Ciro Santilli (@cirosantilli) - New articles

Sequelize is used minimally, just to feed raw queries in transparently to any underlying database, and get minimally parsed results out for us, which we then assert with standard JavaScript. The queries themselves are all written by hand.

By default the examples run on SQLite. Just like the examples from sequelize example, you can set the database at runtime as:

./index.js or ./index.js l: SQLite
./index.js p: PostgreSQL. You must manually create a database called tmp and ensure that peer authentication works for it

Here we list only examples which we believe are standard SQL, and should therefore work across different SQL implementations:

nodejs/sequelize/raw/index.js: basic hello world to demonstrate the setup and very simple functionality
nodejs/sequelize/raw/many_to_many.js: illustrates many-to-many relations with JOIN. Contains:
SQL transaction examples:
- nodejs/sequelize/raw/commit_error.js: stackoverflow.com/questions/27245101/why-should-we-use-rollback-in-sql-explicitly/27245234#27245234 and stackoverflow.com/questions/48277519/how-to-use-commit-and-rollback-in-a-postgresql-function/48277708#48277708 suggest that on PostgreSQL, once something fails inside a transaction, all queries in the current transaction are ignored, and COMMIT simply does a ROLLBACK. Let's check. Yup, true for Postgres, but false for SQLite, SQLite just happily runs anything it can, you really need ROLLBACK for it.
- SQL isolation level example
GROUP BY and SQL aggregate functions:
- nodejs/sequelize/raw/group_by_extra_column.js: let's see if it blows up or not on different DB systems, sqlite3 Node.js package allows it:
  - github.com/sequelize/sequelize/issues/5481#issuecomment-964387232
  - dba.stackexchange.com/questions/141594/how-select-column-does-not-list-in-group-by-clause/141600 says that it was allowed in SQL:1999 when there are no ambiguities due to constraints, e.g. when grouping by unique columns
  - github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/REL_13_5/src/test/regress/sql/functional_deps.sql#L27 shows that PostgreSQL wants it to work for UNIQUE NOT NULL, but they just haven't implemented it as of 13.5, where it only works if you group by PRIMARY KEY
  - dba.stackexchange.com/questions/158015/why-can-i-select-all-fields-when-grouping-by-primary-key-but-not-when-grouping-b also says that UNIQUE NOT NULL doesn't work. Dan Lenski then points to a rationale mailing list thread.
- nodejs/sequelize/raw/group_by_max_full_row.js: here we try to get the full row of each group at which a given column reaches the max of the group
  - Postgres: has SELECT DISCINTCT ON which works perfectly if you only want one row in case of multiple rows attaining the max. ON is an extension to the standard unfortunately: www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/sql-select.html#SQL-DISTINCT Docs specify that it always respects ORDER BY when selecting the row.
    stackoverflow.com/questions/586781/postgresql-fetch-the-row-which-has-the-max-value-for-a-column asks it without the multiple matches use case
    stackoverflow.com/questions/586781/postgresql-fetch-the-rows-which-have-the-max-value-for-a-column-in-each-group/587209#587209 also present in simpler form at stackoverflow.com/questions/121387/fetch-the-rows-which-have-the-max-value-for-a-column-for-each-distinct-value-of/123481#123481 gives a very nice OUTER JOIN only solution! Incredible, very elegant.
    dba.stackexchange.com/questions/171938/get-only-rows-with-max-group-value asks specifically the case of multiple matches to the max
  - SQLite:
    stackoverflow.com/questions/48326957/row-with-max-value-per-group-sqlite
    stackoverflow.com/questions/48326957/row-with-max-value-per-group-sqlite/48328243#48328243 teaches us that in SQLite min and max are magic and guarantee that the matching row is returned
    stackoverflow.com/questions/48326957/row-with-max-value-per-group-sqlite/72996649#72996649 Ciro Santilli uses the magic of ROW_NUMBER
    stackoverflow.com/questions/17277152/sqlite-select-distinct-of-one-column-and-get-the-others/71924314#71924314 get any full row without specifying which, we teach how to specify
    code.djangoproject.com/ticket/22696 WONTFIXed DISTINCT ON
    stackoverflow.com/questions/50846722/what-is-the-difference-between-postgres-distinct-vs-distinct-on/72997494#72997494 DISTINCT vs DISTINCT ON, somewhat related question
  - stackoverflow.com/questions/5803032/group-by-to-return-entire-row asks how to take the top N with distinct after order limit. I don't know how to do it in Postgres
- nodejs/sequelize/raw/most_frequent.js: illustrates a few variants of findind the mode, including across GROUP
  - stackoverflow.com/questions/12235595/find-most-frequent-value-in-sql-column/72979899#72979899
- nodejs/sequelize/raw/group_by_max_n.js: get the top N in each group
order results in the same order as IN:
- MysQL: stackoverflow.com/questions/396748/ordering-by-the-order-of-values-in-a-sql-in-clause
- PostgreSQL:
  - stackoverflow.com/questions/866465/order-by-the-in-value-list
  - dba.stackexchange.com/questions/59394/order-of-returned-rows-with-in-statement
LIMIT by a running total: TODO links

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SQL aggregate function Updated 2025-07-16

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SQL transaction Updated 2025-07-16

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SQL keyword Updated 2025-07-16

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SQL standard Updated 2025-07-16

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A quick look at PostgreSQL's compliance notes: www.postgresql.org/docs/13/features.html shows the complete utter mess that this standard is. Multiple compliance levels that no one fully implements and optional features everywhere.

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SQL implementation Updated 2025-07-16

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SQL tree traversal Updated 2025-07-16

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Example: nodejs/sequelize/raw/tree.js