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SQL

Previously in my fresher software developer time, I rarely write SQL, I always use ORM to wrap SQL. But time past and too much abstraction bites me. So I decide to only write SQL from now as much as possible, no more ORM for me. But if there is any cool ORM for Go, I guess I try.

This guide is not kind of guide which cover all cases. Just my little tricks when I work with SQL.

Stay away from database unique id

Use UUID instead. If you can, and you should, choose UUID type which can be sortable.

Stay away from database timestamp

Stay away from all kind of database timestamp (MySQL timestmap, SQLite timestamp, ...) Just use int64 then pass the timestamp in service layer not database layer.

Why? Because time and date and location are too much complex to handle. In my business, I use timestamp in milliseconds. Then I save timestamp as int64 value to database. Each time I get timestamp from database, I parse to time struct in Go with location or format I want. No more hassle!

It looks like this:

[Business] time, data -> convert to unix timestamp milliseconds -> [Database] int64

Extra field for extra things

Create new column in database is scary, so I suggest avoid it if you can. How to avoid, first design table with extra field. It is black hole, put everything in there if you want.

I always use MySQL json data type for extra field.

JSON data type is also useful for dumping request, response data.

Use JSON_EXTRACT(col, '$.key') IS NULL to check json field exist or not.

Use index!!!

You should use index for faster query, but not too much. Don't create index for every fields in table. Choose wisely!

For example, create index in MySQL:

CREATE INDEX idx_user_id
    ON user_upload (user_id);

If create index inside CREATE TABLE, prefer INDEX to KEY: 

CREATE TABLE user_upload
(
    id      int(11) NOT NULL,
    user_id int(11) NULL DEFAULT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (id),
    INDEX idx_user_id (user_id)
);

Use EXPLAIN to check if index is used or not:

Be careful with UTF-8

TLDR with MySQL:

CREATE TABLE ekyc_approved
(
    id varchar(30) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (id),
) ENGINE = InnoDB
  DEFAULT CHARSET = utf8mb4;

Be careful with NULL

If compare with field which can be NULL, remember to check NULL for safety. 

-- field_something can be NULL

-- Bad
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE field_something != 1

-- Good
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE (field_something IS NULL OR field_something != 1)

Need clarify why this happpen? Idk :(

VARCHAR or TEXT

Prefer VARCHAR if you need to query and of course use index, and make sure size of value will never hit the limit. Prefer TEXT if you don't care, just want to store something.

LIMIT

Prefer LIMIT 10 OFFSET 5 to LIMIT 5, 10 to avoid misunderstanding.

Be super careful when migrate, update database on production and online!!!

Plase read docs about online ddl operations before do anything online (keep database running the same time update it, for example create index, ...)

Heathcheck

Use SELECT 1 to check if database failed yet.

Tools

Thanks

Feel free to ask me via email or Mastodon.
Source code is available on GitHub Codeberg sourcehut Treehouse GitLab