Re:PRQL – A proposal for a better SQL
by barrkel on Monday January 24, 2022 @06:14PM
(#30065474)
It's a fair sentiment, but it can be handled without losing directional flow and composability, some of the bigger advantages of reworking SQL.
One idea would be along the lines of a function prototype: a declaration, up front, about the columns and types that a query is expected to return. It's a good place to put documentation, it's redundant information which should protect against mistakes but not so redundant that it would be too taxing - the author should know what the query returns. The prototype would only be used for validation of column names and types.
Another idea would be requiring the last element in a query to be a projection, a bit like the return statement in a function body: here's what I'm returning out of the grand set of symbols available (e.g. via various joins) in scope from previous operations in the flow.
One idea would be along the lines of a function prototype: a declaration, up front, about the columns and types that a query is expected to return. It's a good place to put documentation, it's redundant information which should protect against mistakes but not so redundant that it would be too taxing - the author should know what the query returns. The prototype would only be used for validation of column names and types.
Another idea would be requiring the last element in a query to be a projection, a bit like the return statement in a function body: here's what I'm returning out of the grand set of symbols available (e.g. via various joins) in scope from previous operations in the flow.