Aggregate-Support.md

Aggregate Support

taoPQ allows the direct use of "simple" aggregates as parameters and result types.

Requirements

An aggregate data type T suitable for taoPQ support must meet the following requirements:

• std::is_aggregate_v< T >➚ must yield true.
• std::is_empty_v< T >➚ must yield false.
• std::is_union_v< T >➚ must yield false.
• T must not have any base classes.
• T must not have more than 99 member variables. (this limit can be raised, open an issue if necessary)

Registration

We currently require explicit registration of aggregate data types. This is done as a precaution, and to avoid conflicts with other data types.

A data type T can be registered as both a parameter and a result type by specializing tao::pq::is_aggregate as follows:

template<>
inline constexpr bool tao::pq::is_aggregate< T > = true;

If necessary, you can control independently whether a data type is suitable as a parameter or a result type by specializing tao::pq::is_aggregate_parameter and tao::pq::is_aggregate_result as follows:

template<>
inline constexpr bool tao::pq::is_aggregate_parameter< T > = true;

template<>
inline constexpr bool tao::pq::is_aggregate_result< T > = true;

Direct Result Conversion

An aggregate data type T that is registered as a result type enables the direct conversion of a tao::pq::row to T. This is convenient when retrieving results and iterating over them, it enables you to write:

const auto result = conn->execute( "SELECT ... FROM ..." ); // some query
for( const T t : result ) {
   // use t
}

⁉️ Compilers might complain about extra copies and that you should use const T&, but that would not work and there are no extra copies.

Example

The following is a short, but complete example of how to use aggregates with taoPQ:

#include <iostream>
#include <tao/pq.hpp>

// an aggregate
struct user
{
   std::string name;
   unsigned age;
   std::string planet;
};

template<>
inline constexpr bool tao::pq::is_aggregate< user > = true;

int main()
{
   // open a connection to the database
   const auto conn = tao::pq::connection::create( "dbname=template1" );

   // execute statements
   conn->execute( "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS users" );
   conn->execute( "CREATE TABLE users ( name TEXT PRIMARY KEY, age INTEGER NOT NULL, planet TEXT NOT NULL )" );

   // prepare statements
   conn->prepare( "insert_user", "INSERT INTO users ( name, age, planet ) VALUES ( $1, $2, $3 )" );

   // execute previously prepared statements
   conn->execute( "insert_user", user{ "R. Daneel Olivaw", 19230, "Earth" } );
   conn->execute( "insert_user", user{ "R. Giskard Reventlov", 42, "Aurora" } );

   // query and convert data
   for( const user u : conn->execute( "SELECT name, age, planet FROM users" ) ) {
      std::cout << u.name << " from " << u.planet << " was " << u.age << " years old.\n";
   }
}

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This document is part of taoPQ.

Copyright (c) 2021-2025 Daniel Frey and Dr. Colin Hirsch
Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0
See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at https://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt