Presentation of Alasql.js library - fast JavaScript in-memory SQL database

1. Alasql.js
fast JavaScript
in-memory
SQL database
ANDREY GERSHUN
© 2014

2. SQL in JavaScript… Warum?
 Fast client side data processing for BI
and ERP applications
 For mobile applications (if there is
weak connection to server)
 Advanced data filtering and grouping
(as alternative to simple .filter()
function)
 Alternatives
 WebSQL – to be depreciated
 SQL.js –big and slow
 Others: NoSQL or linq clones with many
limitations, rather than standard SQL
functionality

3. Alasql advantages
 All standard SQL operators and
functions with advanced functionality
 Fast
 Compilation
 Queries optimization
 Indexation
 “Fast” JavaScript
 Compact
 minimized version is about 100kb)
Benchmarks:
 http://jsperf.com/alasql-js-vs-websql
 http://jsperf.com/sql-js-vs-alasql-js/4
 http://jsperf.com/alasql-vs-lodash-sort/3

4. Alasql functionality
 Standard SQL operators:
 SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE
 CREATE/ALTER/DROP TABLE
 CREATE/USE/DROP DATABASE
 Full SELECT syntax, including
 LEFT/RIGHT/OUTER/CROSS JOINS
 EXISTS, IN, ALL/SOME
 DISTINCT / INTO / GROUP BY / HAVING / ORDER BY /
LIMIT
 UNION/INTERSECT/EXCLUDE
 Subqueries
Advanced GROUP BY options
 CUBE, ROLLUP, GROUPING SETS
Functions
 ABS(), IIF(), IFNULL(), INSTR(), LOWER(), UPPER(),
LCASE(), UCASE(), LEN(), LENGTH()
Aggregators
 SUM/COUNT/MIN/MAX/FIRST/LAST

5. Alasql in browser
In browser
<script src=‘alasql.js’></script>
<script>
alasql(‘CREATE TABLE one (a INT)’);
alasql(‘INSERT INTO one VALUES (?)’,[10]);
var res = alasql.value(‘SELECT SUM(a) FROM one’));
</script>
As AMD module
require([‘alasql’], function(alasql) {
alasql(‘CREATE TABLE one (a INT)’);
alasql(‘INSERT INTO one VALUES (?)’,[10]);
var res = alasql.value(‘SELECT SUM(a) FROM one’);
}
In Node.js
Installation
npm install alasql
Usage
var alasql = require(‘alasql’);
alasql(‘CREATE TABLE one (a INT)’);
alasql(‘INSERT INTO one VALUES (?)’,[10]);
var res = alasql.value(‘SELECT SUM(a) FROM one’);

6. SQL and JavaScript: Better Together
SQL way
alasql(‘CREATE DATABASE test01’);
alasql(‘USE test01’);
alasql(‘CREATE TABLE one (a INT)’);
alasql(‘INSERT INTO one VALUES (10)’):
var res = alasql(‘SELECT * FROM one’);
JavaScript way
data = [{a:1}, {a:2}, {a:3}];
alasql(‘SELECT * FROM ? WHERE a >= ?’, [data, 2]);
or
var db = new alasql.Database();
db.exec(“select * from one”, function(data){
console.log(data.length);
});

7. User-defined functions
and compiled statements
Custom functions:
alasql.fn.myfn = function(a,b) {
return a*b+1;
}
alasql(‘SELECT myfn(a,b) FROM one’);
Compiled statements:
var ins = alasql.compile(‘INSERT INTO one
VALUES (?,?)’);
ins(1,10);
ins(2,20);
Compiled functions:
var bigSum = alasql.compile(‘SELECT SUM(a)
FROM one WHERE a>3’, ‘value’);
var res = bigSum([10]) + 10;

8. Where to find Alasql.js?
Alasql.js at Github:
 https://github.com/agershun/alasql
Official web-site:
 http://alasql.org