[Haskell-beginners] SQLite3 Row <-> Data models -- Is this a typical Haskell pattern ?

[Stef T]

On Mar 19, 2011, at 5:43 PM, Antoine Latter wrote:

> On Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 7:21 PM, Stef T <stef at ummon.com> wrote:
>> Hey Everyone,
>>    Greetings, I am a total newb to haskell, so, I have a strange question (perhaps). Consider I have a data model which looks like this;
>> 
>> data Brand = Brand { id :: Int,
>>                                       name :: String,
>>                                       created_at :: String,
>>                                       updated_at :: String
>>                                    }
>> 
>>    Now, I have a sqlite3 function such as
>> 
>> checkout :: Int -> IO (Either String [[Row Value]])
>> checkout a = do
>>       handle <- openConnection "/Users/stef/haskell/db/development.sqlite3"
>>       execStatement handle $ "SELECT * from brands where id = " ++ show a
>> 
>>    From this, I get a Row/Tuple. So far, so good, but, the question _I_ have is, how do you go about mapping a returned row to the data model ? Is this even a design pattern that is used in FP languages ? I admit, I have spent numerous years in the MVC world, so, perhaps this is simply "not done". It would seem to be a much nicer thing to then do ;
>> 
> 
> What problem are you running into trying to do this?
> 
> You would need to write functions to convert each column into the
> format you want it for the Brand type, and then pass output of the
> functions Brand data constructor. Depending on the format of the data
> and the library you're using these functions might turn out to be
> pretty simple.
> 

I guess I am having a fundamental disconnect in 'how' to do it nicely (or DRY-ly).

the format of the row is ;

Right [[[("id",Int 4239),("name",Text "Zoppini"),("created_at",Text "2011-02-02 20:51:44.706633+0000"),("updated_at",Text "2011-02-02 20:51:44.706633+0000")]]]

I had attempted to do something along the lines of ;

getBrand :: Int -> Brand
getBrand a = do
        b <- checkout a
        Brand { id = b id, name = b name }

but, that explodes (not least of which is the id being a reserved keyword from prelude)


> It's considered good in Haskell to get data out of "weak" types into
> specific types when you want them, as in from a String or from a 'Row
> Value' - it makes manipulations of the values easier to read and you
> get the compiler's help figuring things out.
> 

makes sense. It also helps -me- (and possibly future programmers/maintainers) to understand what the heck is going on.

> Which SQL library are you using?

I am using the haskell sqlite (version 0.5.2)

Regards
S.

> 
>>    name myBrandModel
>> 
>>    Thanks for reading this far, feel free to complain about my design :D
>>    Regards
>>    S.
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