[Haskell-cafe] [ANN] mysql-simple - your go-to package for talking to MySQL

[David Virebayre]

2011/5/2 Bryan O'Sullivan <bos at serpentine.com>:
> Hi, folks -
> Over the past few days, I've released two MySQL-related packages on Hackage
> that I think should be pretty useful.
> The first is mysql-simple: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/mysql-simple
> This is a mid-level binding to the MySQL client API. I aimed it squarely at
> being both fast and easy to use, and I'm very pleased with the results so
> far.

Hello,

Some feedback about a very first try with your library;

First of all, thanks a lot for releasing it, I hope it'll make many
people's life easier.
Also, thanks for taking the time to write a nice, thorough documentation.

The library was easy to install, thanks to cabal -- no troubles here.

I had trouble accessing the documentation : the last versions on
hackage have a build failure, so the doc isn't available. I was able
to see the documentation for mysql-simple-0.2.2.0 though.

The very first example didn't work for me :
------------------------
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}

 import Database.MySQL.Simple

 hello = do
   conn <- connect defaultConnectInfo
   query conn "select 2 + 2"
------------------------
   Couldn't match expected type `IO b'
           against inferred type `q -> IO [r]'
    In the expression: query conn "select 2 + 2"
    In the expression:
        do { conn <- connect defaultConnectInfo;
             query conn "select 2 + 2" }
    In the definition of `hello':
        hello = do { conn <- connect defaultConnectInfo;
                     query conn "select 2 + 2" }

Using query_ instead of query brings a new error:

   Ambiguous type variable `r' in the constraint:
      `Database.MySQL.Simple.QueryResults.QueryResults r'
        arising from a use of `query_' at ftmsql.hs:7:3-28
    Possible cause: the monomorphism restriction applied to the following:
      hello :: IO [r] (bound at ftmsql.hs:5:1)
    Probable fix: give these definition(s) an explicit type signature
                  or use -XNoMonomorphismRestriction

Easily corrected, adding the pragma.
Next step was to try it, which took me a few steps:

*Main> hello

<interactive>:1:0:
    Ambiguous type variable `r' in the constraint:
      `Database.MySQL.Simple.QueryResults.QueryResults r'
        arising from a use of `hello' at <interactive>:1:0-4
    Probable fix: add a type signature that fixes these type variable(s)

*Main> hello :: IO [Only Int]
*** Exception: Incompatible {errSQLType = "LongLong", errHaskellType =
"Int", errMessage = "types incompatible"}

*Main> hello :: IO [Only Int64]

<interactive>:1:18: Not in scope: type constructor or class `Int64'

etc.

I would like to suggest modifying the exemple in the documentation to
look like this
----------------------------------------------------------
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}

import Database.MySQL.Simple
import Data.Int

myConnectInfo = defaultConnectInfo { connectHost = "x.x.x.x",
connectUser= "xx", connectPassword="xxxx", connectDatabase="xxx" }

hello :: IO [Only Int64]
hello = do
  conn <- connect myConnectInfo
  query_ conn "select 2 + 2"
----------------------------------------------------------
That way a beginner has a starting point that compiles and that he can
run as is.



Next I modified the simple example to call a stored procedure, it
returns a resultset of 12 columns.
Unfortunately, I realised that QueryResults instances are defined up
to 10 elements only.
However, the documentation shows how to define a QueryResults
instance, so I created a datatype and tried to define the instance,
and got stuck with an error:

    Couldn't match expected type `PlateauSel'
           against inferred type `Int -> a'
    In the expression: convertError fs vs
    In the definition of `convertResults':
        convertResults fs vs = convertError fs vs
    In the instance declaration for `QueryResults PlateauSel'

Indeed, the documentation shows that convertError takes 3 parameters,
and I gave, as per the example, only 2.
But I'm not sure what to write for the 3rd parameter, the
documentation doesn't help me here.

To try, I put 0, and the test compiled. However, I had a connection
error number 1312, saying my procedure "can't return a result set in
the given context". (The query I used works from the mysql
command-line interface)

I'm not sure if that means Database.MySQL supports calling stored
procedures that return a result set or not. I suspect not. Perhaps it
would be useful to add it in the documentation.

Thanks,

David.