SQL::SplitStatement - Split any SQL code into atomic statements
version 1.00020
# Multiple SQL statements in a single string
my $sql_code = <<'SQL'; CREATE TABLE parent(a, b, c , d ); CREATE TABLE child (x, y, "w;", "z;z"); /* C-style comment; */ CREATE TRIGGER "check;delete;parent;" BEFORE DELETE ON parent WHEN EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM child WHERE old.a = x AND old.b = y) BEGIN SELECT RAISE(ABORT, 'constraint failed;'); -- Inline SQL comment END; -- Standalone SQL; comment; with semicolons; INSERT INTO parent (a, b, c, d) VALUES ('pippo;', 'pluto;', NULL, NULL); SQL
use SQL::SplitStatement;
my $sql_splitter = SQL::SplitStatement->new; my @statements = $sql_splitter->split($sql_code);
)
This is a simple module which tries to split any SQL code, even including non-standard extensions (for the details see the [SUPPORTED DBMSs](#pod_SUPPORTED DBMSs) section below), into the atomic statements it is composed of.
The logic used to split the SQL code is more sophisticated than a raw split
on the ;
(semicolon) character: first, various different statement terminator
tokens are recognized (see below for the list), then this module is able to
correctly handle the presence of said tokens inside identifiers, values,
comments, BEGIN ... END
blocks (even nested), dollar-quoted strings, MySQL
custom DELIMITER
s, procedural code etc., as (partially) exemplified in the
SYNOPSIS above.
Consider however that this is by no means a validating parser (technically speaking, it's just a context-sensitive tokenizer). It should rather be seen as an in-progress heuristic approach, which will gradually improve as test cases will be reported. This also means that, except for the LIMITATIONS detailed below, there is no known (to the author) SQL code the most current release of this module can't correctly split.
The test suite bundled with the distribution (which now includes the popular Sakila and Pagila sample db schemata, as detailed in the SHOWCASE section below) should give you an idea of the capabilities of this module
If your atomic statements are to be fed to a DBMS, you are encouraged to use DBIx::MultiStatementDo instead, which uses this module and also (optionally) offers automatic transactions support, so that you'll have the all-or-nothing behavior you would probably want.
SQL::SplitStatement->new( %options )
SQL::SplitStatement->new( \%options )
It creates and returns a new SQL::SplitStatement object. It accepts its options either as a hash or a hashref.
new
takes the following Boolean options, which for documentation purposes can
be grouped in two sets: [Formatting Options](#pod_Formatting Options) and [DBMSs Specific Options](#pod_DBMSs Specific Options).
keep_terminators
A Boolean option which causes, when set to a false value (which is the default), the trailing terminator token to be discarded in the returned atomic statements. When set to a true value, the terminators are kept instead.
The possible terminators (which are treated as such depending on the context) are:
- `;` (the _semicolon_ character);
- any string defined by the MySQL `DELIMITER` command;
- an `;` followed by an `/` (_forward-slash_ character) on its own
line;
- an `;` followed by an `.` (_dot_ character) on its own line,
followed by an `/` on its own line;
- an `/` on its own line regardless of the preceding characters
(only if the `slash_terminates` option, explained below, is set).
The multi-line terminators above are always treated as a single token, that is
they are discarded (or returned) as a whole (regardless of the
slash_terminates
option value).
If your statements are to be fed to a DBMS, you are advised to keep this option to its default (false) value, since some drivers/DBMSs don't want the terminator to be present at the end of the (single) statement.
(Note that the last, possibly empty, statement of a given SQL text, never has a trailing terminator. See below for an example.)
keep_terminator
An alias for the the keep_terminators
option explained above.
Note that if keep_terminators
and keep_terminator
are both passed to
new
, an exception is thrown.
keep_extra_spaces
A Boolean option which causes, when set to a false value (which is the default),
the spaces (\s
) around the statements to be trimmed.
When set to a true value, these spaces are kept instead.
When keep_terminators
is set to false as well, the terminator is discarded
first (regardless of the spaces around it) and the trailing spaces are trimmed
then. This ensures that if keep_extra_spaces
is set to false, the returned
statements will never have trailing (nor leading) spaces, regardless of the
keep_terminators
value.
keep_comments
A Boolean option which causes, when set to a false value (which is the default), the comments to be discarded in the returned statements. When set to a true value, they are kept with the statements instead.
Both SQL and multi-line C-style comments are recognized.
When kept, each comment is returned in the same string with the atomic statement it belongs to. A comment belongs to a statement if it appears, in the original SQL code, before the end of that statement and after the terminator of the previous statement (if it exists), as shown in this pseudo-SQL snippet:
/* This comment
will be returned
together with statement1 */
<statement1>; -- This will go with statement2
-- (note the semicolon which closes statement1)
<statement2>
-- This with statement2 as well
keep_empty_statements
A Boolean option which causes, when set to a false value (which is the default), the empty statements to be discarded. When set to a true value, the empty statements are returned instead.
A statement is considered empty when it contains no characters other than the
terminator and space characters (\s
).
A statement composed solely of comments is not recognized as empty and may
therefore be returned even when keep_empty_statements
is false. To avoid
this, it is sufficient to leave keep_comments
to false as well.
Note instead that an empty statement is recognized as such regardless of the
value of the options keep_terminators
and keep_extra_spaces
.
These options are basically to be kept to their default (false) values, especially if the atomic statements are to be given to a DBMS.
They are intended mainly for cosmetic reasons, or if you want to count by how many atomic statements, including the empty ones, your original SQL code was composed of.
Another situation where they are useful (in the general case necessary, really), is when you want to retain the ability to verbatim rebuild the original SQL string from the returned statements:
my $verbatim_splitter = SQL::SplitStatement->new(
keep_terminators => 1,
keep_extra_spaces => 1,
keep_comments => 1,
keep_empty_statements => 1
);
my @verbatim_statements = $verbatim_splitter->split($sql_string);
$sql_string eq join '', @verbatim_statements; # Always true, given the constructor above.
Other than this, again, you are recommended to stick with the defaults.
The same syntactic structure can have different semantics across different SQL dialects, so sometimes it is necessary to help the parser to make the right decision. This is the function of these options.
slash_terminates
A Boolean option which causes, when set to a true value (which is the default),
a /
(forward-slash) on its own line, even without a preceding semicolon,
to be admitted as a (possible) terminator.
If set to false, a forward-slash on its own line is treated as a statement terminator only if preceded by a semicolon or by a dot and a semicolon.
If you are dealing with Oracle's SQL, you should let this option set, since a slash (alone, without a preceding semicolon) is sometimes used as a terminator, as it is permitted by SQL*Plus (on non-block statements).
With SQL dialects other than Oracle, there is the (theoretical) possibility that a slash on its own line can pass the additional checks and be considered a terminator (while it shouldn't). This chance should be really tiny (it has never been observed in real world code indeed). Though negligible, by setting this option to false that risk can anyway be ruled out.
$sql_splitter->split( $sql_string )
This is the method which actually splits the SQL code into its atomic components.
It returns a list containing the atomic statements, in the same order they appear in the original SQL code. The atomic statements are returned according to the options explained above.
Note that, as mentioned above, an SQL string which terminates with a terminator
token (for example a semicolon), contains a trailing empty statement: this is
correct and it is treated accordingly (if keep_empty_statements
is set to a
true value):
my $sql_splitter = SQL::SplitStatement->new(
keep_empty_statements => 1
);
my @statements = $sql_splitter->split( 'SELECT 1;' );
print 'The SQL code contains ' . scalar(@statements) . ' statements.';
# The SQL code contains 2 statements.
$sql_splitter->split_with_placeholders( $sql_string )
It works exactly as the split
method explained above, except that it returns
also a list of integers, each of which is the number of the placeholders
contained in the corresponding atomic statement.
More precisely, its return value is a list of two elements, the first of which
is a reference to the list of the atomic statements exactly as returned by the
split
method, while the second is a reference to the list of the number of
placeholders as explained above.
Here is an example:
# 4 statements (valid SQLite SQL)
my $sql_code = <<'SQL'; CREATE TABLE state (id, name); INSERT INTO state (id, name) VALUES (?, ?); CREATE TABLE city (id, name, state_id); INSERT INTO city (id, name, state_id) VALUES (?, ?, ?) SQL
my $splitter = SQL::SplitStatement->new;
my ( $statements, $placeholders ) = $splitter->split_with_placeholders( $sql_code );
where the returned $placeholders
list(ref) is to be read as follows: the
first statement contains 0 placeholders, the second 2, the third 0 and the
fourth 3.
The recognized placeholders are:
- question mark placeholders, represented by the
?
character; - dollar sign numbered placeholders, represented by the
$1, $2, ..., $n
strings; - named parameters, such as
:foo
,:bar
,:baz
etc.
$sql_splitter->keep_terminators
$sql_splitter->keep_terminators( $boolean )
Getter/setter method for the keep_terminators
option explained above.
An alias for the keep_terminators
method explained above.
$sql_splitter->keep_extra_spaces
$sql_splitter->keep_extra_spaces( $boolean )
Getter/setter method for the keep_extra_spaces
option explained above.
$sql_splitter->keep_comments
$sql_splitter->keep_comments( $boolean )
Getter/setter method for the keep_comments
option explained above.
$sql_splitter->keep_empty_statements
$sql_splitter->keep_empty_statements( $boolean )
Getter/setter method for the keep_empty_statements
option explained above.
$sql_splitter->slash_terminates
$sql_splitter->slash_terminates( $boolean )
Getter/setter method for the slash_terminates
option explained above.
SQL::SplitStatement aims to cover the widest possible range of DBMSs, SQL dialects and extensions (even proprietary), in a (nearly) fully transparent way for the user.
Currently it has been tested mainly on SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Oracle.
Procedural code is by far the most complex to handle.
Currently any block of code which start with FUNCTION
, PROCEDURE
,
DECLARE
, CREATE
or CALL
is correctly recognized, as well as
anonymous BEGIN ... END
blocks, dollar quoted blocks and blocks
delimited by a DELIMITER
-defined custom terminator, therefore a wide range
of procedural extensions should be handled correctly. However, only PL/SQL,
PL/PgSQL and MySQL code has been tested so far.
If you need also other procedural languages to be recognized, please let me know (possibly with some test cases).
Bound to be plenty, given the heuristic nature of this module (and its ambitious goals). However, no limitations are currently known.
Please report any problematic test case.
To be split correctly, the given input must, in general, be syntactically valid
SQL. For example, an unbalanced BEGIN
or a misspelled keyword could, under
certain circumstances, confuse the parser and make it trip over the next
statement terminator, thus returning non-split statements.
This should not be seen as a limitation though, as the original (invalid) SQL
code would have been unusable anyway (remember that this is NOT a validating
parser!)
To test the capabilities of this module, you can run it
(or rather run L) on the files t/data/sakila-schema.sql
and
t/data/pagila-schema.sql
included in the distribution, which contain two
quite large and complex real world db schemata, for MySQL and PostgreSQL
respectively.
For more information:
- Sakila db: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/sakila/en/sakila.html
- Pagila db: http://pgfoundry.org/projects/dbsamples
SQL::SplitStatement depends on the following modules:
- Carp
- Class::Accessor::Fast
- List::MoreUtils
- Regexp::Common
- SQL::Tokenizer 0.22 or newer
Emanuele Zeppieri, <[email protected]>
No known bugs.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to
bug-sql-SplitStatement at rt.cpan.org
, or through the web interface at
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=SQL-SplitStatement.
I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress
on your bug as I make changes.
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command:
perldoc SQL::SplitStatement
You can also look for information at:
- RT: CPAN's request tracker
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=SQL-SplitStatement
- AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
http://annocpan.org/dist/SQL-SplitStatement
- CPAN Ratings
http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/SQL-SplitStatement
- Search CPAN
http://search.cpan.org/dist/SQL-SplitStatement/
Igor Sutton for his excellent SQL::Tokenizer, which made writing this module a joke.
Copyright 2010-2011 Emanuele Zeppieri.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, or the Artistic License.
See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.