post.joins(:author).where.has {
author.id.in Author.select(:id).where(name: 'Ray')
}
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# WHERE "authors"."id" IN (
# SELECT "authors"."id" FROM "authors"
# WHERE "authors"."name" = 'Ray'
# )
Exists
Post.where.has {
exists Post.where.has { author_id == 1 }
}
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# WHERE (
# EXISTS(
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# WHERE "posts"."author_id" = 1
# )
# )
Custom SQL Operators
authors = Author.selecting { name.op('||', quoted('-dizzle')).as('swag') }
# SELECT "authors"."name" || '-dizzle' AS swag FROM "authors"
authors.first.swag #=> 'Ray Zane-dizzle'
Querying tables without Active Record models
table = BabySqueel[:some_table]
Post.joining {
table.on(table.post_id == id)
}.where.has {
table.some_column == 1
}
Polymorphism
Given this polymorphism:
# app/models/picture.rb
belongs_to :imageable, polymorphic: true
# app/models/post.rb
has_many :pictures, as: :imageable
The query might look like this:
Picture.
joining { imageable.of(Post) }.
selecting { imageable.of(Post).id }
Helpers
# SQL Literals
Post.select('1 as one').ordering { sql('one').desc }
# Quoting
Post.selecting { title.op('||', quoted('diddly')) }
# Functions
Post.selecting { func('coalesce', id, 1) }
Sifters
Sifters are like little snippets of conditions that can take arguments.
class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
sifter :funny do
title == 'rabies'
end
end
class Author < ActiveRecord::Base
sifter :name_contains do |string|
name =~ "%#{string}%"
end
end
Post.joins(:author).where.has {
sift(:funny) | author.sift(:name_contains, 'blergh')
}
# SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts"
# INNER JOIN "authors" ON "authors"."id" = "posts"."author_id"
# WHERE ("posts"."title" = 'rabies' OR "authors"."name" LIKE '%blergh%')
What's what?
The following methods give you access to BabySqueel's DSL:
BabySqueel | Active Record Equivalent |
---|---|
selecting |
select |
ordering |
order |
joining |
joins |
grouping |
group |
where.has |
where |
when_having |
having |
Migrating from Squeel
Check out the migration guide.
Development
- Pick an Active Record version to develop against, then export it:
export AR=6.1.4
. - Run
bin/setup
to install dependencies. - Run
rake
to run the specs.
You can also run bin/console
to open up a prompt where you'll have access to some models to experiment with.
Contributing
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/rzane/baby_squeel.
License
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.