From: Michael Morin <uzimonkey@...>
Date: 2008-08-19T17:34:11+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] ActiveRecord English Like Queries v0.0.2

Roger Pack wrote:
> I am pleased to announce the release of English Like Queries [pronounced
> in a proper British accent] v0.0.2
> 
> Changes:
> klass.where 'name includes' => ['abc', 'def'] now defaults to a .find
> :all query--much nicer.
> 
> 
> English Like Queries:
> 
> Typically AR basically stinks to type in--it is way too wordy, and, for
> lack of a better term, SQL like.
> klass.find :all, :conditions => ["name LIKE '%?'", 'fred']
> 
> This library condenses that to be a little more englishy, by allowing
> hashed parameters that are parsed for meaning, ex:
> 
> klass.where 'name starts with' => 'fred'
> 
> This reads better, is much faster, has support for regex, case
> sensitivity, etc. without the pain of SQL.
> Currently as a rails plugin.
> Check it out.
> 
> http://code.google.com/p/ruby-roger-useful-functions/wiki/EnglishLikeQueries
> 
> -=R

That's interesting, but I have to question the code:payoff ratio.  Most 
ActiveRecord usage doesn't have particularly diverse queries.  These 
queries can be easily and simply hidden away in single-line class 
methods to give them meaningful mnemonics like "name_starts_with". 
Using class methods is transparent, trivial and not limited by the 
features of your library.

English is also a very subjective language.  What you've done is limited 
users to a tiny, strict subset of English which is more or less the same 
as doing something like where :title => [ :starts_with, 'Something' ]. 
That would require a lot less code and zero parsing.

But all of this replaces something you can do in one line anyway.  Why 
add all that complexity?

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.title_starts_with(s)
     find :all, :conditions => [ "title LIKE ?", "#{s}%" ]
   end
end

-- 
Michael Morin
Guide to Ruby
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