5. Parameterized Queries

In this chapter we learn how to construct parameterized queries, and introduce the Composite typeclass.

Setting Up

Same as last chapter, so if you’re still set up you can skip this section. Otherwise let’s set up a Transactor and YOLO mode.

import doobie.imports._
import scalaz._, Scalaz._
val xa = DriverManagerTransactor[IOLite](
  "org.postgresql.Driver", "jdbc:postgresql:world", "postgres", ""
)
import xa.yolo._

We’re still playing with the country table, shown here for reference.

CREATE TABLE country (
  code       character(3)  NOT NULL,
  name       text          NOT NULL,
  population integer       NOT NULL,
  gnp        numeric(10,2)
  -- more columns, but we won't use them here
)

Adding a Parameter

Let’s set up our Country class and re-run last chapter’s query just to review.

case class Country(code: String, name: String, pop: Int, gnp: Option[Double])

scala> (sql"select code, name, population, gnp from country"
     |   .query[Country].process.take(5).quick.unsafePerformIO)
  Country(AFG,Afghanistan,22720000,Some(5976.0))
  Country(NLD,Netherlands,15864000,Some(371362.0))
  Country(ANT,Netherlands Antilles,217000,Some(1941.0))
  Country(ALB,Albania,3401200,Some(3205.0))
  Country(DZA,Algeria,31471000,Some(49982.0))

Still works. Ok.

So let’s factor our query into a method and add a parameter that selects only the countries with a population larger than some value the user will provide. We insert the minPop argument into our SQL statement as $minPop, just as if we were doing string interpolation.

def biggerThan(minPop: Int) = sql"""
  select code, name, population, gnp
  from country
  where population > $minPop
""".query[Country]

And when we run the query … surprise, it works!

scala> biggerThan(150000000).quick.unsafePerformIO // Let's see them all
  Country(BRA,Brazil,170115000,Some(776739.0))
  Country(IDN,Indonesia,212107000,Some(84982.0))
  Country(IND,India,1013662000,Some(447114.0))
  Country(CHN,China,1277558000,Some(982268.0))
  Country(PAK,Pakistan,156483000,Some(61289.0))
  Country(USA,United States,278357000,Some(8510700.0))

So what’s going on? It looks like we’re just dropping a string literal into our SQL string, but actually we’re constructing a proper parameterized PreparedStatement, and the minProp value is ultimately set via a call to setInt (see “Diving Deeper” below).

doobie allows you to interpolate values of any type with a Atom instance, which includes

• any JVM type that has a target mapping defined by the JDBC specification,
• vendor-specific types defined by extension packages,
• custom column types that you define, and
• single-member products (case classes, typically) of any of the above.

We will discuss custom type mappings in a later chapter.

Multiple Parameters

Multiple parameters work the same way. No surprises here.

scala> def populationIn(range: Range) = sql"""
     |   select code, name, population, gnp
     |   from country
     |   where population > ${range.min}
     |   and   population < ${range.max}
     | """.query[Country]
populationIn: (range: Range)doobie.util.query.Query0[Country]

scala> populationIn(150000000 to 200000000).quick.unsafePerformIO
  Country(BRA,Brazil,170115000,Some(776739.0))
  Country(PAK,Pakistan,156483000,Some(61289.0))

Dealing with IN Clauses

A common irritant when dealing with SQL literals is the desire to inline a sequence of arguments into an IN clause, but SQL does not support this notion (nor does JDBC do anything to assist). doobie supports this via statement fragments (see Chapter 8).

def populationIn(range: Range, codes: NonEmptyList[String]) = {
  val q = fr"""
    select code, name, population, gnp
    from country
    where population > ${range.min}
    and   population < ${range.max}
    and   """ ++ Fragments.in(fr"code", codes) // code IN (...)
  q.query[Country]
}

Note that the IN clause must be non-empty, so codes is a NonEmptyList.

Running this query gives us the desired result.

scala> populationIn(100000000 to 300000000, NonEmptyList("USA", "BRA", "PAK", "GBR")).quick.unsafePerformIO
  Country(BRA,Brazil,170115000,Some(776739.0))
  Country(PAK,Pakistan,156483000,Some(61289.0))
  Country(USA,United States,278357000,Some(8510700.0))

Diving Deeper

In the previous chapter’s Diving Deeper we saw how a query constructed with the sql interpolator is just sugar for the process constructor defined in the doobie.hi.connection module (aliased as HC). Here we see that the second parameter, a PreparedStatementIO program, is used to set the query parameters. The third parameter specifies a chunking factor; rows are buffered in chunks of the specified size.

import scalaz.stream.Process

val q = """
  select code, name, population, gnp
  from country
  where population > ?
  and   population < ?
  """

def proc(range: Range): Process[ConnectionIO, Country] =
  HC.process[Country](q, HPS.set((range.min, range.max)), 512)

Which produces the same output.

scala> proc(150000000 to 200000000).quick.unsafePerformIO
  Country(BRA,Brazil,170115000,Some(776739.0))
  Country(PAK,Pakistan,156483000,Some(61289.0))

But how does the set constructor work?

When reading a row or setting parameters in the high-level API, we require an instance of Composite[A] for the input or output type. It is not immediately obvious when using the sql interpolator, but the parameters (each of which require an Atom instance, to be discussed in a later chapter) are gathered into an HList and treated as a single composite parameter.

Composite instances are derived automatically for column types that have Atom instances, and for products of other composites (via shapeless.ProductTypeclass). We can summon their instances thus:

scala> Composite[(String, Boolean)]
res7: doobie.util.composite.Composite[(String, Boolean)] = doobie.util.composite$LowerPriorityComposite$$anon$8@df21c4f

scala> Composite[Country]
res8: doobie.util.composite.Composite[Country] = doobie.util.composite$LowerPriorityComposite$$anon$8@22ea8706

The set constructor takes an argument of any type with a Composite instance and returns a program that sets the unrolled sequence of values starting at parameter index 1 by default. Some other variations are shown here.

// Set parameters as (String, Boolean) starting at index 1 (default)
HPS.set(("foo", true))

// Set parameters as (String, Boolean) starting at index 1 (explicit)
HPS.set(1, ("foo", true))

// Set parameters individually
HPS.set(1, "foo") *> HPS.set(2, true)

// Or out of order, who cares?
HPS.set(2, true) *> HPS.set(1, "foo")

Using the low level doobie.free constructors there is no typeclass-driven type mapping, so each parameter type requires a distinct method, exactly as in the underlying JDBC API. The purpose of the Atom typeclass (discussed in a later chapter) is to abstract away these differences.

FPS.setString(1, "foo") *> FPS.setBoolean(2, true)