dogweather
Could someone speak to ActiveRecord vs. Ecto queries, especially relative date comparisons?
I’m deciding whether to write a little reporting library in Rails or Elixir+Ecto. Here’s an ad-hoc query in the Rails console:
SearchLog
.where("vip_status LIKE 'vip: yes%'")
.where('created_at > ?', 3.days.ago)
.pluck(:vip_status)
So, two questions: 
- How would I write the
LIKEand3.days.agowith Ecto? - I realize that Elixir+Ecto will be more verbose. And also probably, have a greater mental overhead due to knowing in which modules various functions are found. From your experience, is the trade-off worth it? Are there benefits of the repo pattern over active record? How does the Elixir console compare to Pry for writing ad hoc queries?
Personally, I get high productivity from the Rails console. The fluent OO API really helps.
Thanks!
Most Liked
sodapopcan
Ecto has relative date functions (including ago) and a like function. With your example it’s actually not really more verbose than AR:
from s in SearchLog,
where: like(s.vip_status, "vip: yes%"),
where: s.inserted_at > ago(3, "day"),
select: %{vip_status: s.vip_status}
(I wrote that on the fly so sorry if there is an error)
I obviously don’t know anything about the lib you want to write, but in my experience having done lots of reporting with Rails, you end up writing a bunch of raw SQL, so Ecto would likely be a better overall experience (I have yet to do any reporting with Ecto).
The console is a bit more of a pain out of the box, but that can be remedied with a good .iex.exs. Alias all the stuff you use regularly and require Ecto.Query (or even import it if you’re feeling saucy).
Popular in Questions
Other popular topics
Latest in /Ruby on Rails
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Develop your skills with books, videos, and courses.
Producing high quality Elixir screencasts since 2017.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"