> On 27 May 2017, at 08:59, Gwendal Roué <gwendal.r...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Le 26 mai 2017 à 22:30, David Hart <da...@hartbit.com> a écrit :
>>
>> Can you explain what’s the problem with Issue 2?
>
> The problem was me, I guess :-) Of course nobody knows the list of keys, but
> the type itself. It's a matter of injecting an encoder. I'll do that.
>
> Thanks also Itai for your answer.
>
>> Am I correct in suggesting that Issue 1 is more of a missing generics
>> feature than a problem with SE-0166/0167?
>
> There are two ways to see such issue: either a language is not ready, either
> a library isn't designed for its language. :-) But this is not the case here.
> Again, Itai has the correct answer:
>
> if T.self is DatabaseValueConvertible.Type {
> let databaseValue: DatabaseValue = row.value(named: key.stringValue)
> return (T.self as!
> DataBaseValueConvertible.Type).fromDatabaseValue(databaseValue) as! T
> } else { … }
I didn’t know that was possible either! Really cool. Even better:
if let databaseValueType = T.self as? DatabaseValueConvertible.Type {
let databaseValue: DatabaseValue = row.value(named: key.stringValue)
return databaseValueType.fromDatabaseValue(databaseValue) as! T
} else { … }
> This is the way to test a type against a protocol - I didn't know this was
> even possible!
>
> Thanks a lot, Itai and David: SE-0166 and SE-0167 are delivering their
> promises, and GRDB will make good use from them :-)
> Gwendal
>
>>
>> David.
>>
>>> On 26 May 2017, at 16:26, Gwendal Roué via swift-evolution
>>> <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I want to provide real-life feedback for the Swift Archival & Serialization
>>> (SE-0166) and Swift Encoders (SE-0167) proposals that currently ship in
>>> Swift 4 snapshots.
>>>
>>> The context: I'm the author of GRDB.swift [1], a SQLite library that, among
>>> other goals, aims at easing the conversion between database rows and custom
>>> models (structs and class hierarchies):
>>>
>>> // Sample code
>>> let arthur = Player(name: "Arthur", score: 100)
>>> try arthur.insert(db)
>>> print(arthur.id)
>>>
>>> let topPlayers = try Player
>>> .order(Column("score").desc)
>>> .limit(10)
>>> .fetchAll(db) // [Player]
>>>
>>> Due to the lack of any introspection in Swift, GRDB currently wants you to
>>> perform explicit conversion:
>>>
>>> struct Player {
>>> var id: Int64?
>>> let name: String
>>> let score: Int
>>> }
>>>
>>> extension Player : RowConvertible {
>>> init(row: Row) {
>>> id = row.value(named: "id")
>>> name = row.value(named: "name")
>>> score = row.value(named: "score")
>>> }
>>> }
>>>
>>> extension Player : TableMapping, MutablePersistable {
>>> static let databaseTableName = "player"
>>> var persistentDictionary: [String: DatabaseValueConvertible?] {
>>> return ["id": id, "name": name, "score: score]
>>> }
>>> }
>>>
>>> That's enough, but that's still too much.
>>>
>>> SE-0166 and SE-0167 sound like the promise that some boilerplate code could
>>> be automatically generated.
>>>
>>> Along with JSONDecoder and PListDecoder, let's introduce
>>> DatabaseRowDecoder! The current state of the work is at
>>> https://github.com/groue/GRDB.swift/tree/Swift4
>>>
>>>
>>> At first, it's very satisfying. Decodable keeps some of it promises:
>>>
>>> struct Player : RowConvertible, Decodable {
>>> static let databaseTableName = "player"
>>> var id: Int64?
>>> let name: String
>>> let score: Int
>>> }
>>>
>>> // Yeah, no more extra code necessary for this to work!
>>> let topPlayers = try Player
>>> .order(Column("score").desc)
>>> .limit(10)
>>> .fetchAll(db)
>>>
>>> But there are some issues.
>>>
>>>
>>> ### Issue 1: SE-0166/0167 merge the concepts of keyed objects and values
>>>
>>> This is a problem. Let's take this example:
>>>
>>> enum Color: Int, Codable {
>>> case blue, green, red
>>> }
>>>
>>> struct Flower : RowConvertible, Decodable {
>>> let name: String
>>> let color: Color
>>> }
>>>
>>> The way to decode a color comes from KeyedDecodingContainerProtocol:
>>>
>>> protocol KeyedDecodingContainerProtocol {
>>> func decode<T>(_ type: T.Type, forKey key: Key) throws -> T
>>> where T : Decodable
>>> func decodeIfPresent<T>(_ type: T.Type, forKey key: Key) throws
>>> -> T? where T : Decodable
>>> }
>>>
>>> But the ability to decode a Color from a database row comes from the
>>> DatabaseValueConvertible, which I can't invoke since I can't test if type T
>>> conforms to this protocol:
>>>
>>> struct RowKeyedDecodingContainer<Key: CodingKey>:
>>> KeyedDecodingContainerProtocol {
>>> let row: Row
>>>
>>> // Not OK: no support for values
>>> func decode<T>(_ type: T.Type, forKey key: Key) throws -> T
>>> where T : Decodable {
>>> if <T conforms to DatabaseValueConvertible> {
>>> let databaseValue: DatabaseValue =
>>> row.value(named: key.stringValue)
>>> return T.fromDatabaseValue(databaseValue)
>>> } else { ... }
>>> }
>>> }
>>>
>>> So the current state of the Codable library disallow GRDB from supporting
>>> value properties which are not the trivial Int, Int32, etc. Of course, GRDB
>>> itself makes it possible, with explicit user code. But we're talking about
>>> removing boilerplate and relying on the code generation that Codable is
>>> blessed with, here. We're talking about sharing the immense privilege that
>>> Codable is blessed with.
>>>
>>> However, if I can't decode **values**, I can still decode **complex keyed
>>> objects** (in this case the row behaves like a hierarchical container - a
>>> concept already present in GRDB and allows it to consume complex rows like
>>> results of joins):
>>>
>>> struct Book : RowConvertible, Decodable { ... }
>>> struct Author : RowConvertible, Decodable { ... }
>>> struct Pair : RowConvertible, Decodable {
>>> let book: Book
>>> let author: Author
>>> }
>>>
>>> struct RowKeyedDecodingContainer<Key: CodingKey>:
>>> KeyedDecodingContainerProtocol {
>>> let row: Row
>>>
>>> // OK, support for other decodable objects
>>> func decode<T>(_ type: T.Type, forKey key: Key) throws -> T
>>> where T : Decodable {
>>> if let scopedRow = row.scoped(on: key.stringValue) {
>>> return try T(from: RowDecoder(row: scopedRow,
>>> codingPath: codingPath + [key]))
>>> } else {
>>> throw DecodingError.keyNotFound(key,
>>> DecodingError.Context(codingPath: codingPath, debugDescription: "missing
>>> scope"))
>>> }
>>> }
>>> }
>>>
>>> Yet this use case is much less frequent.
>>>
>>> Is it possible to workaround this problem? Did I miss something?
>>>
>>>
>>> ### Issue 2: Encodable can not be used to derive other persistence
>>> strategies.
>>>
>>> The use case here is to derive other types of persistence from Encodable
>>> (and take profit from the compiler-generated code).
>>>
>>> For example, I want to write:
>>>
>>> extension MutablePersistable where Self: Encodable {
>>> // Required by MutablePersistable
>>> var persistentDictionary: [String: DatabaseValueConvertible?] {
>>> return ...
>>> }
>>> }
>>>
>>> If it were possible, we could get the full picture, with all boilerplate
>>> removed:
>>>
>>> // Wouldn't it be great?
>>> struct Player : RowConvertible, MutablePersistable, Codable {
>>> static let databaseTableName = "player"
>>> var id: Int64?
>>> let name: String
>>> let score: Int
>>> }
>>>
>>> let arthur = Player(name: "Arthur", score: 100)
>>> try arthur.insert(db)
>>> print(arthur.id)
>>>
>>> let topPlayers = try Player
>>> .order(Column("score").desc)
>>> .limit(10)
>>> .fetchAll(db) // [Player]
>>>
>>> Unfortunately, it's impossible: the Encodable protocol doesn't allow
>>> iteration on the coding keys. I can't generate anything useful.
>>>
>>> Again, is it possible to workaround this problem? Did I miss something?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for your attention,
>>> Gwendal Roué
>>>
>>> [1] https://github.com/groue/GRDB.swift
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> swift-evolution mailing list
>>> swift-evolution@swift.org
>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>>
>
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