exposed-wiki/DSL.md

• Overview
• Basic CRUD operations
  • Create
  • Read
  • Update
  • Delete
• Where expression
• Conditional where
• Count
• Order-by
• Group-by
• Limit
• Join
• Alias
• Schema
• Sequence
• Batch Insert
• Insert From Select

---

Overview

The DSL (Domain Specific Language) API of Exposed, is similar to actual SQL statements with type safety that Kotlin offers.
A DB table is represented by an object inherited from org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Table like this:

object StarWarsFilms : Table() {
  val id: Column<Int> = integer("id").autoIncrement()
  val sequelId: Column<Int> = integer("sequel_id").uniqueIndex()
  val name: Column<String> = varchar("name", 50)
  val director: Column<String> = varchar("director", 50)
  override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(id, name = "PK_StarWarsFilms_Id") // PK_StarWarsFilms_Id is optional here
}

Tables that contains Int id with the name id can be declared like this:

object StarWarsFilms : IntIdTable() {
  val sequelId: Column<Int> = integer("sequel_id").uniqueIndex()
  val name: Column<String> = varchar("name", 50)
  val director: Column<String> = varchar("director", 50)
}

Basic CRUD operations

Create

val id = StarWarsFilms.insertAndGetId {
  it[name] = "The Last Jedi"
  it[sequelId] = 8
  it[director] = "Rian Johnson"
}

Read

val query: Query = StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq 8 }

Query inherit Iterable so it is possible to traverse it with map/foreach etc'. For example:

StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq 8 }.forEach {
  println(it[StarWarsFilms.name])
}

There is slice function which allows you to select specific columns or/and expressions.

val filmAndDirector = StarWarsFilms.
   slice(StarWarsFilms.name, StarWarsFilms.director).
   selectAll().map {
      it[StarWarsFilms.name] to it[StarWarsFilms.director]
   }

If you want to select only distinct value then use withDistinct() function:

val directors = StarWarsFilms.
   slice(StarWarsFilms.director).
   select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId less 5 }.
   withDistinct().map {
      it[StarWarsFilms.director]
   }

Update

StarWarsFilms.update ({ StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq 8 }) {
  it[StarWarsFilms.name] = "Episode VIII – The Last Jedi"
}

If you want to update column value with some expression like increment use update function or setter:

StarWarsFilms.update({ StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq 8 }) {
    with(SqlExpressionBuilder) {
       it.update(StarWarsFilms.sequelId, StarWarsFilms.sequelId + 1)
       // or 
       it[StarWarsFilms.sequelId] = StarWarsFilms.sequelId + 1
    }
} 

Delete

StarWarsFilms.deleteWhere { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq 8 }

Where expression

Query expression (where) expects a boolean operator (ie: Op<Boolean>).
Allowed conditions are:

eq - (==)
neq - (!=)
isNull()
isNotNull()
less - (<)
lessEq - (<=)
greater - (>)
greaterEq - (>=)
like - (=~)
notLike - (!~)
exists
notExists
regexp
notRegexp
inList
notInList
between
match (MySQL MATCH AGAINST) 

Allowed logical conditions are:

not
and
or

Conditional where

It rather common case when your query's where condition depends on some other code conditions. Moreover, it could be independent or nested conditions what make it more complicated to prepare such where. Let's imagine that we have a form on a website where a user can optionally filter "Star Wars" films by a director and/or a sequel. In Exposed version before 0.8.1 you had to code it like:

val condition = when {
    directorName != null && sequelId != null ->
        Op.build { StarWarsFilms.director eq directorName and (StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq sequelId) }
    directorName != null ->
        Op.build { StarWarsFilms.director eq directorName }
    sequelId != null ->
        Op.build { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq sequelId }
    else -> null
}
val query = condition?.let { StarWarsFilms.select(condition) } ?: StarWarsFilms.selectAll()

or

val query = when {
    directorName != null && sequelId != null ->
        StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.director eq directorName and (StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq sequelId) }
    directorName != null ->
        StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.director eq directorName }
    sequelId != null ->
        StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq sequelId }
    else -> StarWarsFilms.selectAll()
}

This is a very primitive example, but you should get the main idea about the problem. Now let's try to write the same query in a more simple way (andWhere function available since 0.10.5):

val query = StarWarsFilms.selectAll()
directorName?.let {
    query.andWhere { StarWarsFilms.director eq it }
}
sequelId?.let {
    query.andWhere { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq it }
}

But what if we have conditionaly select from another table and want to join it only when condition is true? You have to use adjustColumnSet and adjustSlice functions (available since 0.8.1) which allows to extend and modify join and slice parts of a query (see kdoc on that functions):

playerName?.let {
    query.adjustColumnSet { innerJoin(Players, {StarWarsFilms.sequelId}, {Players.sequelId}) }
        .adjustSlice { slice(fields + Players.columns) }
        .andWhere { Players.name eq playerName }
}

Count

count() is a method of Query that is used like below example:

val count = StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq  8 }.count()

Order-by

Order-by accepts a list of columns mapped to boolean indicates if sorting should be ascending or descending. Example:

StarWarsFilms.selectAll().orderBy(StarWarsFilms.sequelId to SortOrder.ASC)

Group-by

In group-by, define fields and their functions (such as count) by the slice() method.

StarWarsFilms
  .slice(StarWarsFilms.sequelId.count(), StarWarsFilms.director)
  .selectAll()
  .groupBy(StarWarsFilms.director)

Available functions are:

count
sum
max
min
average
...

Limit

You can use limit function to prevent loading large data sets or use it for pagination with second offset parameter.

// Take 2 films after the first one.
StarWarsFilms.select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq Players.sequelId }.limit(2, offset = 1)

Join

For join example consider the following tables:

object StarWarsFilms : IntIdTable() {
  val sequelId: Column<Int> = integer("sequel_id").uniqueIndex()
  val name: Column<String> = varchar("name", 50)
  val director: Column<String> = varchar("director", 50)
}
object Players : Table() {
  val sequelId: Column<Int> = integer("sequel_id").uniqueIndex()
  val name: Column<String> = varchar("name", 50)
}

Join to count how many players play in each movie:

(Players innerJoin StarWarsFilms)
  .slice(Players.name.count(), StarWarsFilms.name)
  .select { StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq Players.sequelId }
  .groupBy(StarWarsFilms.name)

• In case there is a foreign key it is possible to replace select{} with selectAll() Same example using the full syntax:

Players.join(StarWarsFilms, JoinType.INNER, additionalConstraint = {StarWarsFilms.sequelId eq Players.sequelId})
  .slice(Players.name.count(), StarWarsFilms.name)
  .selectAll()
  .groupBy(StarWarsFilms.name)

Alias

Aliases allow preventing ambiguity between field names and table names. Use the aliased var instead of original one:

val filmTable1 = StarWarsFilms.alias("ft1")
filmTable1.selectAll() // can be used in joins etc'

Also, aliases allow you to use the same table in a join multiple times:

val sequelTable = StarWarsFilms.alias("sql")
val originalAndSequelNames = StarWarsFilms
    .innerJoin(sequelTable, { StarWarsFilms.sequelId }, { sequelTable[StarWarsFilms.id] })
    .slice(StarWarsFilms.name, sequelTable[StarWarsFilms.name])
    .selectAll()
    .map { it[StarWarsFilms.name] to it[sequelTable[StarWarsFilms.name]] }

And they can be used when selecting from sub-queries:

val starWarsFilms = StarWarsFilms
    .slice(StarWarsFilms.id, StarWarsFilms.name)
    .selectAll()
    .alias("swf")
val id = starWarsFilms[StarWarsFilms.id]
val name = starWarsFilms[StarWarsFilms.name]
starWarsFilms
    .slice(id, name)
    .selectAll()
    .map { it[id] to it[name] }

Schema

You can create a schema or drop an existing one:

val schema = Schema("my_schema") // my_schema is the schema name.
// Creates a Schema
SchemaUtils.createSchema(schema)
// Drops a Schema
SchemaUtils.dropSchema(schema)

Also, you can specify the schema owner like this (some databases require the explicit owner) :

val schema = Schema("my_schema", authorization = "owner")

If you have many schemas and you want to set a default one, you can use:

SchemaUtils.setSchema(schema)

Sequence

If you want to use Sequence, Exposed allows you to:

Define a Sequence

val myseq = Sequence("my_sequence") // my_sequence is the sequence name.

Several parameters can be specified to control the properties of the sequence:

private val myseq = Sequence(
        name = "my_sequence",
        startWith = 4,
        incrementBy = 2,
        minValue = 1,
        maxValue = 10,
        cycle = true,
        cache = 20
    )

Create and Drop a Sequence

// Creates a sequence
SchemaUtils.createSequence(myseq)
// Drops a sequence
SchemaUtils.dropSequence(myseq)

Use the NextVal function

You can use the nextVal function like this:

val nextVal = myseq.nextVal()
val id = StarWarsFilms.insertAndGetId {
  it[id] = nextVal
  it[name] = "The Last Jedi"
  it[sequelId] = 8
  it[director] = "Rian Johnson"
}

val firstValue = StarWarsFilms.slice(nextVal).selectAll().single()[nextVal]

Batch Insert

Batch Insert allow mapping a list of entities into DB raws in one sql statement. It is more efficient than inserting one by one as it initiates only one statement. Here is an example:

val cityNames = listOf("Paris", "Moscow", "Helsinki")
val allCitiesID = cities.batchInsert(cityNames) { name ->
  this[cities.name] = name
}

NOTE: The batchInsert function will still create multiple INSERT statements when interacting with your database. You most likely want to couple this with the rewriteBatchedInserts=true (or rewriteBatchedStatements=true) option of your relevant JDBC driver, which will convert those into a single bulkInsert. You can find the documentation for this option for MySQL here and PostgreSQL here.

If you don't need to get the newly generated values (example: auto incremented ID), set the shouldReturnGeneratedValues parameter to false, this increases the performance of batch inserts by batching them in chunks, instead of always waiting for the database to synchronize the newly inserted object state.

If you want to check if the rewriteBatchedInserts + batchInsert is working correctly, check how to enable JDBC logging for your driver because Exposed will always show the non-rewritten multiple inserts. You can find the documentation for how to enable logging in PostgreSQL here.

Insert From Select

If you want to use INSERT INTO ... SELECT SQL clause try Exposed analog Table.insert(Query).

val substring = users.name.substring(1, 2)
cities.insert(users.slice(substring).selectAll().orderBy(users.id).limit(2))

By default it will try to insert into all non auto-increment Table columns in order they defined in Table instance. If you want to specify columns or change the order, provide list of columns as second parameter:

val userCount = users.selectAll().count()
users.insert(users.slice(stringParam("Foo"), Random().castTo<String>(VarCharColumnType()).substring(1, 10)).selectAll(), columns = listOf(users.name, users.id))