Rails selecting aliases in query - ruby-on-rails-3.1

So I have 2 tables actor and actor2role. The latter is a lookup (junction) table to relate actor, role and dvd. I need to create a query with aliases, so I have this method:
def self.remove_duplicate_by_id(id)
offendingActor = self.find(id).actor # get the actor's name
ids = self.find_by_sql("SELECT MIN(id) AS minId, MAX(id) AS maxId, actor FROM `dvd_actor` WHERE actor = '#{offendingActor}'")
rolesForOffender = ids.actor2role # throws error
end
The problem is that ids is not an ActiveRecord object so I can't use the actor2role method (which is a relationship I've established between the 2 tables in Rails and works when you do something like Actor.first.actor2role.
so the questions is: Am I doomed to do this manually and then issue another sql query to recreate what the actor2role method would accomplish or is there some way to do this with Rails objects?
I'd really like to do it all natively if possible because I also have to issue these queries:
UPDATE dvd_actor2role SET actorid = $d->minId WHERE actorId = $d->maxId");
DELETE FROM dvd_actor2role WHERE actorId = $d->maxId LIMIT 1");
Is this even possible?

In the end I went with this which seems to do the trick. If anyone can spot any code that could be optimized, or something inherently wrong (and feels like chiming in) please feel free to comment.
actorObject = self.find_by_id(id) # get the object because we need it below for other queries
offendingActor = actorObject.actor
ids = self.select("MIN(id) AS minId, MAX(id) AS maxId, id, actor").find_by_actor(offendingActor)
rolesForOffender = actorObject.actor2role
rolesForOffender.each do |r|
# first find out if the relationship already exists or we get a SQL error for the foreign key relationship.
exists = Actor2role.where("actorId = ? AND roleId = ?", ids.minId, r.roleId)
if exists.nil?
Actor2role.update_all("actorId = #{ids.minId}, actorId = #{ids.maxId}")
end
end
self.destroy(ids.maxId) # delete this guy in actor table
end

Related

select two calculations with one query in active record

In SQL I would do a "select count(*), min(price) from products". What is the best way to do this with one query in active records?
Right now I have to do two queries, which doesn't feel right.
result_count = Product.where(filter_string).count
result_min = Product.where(filter_string).minimum(:price)
You can add the string in a select method like this:
result_stats = Product.select("count(*) as product_count, min(price) as price_min").where(filter_string)[0]
result_stats["product_count"] # => 123
result_stats["price_min"] # => 12.35
The limitation here is that this will initialize Product objects with only those fields accessible (in this case only 1 object since there's no group by clause). In this case, it's not really an issue, but something worth knowing if you get an error when you try to access relations.
http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html#selecting-specific-fields

ActiveRecord 4 cannot retrieve "select AS" field

Ok, I feel really stupid for asking this, but it's driving me nuts and I can't figure it out. The docs say I should be able to use select AS in a Rails/ActiveRecord query. So:
d = Dvd.where(id: 1).select("title AS my_title")
Is a valid query and if I do a to_sql on it, it produces the expected SQL:
SELECT title AS my_title FROM `dvd` WHERE `dvd`.`id` = 1
However, d.my_title will give an error:
NoMethodError: undefined method `my_title' for #<ActiveRecord::Relation
I need to be able to use AS since the columns I want to retrieve from different joins have the same name so I can't access them the "regular" way and have to resort to using AS.
I also don't want to resort to using find_by_sql for future compatibility and a possible switch form Mysql to PostGresql.
Just to clarify, what I'm really trying to do is write this SQL in a Railsy way:
SELECT tracks.name AS track_name, artists.name AS artist_name, composers.name AS composer_name, duration
FROM `tracks_cds`
INNER JOIN `tracks` ON `tracks`.`id` = `tracks_cds`.`track_id`
INNER JOIN `artists` ON `artists`.`id` = `tracks_cds`.`artist_id`
INNER JOIN `composers` ON `composers`.`id` = `tracks_cds`.`composer_id`
WHERE cd_id = cd.id
The top example was just a simplification of the fact that SELECT AS will not give you an easy way to refer to custom fields which I find hard to believe.
ActiveRecord automatically creates getter and setter methods for attributes based on the column names in the database, so there will be none defined for my_title.
Regarding the same common names, why not just do this:
d = Dvd.where(id: 1).select("dvds.title")
You can write your sql query and then just pass into ActiveRecord's execute method
query = "SELECT title AS my_title FROM `dvd` WHERE `dvd`.`id` = 1"
result = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query)

Rails 3 Query: How to get most viewed products/articles/whatever?

I always wondered how to query and get results that doesn't fit in a model. Similar how it's done using LINQ and projecting into anonymous objects.
So here's the simple schema:
# Product.rb
class Product < ActiveRecord::Base
has_many :product_views
# attributes: id, name, description, created_at, updated_at
end
# ProductView.rb
class ProductView < ActiveRecord::Base
belongs_to :product
# attributes: id, product_id, request_ip, created_at, updated_at
end
Basically I need to get a list of Products (preferably just id and name) along with the count of views it had. Obviously ordered by view count desc.
This is the SQL I want to get:
select
p.id,
p.name,
count(pv.product_id) as views
from
product_views pv
inner join
products p on pv.product_id = p.id
group by
pv.product_id
order by
count(product_id) desc
I tried the following and similar, but I'm getting ProductView objects, and I would like to get just an array or whatever.
ProductView.includes(:product)
.group('product_id')
.select("products.id, products.name, count(product_id)")
This kind of thing are trivial using plain SQL or LINQ, but I find myself stucked with this kind of queries in Rails. Maybe I'm not thinking in the famous 'rails way', maybe I'm missing something obvious.
So how do you do this kind of queries in Rails 3, and specifically this one? Any suggestions to improve the way I'm doing this are welcome.
Thank you
You can use Arel to do what you're looking for:
products = Product.arel_table
product_views = ProductView.arel_table
# expanded for readability:
sql = products.join(product_views)
.on(product_views[:product_id].eq(product[:id]))
.group(product_views[:product_id])
.order('views DESC')
.project(products[:id],
products[:name],
product_views[:id].count.as('views'))
products_with_views = Product.connection.select_all(sql.to_sql) # or select_rows to just get the values
Yes, it is long, but Arel is a very smart way to deal with creating complex queries that can be reused regardless of the database type.
Within a class method in the Product class:
Product.includes(:product_views).all.map { |p| [p.id, p.name, p.product_views.size] }
Then sort it however you want.
I don't know if there's a way to do it using your models. I would probably resort to:
Product.connection.select_rows(sql)
Which will give you an array of arrays. You can use select_all if you'd rather have an array of hashes.
Try this:
#product = Product.find(#product_id)
#product_views = #product.product_views.count
(Source - http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Calculations/ClassMethods.html#M000292)
Hope this helps!

How to write out data field as Ruby code?

I store sql like select * from classes where owner_id = #{#current_user.id} in my database.
Can any one tell me how write out the above sql as ruby code so the #{#current_user.id} can be replaced dynamically as the id of the current signed in user?
Without any security/input validation in mind, you could do like this:
q_template = "select * from classes where owner_id = %s"
and to "populate" it, you could do like this:
sample_input = "40"
new_query = q_template % sample_input
# this will create q_template = "select * from classes where owner_id = 40"
If you end up using this, make sure you check your input for malicious things before feeding it to the database.

How to remember results from querying SQLAlchemy relations (to implement caching)?

Suppose I have a mapped class Article. It has a relation category that does a query each time I access it (article.category would issue a query to get the category or article).
How do I proxy the article.category call so that the result is queried from the database, then remembered and then returned?
Thanks, Boda Cydo.
Does SA really issue a query every time you access the relation in the same session? IMO, it should not happen, as the result should get cached automatically within the session.
In order to check that no SQL is issued, just turn on logging and see for yourself:
metadata.bind.echo = 'debug'
c = session.query(Child).first() # issues SELECT on your child table(s)
print "child: ", c
print "c.parent: ", c.parent # issues SELECT on your parent table, then prints
print "c.parent: ", c.parent # just prints (no SQL)
print "c.parent: ", c.parent # just prints (no SQL)
Shall your code work otherwise by default, please provide code snippet.
In case you really just need to cache the result, see below (very similar solution to another question you posted):
class MyChild(Base):
__tablename__ = 'MyChild'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
parent = relation('Parent')
# ... other mapped properties
def __init__(self):
_parent_cached = None
#property
def parent_cached(self):
if self._parent_cached is None:
self._parent_cached = self.parent
But in order to have the result when your object is detached from the session you must call this property before detaching. (Also it does not handle situation when the parent is None. Do you always have parent?).
The option with eager load is simplier and once you load the object, you should have the relation loaded already (key is to have lazy=False):
class MyChild(Base):
__tablename__ = 'MyChild'
id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
parent = relation('Parent', lazy=False)
# ... other mapped properties
...

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