## Abstract ##
Arel is a Relational Algebra for Ruby. It 1) simplifies the generation complex of SQL queries and it 2) adapts to various RDBMS systems. It is intended to be a framework framework; that is, you can build your own ORM with it, focusing on innovative object and collection modeling as opposed to database compatibility and query generation.
## Status ##
Arel is alpha software, BEWARE. Nevertheless, at this point, many (most?) SELECT queries can be composed, including very very complicated ones. Writes are only experimental for now.
For the moment, Arel uses ActiveRecord's connection adapters to connect to the various engines, connection pooling, perform quoting, and do type conversion. On the horizon is the use of DataObjects instead.
The long term goal, following both LINQ and DataMapper, is to have Arel adapt to engines beyond RDBMS, including XML, IMAP, YAML, etc.
## A Gentle Introduction ##
Generating a query with ARel is simple. For example, in order to produce
SELECT * FROM users
you construct a table relation and convert it to sql:
users = Arel::Table.new(:users)
users.to_sql
In fact, you will probably never call `#to_sql`. Rather, you'll work with data from the table directly. You can iterate through all rows in the `users` table like this:
users.each { |user| ... }
In other words, Arel relations implement Ruby's Enumerable interface. Let's have a look at a concrete example:
users.first # => { users[:id] => 1, users[:name] => 'bob' }
As you can see, Arel converts the rows from the database into a hash, the values of which are sublimated to the appropriate Ruby primitive (integers, strings, and so forth).
### More Sophisticated <strike>Queries</strike> Relations ###
Here is a whirlwind tour through the most common relational operators. These will probably cover 80% of all interaction with the database.
First is the 'restriction' operator, `where`:
users.where(users[:name].eq('amy'))
# => SELECT * FROM users WHERE users.name = 'amy'
What would, in SQL, be part of the `SELECT` clause is called in Arel a `projection`:
users.project(users[:id]) # => SELECT users.id FROM users
Joins resemble SQL strongly:
users.join(photos).on(users[:id].eq(photos[:user_id]))
# => SELECT * FROM users INNER JOIN photos ON users.id = photos.user_id
What are called `LIMIT` and `OFFSET` in SQL are called `take` and `skip` in Arel:
users.take(5) # => SELECT * FROM users LIMIT 5
users.skip(4) # => SELECT * FROM users OFFSET 4
`GROUP BY` is called `group`:
users.group(users[:name]) # => SELECT * FROM users GROUP BY name
The best property of the Relational Algebra is its "composability", or closure under all operations. For example, to select AND project, just "chain" the method invocations:
users \
.where(users[:name].eq('amy')) \
.project(users[:id]) \
# => SELECT users.id FROM users WHERE users.name = 'amy'
All operators are chainable in this way, and they are chainable any number of times, in any order.
users.where(users[:name].eq('bob')).where(users[:age].lt(25))
Of course, many of the operators take multiple arguments, so the last example can be written more tersely:
users.where(users[:name].eq('bob'), users[:age].lt(25))
The `OR` operator is not yet supported. It will work like this:
users.where(users[:name].eq('bob').or(users[:age].lt(25)))
The `AND` operator will behave similarly.
### The Crazy Features ###
The examples above are fairly simple and other libraries match or come close to matching the expressiveness of Arel (e.g., `Sequel` in Ruby).
#### Complex Joins ####
Where Arel really shines in its ability to handle complex joins and aggregations. As a first example, let's consider an "adjacency list", a tree represented in a table. Suppose we have a table `comments`, representing a threaded discussion:
comments = Arel::Table.new(:comments)
And this table has the following attributes:
comments.attributes # => [comments[:id], comments[:body], comments[:parent_id]]
The `parent_id` column is a foreign key from the `comments` table to itself. Now, joining a table to itself requires aliasing in SQL. In fact, you may alias in Arel as well:
replies = comments.alias
comments_with_replies = \
comments.join(replies).on(replies[:parent_id].eq(comments[:id]))
# => SELECT * FROM comments INNER JOIN comments AS comments_2 WHERE comments_2.parent_id = comments.id
Arel will always produce a unique name for every table joined in the relation, and it will always do so deterministically to exploit query caching. Typically, the problem with automated table aliasing is that extracting data out of the result set when everything has a random name is quite hard. Arel makes this simple: to get just certain columns from the result set, treat a row like a hash:
comments_with_replies.first[replies[:body]]
This will return the first comment's reply's body.
Arel can actually perform the aliasing automatically, without the need for the programmer to explicitly call `alias`. However, this makes it difficult to specify the join condition:
comments.join(comments).on(comments[:parent_id].eq(comments[:id]))
# => SELECT * FROM comments INNER JOIN comments AS comments_2 WHERE comments.parent_id = comments.id
This does NOT have the same meaning as the previous query. As an alternative to aliasing, there is a convenient block form:
comments.join(comments) { |comments, replies| replies[:parent_id].eq(comments[:id]) }
Of course, without the `alias`, you will have a harder time extracting `replies` data from a row.
#### Complex Aggregations ####
My personal favorite feature of Arel, and certainly the most difficult to implement, is closure under joining even in the presence of aggregations. This is a feature where the Relational Algebra is fundamentally easier to use than SQL.
