Expressions

Expressions are components that can be evaluated to a value.

Example:

1 + 1 # expression
-> 2  # result

An expression can be found in two forms:

• unary: meaning it contains only one component
• binary: meaning it contains two expressions, or operands, and one operator. i.e. <expr> <operator> <expr>

Example:

/* Unary expressions */
1
name
"foo"

/* Binary expressions */
age >= 18
1 AND 0

Here is a list of all supported expressions:

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    Link("literal-value"),
    Link("parameter"),
    Link("field-path"),
    Sequence("NOT", Link("expr")),
    Sequence(Link("expr"), Link("binary-operator", "#operators"), Link("expr")),
    Sequence(
      Link("expr"),
      Optional("NOT"),
      Choice(
        0,
        Link("IN", "#comparison-operators"),
        Link("LIKE", "#comparison-operators")
      ),
      Link("expr")
    ),
    Sequence(
      Link("expr"),
      Link("IS", "#comparison-operators"),
      Optional("NOT"),
      Link("expr")
    ),
    Sequence(
      Link("expr"),
      Optional("NOT"),
      Link("BETWEEN", "#comparison-operators"),
      Link("expr"),
      "AND",
      Link("expr")
    ),
    Sequence(
      Link("function", "#functions"),
      "(",
      OneOrMore(Link("expr"), ","),
      ")"
    ),
    Sequence("CAST", "(", Link("expr"), "AS", "type-name", ")"),
    Sequence("NEXT", "VALUE", "FOR", "sequence-name"),
    Sequence("(", Link("expr"), ")")
  )
);

Literal value

Any literal evaluates to the closest compatible type.

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    Link("integer-literal"),
    Link("number-literal"),
    Link("string-literal"),
    Link("blob-literal"),
    Link("bool-literal"),
    Link("array-literal"),
    Link("document-literal"),
    "NULL"
  )
);

Integer literal

Diagram(Sequence(Optional(Choice(0, "+", "-")), OneOrMore("digit")));

An integer literal is a sequence of characters that only contain digits. They may start with a + or - sign.

123456789
+100
-455

Integer literals are evaluated into the INTEGER type.

If an integer is bigger than the maximum value of a 64 bit integer or smaller than the minimum 64 bit integer value, it will be evaluated as a DOUBLE.

Number literal

Diagram(
  Sequence(
    Choice(
      0,
      Sequence(OneOrMore("digit")),
      Sequence(OneOrMore("digit"), ".", OneOrMore("digit")),
      Sequence(".", OneOrMore("digit"))
    ),
    Optional(
      Sequence(
        Choice(0, "e", "E"),
        Optional(Choice(0, "+", "-")),
        OneOrMore("digit")
      )
    )
  )
);

A number literal is a sequence of characters that contains three parts:

• a sequence of digits
• a decimal point (i.e. .)
• a sequence of digits

They may start with a + or a - sign.

123.456
+3.14
-1.0

Number literals are evaluated to the DOUBLE type.

String literal

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    Sequence('"', ZeroOrMore("unicode-character"), '"'),
    Sequence("'", ZeroOrMore("unicode-character"), "'")
  )
);

A string literal is a sequence of utf-8 encoded characters surrounded by double or single quotes. They may contain any unicode character or escaped single or double quotes (i.e \' or \").

"l'école des fans"
'(╯ಠ_ಠ）╯︵ ┳━┳'
'foo \''

String literals are evaluated to the TEXT type.

Blob literal

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    Sequence('"\\x', ZeroOrMore("hexadecimal-character"), '"'),
    Sequence("'\\x", ZeroOrMore("hexadecimal-character"), "'")
  )
);

A blob literal starts with \x followed by a list of hexadecimal characters which is then decoded into raw bytes by Genji.

Blob literals are evaluated to the BLOB type.

Bool literal

Diagram(Choice(0, "TRUE", "FALSE"));

A boolean literal is any sequence of character that is written as true or false, regardless of the case.

true
false
TRUE
FALSE
tRUe
FALse

Boolean literals are evaluated into the BOOL type.

Array literal

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    Sequence("[", OneOrMore(Link("expr"), ","), "]"),
    Sequence("(", OneOrMore(Link("expr"), ","), ")")
  )
);

An array literal is any sequence of character that starts and ends with either:

• [ and ]
• ( and )

and that contains a coma-separated list of expressions.

[1.5, "hello", 1 > 10, [true, -10], {foo: "bar"}]

Array literals are evaluated into the ARRAY type.

Document literal

Diagram(
  "{",
  OneOrMore(
    Sequence(Choice(0, "identifier", "string"), ":", Link("expr")),
    ","
  ),
  "}"
);

A document is any sequence of character that starts and ends with { and } and that contains a list of pairs. Each pair associates an identifier with an expression, both separated by a colon. Each pair must be separated by a coma.

{
    foo: 1,
    bar: "hello",
    baz: true AND false,
    "long field": {
        a: 10
    }
}

In a document, the identifiers are referred to as fields. In the example above, the document has four top-level fields (foo, bar, baz and long field) and one nested field a.

Note that any JSON object is a valid document.

Document literals are evaluated into the DOCUMENT type.

Identifier

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    OneOrMore(Choice(0, "ascii-letter", "digit", "_")),
    Sequence("`", OneOrMore("unicode-character"), "`")
  )
);

Identifiers are a sequence of characters that refer to table names, field names and index names.

Identifiers may be unquoted or surrounded by backquotes. Depending on that, different rules may apply.

foo
_foo_123_
`頂きます (*｀▽´)_旦~~`
`foo \` bar`

Field path

Diagram(
  Sequence(
    "identifier",
    Optional(
      OneOrMore(
        Choice(
          0,
          Sequence(".", "identifier"),
          Sequence("[", "integer-literal", "]"),
          Sequence("[", "string-literal", "]")
        ),
        ","
      ),
      "skip"
    )
  )
);

A field path is any sequence of characters that contains one or more identifiers separated by dots or square brackets.

foo
foo.bar[10]
foo["long field"][0].bat.`other long field`

Depending on the context, a single identifier with no dot or square bracket will be parsed as an identifier or as a field path.

Field paths are evaluated into the value they refer to. They are used to select a value from a document. Their type will depend on the type of the value extracted from the document.

Given the following document:

{
    "recipes": 10,
    "cooking-time": {
        "eggs": [3, 6, 9]
    },
}

Here are examples on how field paths are evaluated:

recipes
-> 10

`cooking-time`
->  {
        "eggs": [
            3,
            6,
            9
        ]
    }

`cooking-time`.eggs[2]
-> 9

`cooking-time`.eggs[10]
-> NULL

Parameter

Diagram(Choice(0, "?", "$identifier"));

A parameters is an expressions used to represent a value passed when the query is evaluated. Genji supports two types of parameters:

• Positional parameters: ?
• Named parameters: $ followed by an identifier

Functions

Diagram(
  Sequence(
    "identifier",
    Optional(Sequence(".", "identifier"), "skip"),
    "(",
    ZeroOrMore(Link("expr"), ","),
    ")"
  )
);

A function name is an expression that represent a builtin function. It can either represent a global function or a function within a package.

count()
typeof("hello")
math.atan2(1.1, 1.1)

String functions

Operators

Diagram(
  Choice(
    0,
    "||",
    "*",
    "/",
    "%",
    "+",
    "-",
    "|",
    "&",
    "^",
    ">",
    ">=",
    "<",
    "<=",
    "=",
    "!=",
    "IS",
    "IN",
    "LIKE",
    "AND",
    "OR"
  )
);

Genji provides a list of operators that can be used to compute operations with expressions. Operators are binary expressions, meaning they always take exactly two operands. It is possible though to combine multiple operators to create an evaluation tree.

Logical operators

Logical operators are operators that return a boolean under certain conditions.

An expression is truthy if it evaluates to a non zero-value of its type.

Comparison operators

These operators are used to compare values and evaluate to a boolean.

Examples:

1 = 1
-> true

1 > 2.5
-> false

3 IN [1, 2, 3]
-> true

5 BETWEEN 2 AND 10
-> true

Conversion during comparison

Prior to comparison, an implicit conversion is operated for the operands to be of the same type. Not all types can be compared together. When two incompatible types are compared, the comparison always returns false, except if one of the operands is NULL, in that case it returns NULL.

Example:

1 > "hello"
-> false

1 < "hello"
-> false

The comparison follows a list of rules that are executed in order:

• If one of the operands is NULL, return NULL.
• If both operands are documents, use the Comparing documents rule
• If both operands are arrays, use the Comparing arrays rule
• If both operands are numbers (INTEGER or DOUBLE), cast the integer to DOUBLE then compare them together.
• If both operands have the same type, compare them together.

In any other case, return false.

Comparing documents

The fields of each document are sorted, then they are compared one by one, until they are found not equal. The comparison is then determined by the result of the comparison between these two values. If both keys are equal, compare the values.

{a: 1, b: 2} = {b: 2, a: 1}
-> true

{} = {}
-> true

{a: 1, b: 3} > {a: 1, b: 2}
-> true

{a: 100} > {aa: 1}
-> false

Comparing arrays

Each elements of both arrays are compared one by one, index by index, until they are found not equal. The comparison is then determined by the result of the comparison between these two values.

[1, 2, 3] > [1, 1 + 1, 1]
-> true

Let’s break down the example above:

1. Index 0: 1 and 1 are equal, the comparison continues
2. Index 1: 2 and 1 + 1 are equal, the comparison continues
3. Index 2: 3 is greater then 1, the comparison stops and the first array is considered greater than the second one

Two empty arrays are considered equal:

[] = []
-> true

The size of arrays doesn’t matter, unless all the elements of the smallest one are equal to the other one. In that case the biggest array is considered greater.

[3] > [1, 100000]
-> true

[1, 2] < [1, 2, 3]
-> true

Arithmetic operators

Arithmetic operations are supported only for the following types:

• INTEGER
• DOUBLE

Note that INTEGER and DOUBLE types can be calculated together, in that case INTEGER values will be converted to DOUBLE prior the operation.

Any usage of these operators on incompatible types will return NULL.

3 + 3.5
-> 6.5

3 + '1'
-> NULL

The case of NULL

Any arithmetic operation with one of the operand being NULL returns NULL.

NULL + 1
-> NULL

5 * 10 - NULL
-> NULL

Division rules

The division obeys a few rules depending on the types of the operands:

• Dividing two integers, always results in an integer
• Dividing by zero, returns NULL

Return type and overflow

The type of the result of an operation doesn’t necessarily match the type of the operands.

• The result of a DOUBLE operation will always return a DOUBLE
• The result of an INTEGER operation will return an INTEGER, unless the return value is bigger than the maximum value of 64-bit integer. In that case, the return type will be a DOUBLE

Other operators

Evaluation tree and precedence

When parsed, an expression is turned into an evaluation tree so it is possible to combine operators to form complex expressions. The order in which these expressions are executed depends on the priority of the operator.

Here is the list of operators ordered by ascending precedence. Operators with higher precedence are executed before the ones with lower precedence

• OR
• AND
• =, !=, <, <=, >, >=
• +, -, |, ^
• *, /, %, &
• ||

Example:

3 + 4 * 2 > 10 AND 2 - 2 = false
-> true

This expression can be represented as the following tree:

.
└── AND
    ├── >
    │   ├── +
    │   │   ├── 3
    │   │   └── *
    │   │       ├── 4
    │   │       └── 2
    │   └── 10
    └── -
        ├── 2
        └── 2

The deepest branches will be executed first, recursively until reaching the root.