easier way to eval a string from file? - ruby

I would like to store a mySQL query in a file. I plan on having to string replace parts of it with variables from my program.
I played around with the 'eval' method in ruby, and it works, but it feels a little clumsy.
Using irb I did the following.
>> val = 7
=> 7
>> myQuery = "select * from t where t.val = \#{val}" #escaped hash simulates reading it from file
=> "select * from t where t.val = \#{val}"
>> myQuery = eval "\"#{myQuery}\""
=> "select * from t where t.val = 7"
As you can see it works! But to make it work I had to wrap the 'myQuery' variable in escaped quotes, and the whole thing looks a little messy.
Is there an easier way?

Generally, you should not use string interpolation to build SQL queries. Doing so will leave you open to SQL injection attacks, in which someone supplies input that has a closing quote character, followed by another query. For instance, using your example:
>> val = '7; DROP TABLE users;'
=> "7; DROP TABLE users;"
>> myQuery = "select * from t where t.val = \#{val}"
=> "select * from t where t.val = \#{val}"
>> eval "\"#{myQuery}\""
=> "select * from t where t.val = 7; DROP TABLE users;"
Even without malicious input, you could simply accidentally execute code that you weren't intending to, if for instance someone included quote marks in their input.
It is also generally a good idea to avoid using eval unless absolutely necessary; it makes it possible that if you have a bug in your program, someone could execute arbitrary code by getting it passed to eval, and it makes code less maintainable since some of your source code will be loaded from places other than your regular source tree.
So, how do you do this instead? Database APIs generally include a prepare command, which can prepare to execute an SQL statement. Within that statement, you can include ? characters, which represent parameters that can be substituted within that statement. You can then call execute on the statement, passing in values for those parameters, and they will be executed safely, with no way for someone to get an arbitrary piece of SQL executed.
Here's how it would work in your example. This is assuming you are using this MySQL/Ruby module; if you are using a different one, it will probably have a similar interface, though it may not be exactly the same.
>> val = 7
>> db = Mysql.new(hostname, username, password, databasename)
>> query = db.prepare("select * from t where t.val = ?")
>> query.execute(val)

You can use ERB templates instead - read them from the files and interpolate the variables (convert <%= something %> tags into the actual values).
Here's the official doc, it's quite complete and straightforward.

You can use printf like syntax for string replacement
"123 %s 456" % 23 # => "123 23 456"
This only works if your program knows in advance which variables to use.

Could you use parametrized queries?
I don't know off hand how to do so in ruby, but basically it involves marking your SQL statement with commands that SQL recognizes are replaces with parameters that are sent in addition to your statement.
This link might help: http://sqlite-ruby.rubyforge.org/sqlite3/faq.html#538670816

Related

How can I use 'update where' select in FoxPro?

I am totally new to FoxPro (and quite fluent with MySQL).
I am trying to execute this query in FoxPro:
update expertcorr_memoinv.dbf set 'Memo' = (select 'Memo' from expertcorr_memoinv.dbf WHERE Keymemo='10045223') WHERE Keydoc like "UBOA"
I got the error:
function name is missing )
How can I fix it?
In FoxPro SQL statements you would not 'single-quote' column names. In Visual FoxPro version 9 the following sequence would run without errors:
CREATE TABLE expertcorr_memoinv (keydoc Char(20), keymemo M, Memo M)
Update expertcorr_memoinv.dbf set Memo = (select Memo from expertcorr_memoinv.dbf WHERE Keymemo='10045223') WHERE Keydoc like "UBOA"
If you would provide a few sample data and an expected result, we could see whether the line you posted would do what you want after correcting the single-quoted 'Memo' names.
NB 1: "Memo" is a reserved word in FoxPro.
NB 2: As you know, the ";" semicolon is a line-continuation in Visual FoxPro, so that a longer SQL statement can be full; of; those;
So that the Update one-liner could be written as:
Update expertcorr_memoinv ;
Set Memo = (Select Memo From expertcorr_memoinv ;
WHERE Keymemo='10045223') ;
WHERE Keydoc Like "UBOA"
NB 3: Alternatively, you can SQL Update .... From... in Visual FoxPro, similar to the Microsoft SQL Server feature. See How do I UPDATE from a SELECT in SQL Server?
I would do that just as Stefan showed.
In VFP, you also have a chance to use non-SQL statements which make it easier to express yourself. From your code it feels like KeyMemo is a unique field:
* Get the Memo value into an array
* where KeyMemo = '10045223'
* or use that as a variable also
local lcKey
lcKey = '10045223'
Select Memo From expertcorr_memoinv ;
WHERE Keymemo=m.lcKey ;
into array laMemo
* Update with that value
Update expertcorr_memoinv ;
Set Memo = laMemo[1] ;
WHERE Keydoc Like "UBOA"
This is only for divide & conquer strategy that one may find easier to follow. Other than that writing it with a single SQL is just fine.
PS: In VFP you don't use backticks at all.
Single quotes, double quotes and opening closing square brackets are not used as identifiers but all those three are used for string literals.
'This is a string literal'
"This is a string literal"
[This is a string literal]
"My name is John O'hara"
'We need 3.5" disk'
[Put 3.5" disk into John's computer]
There are subtle differences between them, which I think is an advanced topic and that you may never need to know.
Also [] is used for array indexer.
Any one of them could also be used for things like table name, alias name, file name ... (name expression) - still they are string literals, parentheses make it a name expression. ie:
select * from ('MyTable') ...
copy to ("c:\my folder\my file.txt") type delimited

ruby regex not working to remove class name from sql

I have:
BEFORE Gsub sql ::::
SELECT record_type.* FROM record_type WHERE (name = 'Registrars')
sql = sql.gsub(/SELECT\s+[^\(][A-Z]+\./mi,"SELECT ")
AFTER GSUB SQL ::::
SELECT record_type.* FROM record_type WHERE (name = 'Registrars')
The desired result is to remove the "record_type." from the statement:
So it should be :
SELECT * FROM record_type WHERE (name = 'Registrars')
After the regex is run.
I didn't write this, it's in the asf-soap-adaptor gem. Can someone tell me why it doesn't work, and how to fix?
I suppose it should be written like this...
sql = sql.gsub(/SELECT\s+[^\(][A-Z_]+\./mi,"SELECT ")
... as the code in the question won't match if the field name contains _ (underscore) symbol. I suppose that's why this code is in gem: it can work in some conditions (i.e., with underscoreless field names).
Still, I admit I don't understand why exactly this replacement should be done - and shouldn't it include 0-9 check as well (as, for example, 'record_id1' field still won't be matched - and replaced - by the character class in the regular expression; you may have to either expand it, like [0-9A-Z_], or just replace completely with \w).
so your before and after gsubs are the same? I can't tell you why it doesn't work if you dont tell me your expected result. Also for help with interpreting ruby regular expressions check out rubular.com

Whats the XPath equivalent to SQL In query?

I would like to know whats the XPath equivalent to SQL In query. Basically in sql i can do this:
select * from tbl1 where Id in (1,2,3,4)
so i want something similar in XPath/Xsl:
i.e.
//*[#id= IN('51417','1121','111')]
Please advice
(In XPath 2,) the = operator always works like in.
I.e. you can use
//*[#id = ('51417','1121','111')]
A solution is to write out the options as separate conditions:
//*[(#id = '51417') or (#id = '1121') or (#id = '111')]
Another, slightly less verbose solution that looks a bit like a hack, though, would be to use the contains function:
//*[contains('-51417-1121-111-', concat('-', #id, '-'))]
Literally, this means you're checking whether the value of the id attribute (preceeded and succeeded by a delimiter character) is a substring of -51417-1121-111-. Note that I am using a hyphen (-) as a delimiter of the allowable values; you can replace that with any character that will not appear in the id attribute.

Escaping Strings For Ruby SQLite Insert

I'm creating a Ruby script to import a tab-delimited text file of about 150k lines into SQLite. Here it is so far:
require 'sqlite3'
file = File.new("/Users/michael/catalog.txt")
string = []
# Escape single quotes, remove newline, split on tabs,
# wrap each item in quotes, and join with commas
def prepare_for_insert(s)
s.gsub(/'/,"\\\\'").chomp.split(/\t/).map {|str| "'#{str}'"}.join(", ")
end
file.each_line do |line|
string << prepare_for_insert(line)
end
database = SQLite3::Database.new("/Users/michael/catalog.db")
# Insert each string into the database
string.each do |str|
database.execute( "INSERT INTO CATALOG VALUES (#{str})")
end
The script errors out on the first line containing a single quote in spite of the gsub to escape single quotes in my prepare_for_insert method:
/Users/michael/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p0/gems/sqlite3-1.3.5/lib/sqlite3/database.rb:91:
in `initialize': near "s": syntax error (SQLite3::SQLException)
It's erroring out on line 15. If I inspect that line with puts string[14], I can see where it's showing the error near "s". It looks like this: 'Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man\'s Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See'
Looks like the single quote is escaped, so why am I still getting the error?
Don't do it like that at all, string interpolation and SQL tend to be a bad combination. Use a prepared statement instead and let the driver deal with quoting and escaping:
# Ditch the gsub in prepare_for_insert and...
db = SQLite3::Database.new('/Users/michael/catalog.db')
ins = db.prepare('insert into catalog (column_name) values (?)')
string.each { |s| ins.execute(s) }
You should replace column_name with the real column name of course; you don't have to specify the column names in an INSERT but you should always do it anyway. If you need to insert more columns then add more placeholders and arguments to ins.execute.
Using prepare and execute should be faster, safer, easier, and it won't make you feel like you're writing PHP in 1999.
Also, you should use the standard CSV parser to parse your tab-separated files, XSV formats aren't much fun to deal with (they're downright evil in fact) and you have better things to do with your time than deal with their nonsense and edge cases and what not.

Ruby,Rhomobile,JqueryMobile and Single Quote

In rhomobile, which is on ruby I have a parsing of file and saving to sqlite db such a code
Questions.delete_all()
file_name = File.join(Rho::RhoApplication::get_model_path('app','Settings'), 'questions.txt')
file = File.new(file_name)
file.each_line("\n") do |row|
col = row.split("|")
#question=Questions.create(
{"id" => col[0], "question" => col[1],"answered"=>'0',"show"=>'1',"tutorial"=>col[4]}
)
break if file.lineno > 1500
end
file.close
when in text in string there is single quote aka ' , for example an expression
It's funny
Then after parsing, saving and populating I get
It�s funny
Any idea how to solve this and where from it comes, from Ruby, From sqlite or from what? how to solve it?
I would check to make sure that your parsing isn't doing something funny. The Rhodes handles all of the necessary escaping in its ORM. I've never had any issues with quotes in the db.

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