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Support expressions in `on` option for complex Joins

Open lostbean opened this issue 6 months ago • 3 comments

Description:

I would like to propose a new feature in Elixir Explorer that allows the on option in the join function to support more complex expressions. Currently, Explorer provides functionality for join operations with a limited ability to specify joins using simple equality checks (e.g., on: [{"column1", "column2"}]). To enhance the flexibility of joining tables based on complex conditions that cannot be easily expressed with only column names, it would be beneficial to extend the join on clause to accept Explorer expressions.

Example Use Case:

Consider the following SQL query, where a complex condition is used in the ON clause to perform a left join:

SELECT
  AP.table1,
  AP.column1,
  AP.table2,
  AP.column2,
  CASE WHEN AR.has_relationship THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS 'has_match' 
FROM
  ALL_PAIRS AS AP
LEFT JOIN
  ALL_RELATIONSHIPS AS AR
ON
  ((AR.table_name = AP.table1 AND AR.column_name = AP.column1) AND 
   (AR.referenced_table_name = AP.table2 AND AR.referenced_column_name = AP.column2)) OR
  ((AR.table_name = AP.table2 AND AR.column_name = AP.column2) AND 
   (AR.referenced_table_name = AP.table1 AND AR.referenced_column_name = AP.column1))

Currently, to achieve this behavior in Explorer, one has to perform two joins, as shown below:

result =
  all_pairs
  |> DataFrame.join(all_relationships_1, how: :left,
      on: [
        {"table_name_1", "table_name"}, 
        {"column_name_1", "column_name"}, 
        {"table_name_2", "referenced_table_name"}, 
        {"column_name_2", "referenced_column_name"}
      ])
  |> DataFrame.join(all_relationships_2, how: :left,
      on: [
        {"table_name_2", "table_name"}, 
        {"column_name_2", "column_name"}, 
        {"table_name_1", "referenced_table_name"}, 
        {"column_name_1", "referenced_column_name"}
      ])
  |> DataFrame.mutate(has_relationship: coalesce(has_relationship_1, has_relationship_2))

Proposed Enhancement:

I propose that the on option be enhanced to allow expressions, making it possible to perform complex joins more succinctly. Ideally, the code would look something like this:

result =
  all_pairs
  |> DataFrame.join(all_relationships_1, how: :left,
      on: ((table_name == table_name_1 and column_name = column_name_1) and 
           (referenced_table_name = table_name_2 and referenced_column_name = column_name_2)) or
          ((table_name = table_name_2 and column_name = column_name_2) and 
           (referenced_table_name = table_name_1 and referenced_column_name = column_name_1))
)

lostbean avatar Aug 25 '24 12:08 lostbean