pg_query

This Ruby extension uses the actual PostgreSQL server source to parse SQL queries and return the internal PostgreSQL parsetree.

In addition the extension allows you to normalize queries (replacing constant values with ?) and parse these normalized queries into a parsetree again.

When you build this extension, it builds parts of the PostgreSQL server source (see libpg_query), and then statically links it into this extension.

This is slightly crazy, but is the only reliable way of parsing all valid PostgreSQL queries.

You can find further examples and a longer rationale here: https://pganalyze.com/blog/parse-postgresql-queries-in-ruby.html

Installation

gem install pg_query

Due to compiling parts of PostgreSQL, installation might take a while on slower systems. Expect up to 5 minutes.

Usage

Parsing a query

PgQuery.parse("SELECT 1")

=> #<PgQuery::ParserResult:0x00007fb69a958820
  @query="SELECT 1",
  @tree=<PgQuery::ParseResult:
    version: 130002,
    stmts: [
      <PgQuery::RawStmt:
        stmt: <PgQuery::Node:
          select_stmt: <PgQuery::SelectStmt:
            distinct_clause: [],
            target_list: [
              <PgQuery::Node:
                res_target: <PgQuery::ResTarget:
                  name: "",
                  indirection: [],
                  val: <PgQuery::Node:
                    a_const: <PgQuery::A_Const:
                      val: <PgQuery::Node:
                        integer: <PgQuery::Integer: ival: 1>
                      >,
                      location: 7
                    >
                  >,
                  location: 7
                >
              >
            ],
            from_clause: [],
            group_clause: [],
            window_clause: [],
            values_lists: [],
            sort_clause: [],
            limit_option: :LIMIT_OPTION_DEFAULT,
            locking_clause: [],
            op: :SETOP_NONE,
            all: false
          >
        >,
        stmt_location: 0,
        stmt_len: 0
      >
    ]
  >,
  @warnings=[]>

Modifying a parsed query and turning it into SQL again

parsed_query = PgQuery.parse("SELECT * FROM users")

# Modify the parse tree in some way
parsed_query.tree.stmts[0].stmt.select_stmt.from_clause[0].range_var.relname = 'other_users'

# Turn it into SQL again
parsed_query.deparse
=> "SELECT * FROM other_users"

Parsing a normalized query

# Normalizing a query (like pg_stat_statements in Postgres 10+)
PgQuery.normalize("SELECT 1 FROM x WHERE y = 'foo'")

=> "SELECT $1 FROM x WHERE y = $2"

# Parsing a normalized query (pre-Postgres 10 style)
PgQuery.parse("SELECT ? FROM x WHERE y = ?")

=> #<PgQuery::ParserResult:0x00007fb69a97a5d8
  @query="SELECT ? FROM x WHERE y = ?",
  @tree=<PgQuery::ParseResult: ...>,
  @warnings=[]>

Extracting tables from a query

PgQuery.parse("SELECT ? FROM x JOIN y USING (id) WHERE z = ?").tables

=> ["x", "y"]

Extracting columns from a query

PgQuery.parse("SELECT ? FROM x WHERE x.y = ? AND z = ?").filter_columns

=> [["x", "y"], [nil, "z"]]

Fingerprinting a query

PgQuery.parse("SELECT 1").fingerprint

=> "50fde20626009aba"

PgQuery.parse("SELECT 2; --- comment").fingerprint

=> "50fde20626009aba"

# Faster fingerprint method that is implemented inside the native C library
PgQuery.fingerprint("SELECT ?")

=> "50fde20626009aba"

Scanning a query into tokens

PgQuery.scan('SELECT 1 --comment')

=> [<PgQuery::ScanResult: version: 130002, tokens: [
<PgQuery::ScanToken: start: 0, end: 6, token: :SELECT, keyword_kind: :RESERVED_KEYWORD>,
<PgQuery::ScanToken: start: 7, end: 8, token: :ICONST, keyword_kind: :NO_KEYWORD>,
<PgQuery::ScanToken: start: 9, end: 18, token: :SQL_COMMENT, keyword_kind: :NO_KEYWORD>]>,
 []]

Differences from Upstream PostgreSQL

This gem is based on libpg_query, which uses the latest stable PostgreSQL version, but with a patch applied to support parsing normalized queries containing ? replacement characters.

Supported Ruby Versions

Currently tested and officially supported Ruby versions:

CRuby 2.5
CRuby 2.6
CRuby 2.7
CRuby 3.0

Not supported:

JRuby: pg_query relies on a C extension, which is discouraged / not properly supported for JRuby
TruffleRuby: GraalVM does not support sigjmp, which is used by the Postgres error handling code (pg_query uses a copy of the Postgres parser & error handling code)

Developer tasks

Update libpg_query source

In order to update to a newer Postgres parser, first update libpg_query to the new Postgres version and tag a release.

Once that is done, follow the following steps:

Update LIB_PG_QUERY_TAG and LIB_PG_QUERY_SHA256SUM in Rakefile
Run rake update_source to update the source code
Commit the Rakefile and the modified files in ext/pg_query to this source tree and make a PR

Resources

See libpg_query for pg_query in other languages, as well as products/tools built on pg_query.

Original Author

Lukas Fittl

Special Thanks to

Jack Danger Canty, for significantly improving deparsing

License

Copyright (c) 2015, pganalyze Team [email protected]
pg_query is licensed under the 3-clause BSD license, see LICENSE file for details.

Query normalization code:
Copyright (c) 2008-2015, PostgreSQL Global Development Group