defprotocol Ecto.Queryable do @moduledoc """ Converts a data structure into an `Ecto.Query`. This is used by `Ecto.Repo` and also `from` macro. For example, `Repo.all` expects any queryable as argument, which is why you can do `Repo.all(MySchema)` or `Repo.all(query)`. Furthermore, when you write `from ALIAS in QUERYABLE`, `QUERYABLE` accepts any data structure that implements `Ecto.Queryable`. This module defines a few default implementations so let us go over each and how to use them. ## Atom The most common use case for this protocol is to convert atoms representing an `Ecto.Schema` module into a query. This is what happens when you write: query = from(p in Person) Or when you directly pass a schema to a repository: Repo.all(Person) In case you did not know, Elixir modules are just atoms. This implementation takes the provided module name and then tries to load the associated schema. If no schema exists, it will raise `Protocol.UndefinedError`. ## BitString This implementation allows you to directly specify a table that you would like to query from: from( p in "people", select: {p.first_name, p.last_name} ) Or: Repo.delete_all("people") While this is quite simple to use, some repository operations, such as `Repo.all`, require a `select` clause. When you query a schema, the select is automatically defined for you based on the schema fields, but when you pass a table directly, you need to explicitly list them. This limitation now brings us to our next implementation! ## Tuple Similar to the `BitString` implementation, this allows you to specify the underlying table that you would like to query; however, this additionally allows you to specify the schema you would like to use: from(p in {"filtered_people", Person}) This can be particularly useful if you have database views that filter or aggregate the underlying data of a table but share the same schema. This means that you can reuse the same schema while specifying a separate "source" for the data. ## Ecto.Query This is a simple pass through. After all, all `Ecto.Query` instances can be converted into `Ecto.Query`: Repo.all(from u in User, where: u.active) This also enables Ecto queries to compose, since we can pass one query as the source of another: active_users = from u in User, where: u.active ordered_active_users = from u in active_users, order_by: u.created_at ## Ecto.SubQuery Ecto also allows you to compose queries using subqueries. Imagine you have a table of "people". Now imagine that you want to do something with people with the most common last names. To get that list, you could write something like: sub = from( p in Person, group_by: p.last_name, having: count(p.last_name) > 1, select: %{last_name: p.last_name, count: count(p.last_name)} ) Now if you want to do something else with this data, perhaps join on additional tables and perform some calculations, you can do that as so: from( p in subquery(sub), # other filtering etc here ) Please note that the `Ecto.Query.subquery/2` is needed here to convert the `Ecto.Query` into an instance of `Ecto.SubQuery`. This protocol then wraps it into an `Ecto.Query`, but using the provided subquery in the FROM clause. Please see `Ecto.Query.subquery/2` for more information. """ @doc """ Converts the given `data` into an `Ecto.Query`. """ def to_query(data) end defimpl Ecto.Queryable, for: Ecto.Query do def to_query(query), do: query end defimpl Ecto.Queryable, for: Ecto.SubQuery do def to_query(subquery) do %Ecto.Query{from: %Ecto.Query.FromExpr{source: subquery}} end end defimpl Ecto.Queryable, for: BitString do def to_query(source) when is_binary(source) do %Ecto.Query{from: %Ecto.Query.FromExpr{source: {source, nil}}} end end defimpl Ecto.Queryable, for: Atom do def to_query(module) do try do module.__schema__(:query) rescue UndefinedFunctionError -> message = if :code.is_loaded(module) do "the given module does not provide a schema" else "the given module does not exist" end raise Protocol.UndefinedError, protocol: @protocol, value: module, description: message FunctionClauseError -> raise Protocol.UndefinedError, protocol: @protocol, value: module, description: "the given module is an embedded schema" end end end defimpl Ecto.Queryable, for: Tuple do def to_query({source, schema} = from) when is_binary(source) and is_atom(schema) and not is_nil(schema) do %Ecto.Query{from: %Ecto.Query.FromExpr{source: from, prefix: schema.__schema__(:prefix)}} end end