HaskellDB is a domain specific embedded language for specifying database queries and operations.

The upside of this is the full Haskell language for writing queries and the Haskell compiler and type checker for validating database code. The (big) downside is the error messages are horribly cryptic; although once is compiles it is likely to be correct.

The original version of HaskellDB was re-written to be more portable and usable in more situations. Unfortunately, the documentation is out of step with the current code.
Installation is particularly tricky.

The following is an example query:

stockInfo :: Database -> String
             -> IO [(CompanyName, TickerSymbol)]
stockInfo db val = do
  let q = do
      s < - table stock
      restrict (fromNull (constant "") (s!company_name)
                `like` constant ("%"++val++"%"))
      r <- project (company_name << s!company_name #
                    ticker << s!ticker)
      return r
  rs <- query db q
  return $ map (\r ->
    (maybe "" id (r!company_name), r!ticker)) rs

To run the query, a database connection detail is passed, along with the search string. In this case, find all company names and stock tickers where the company name contains ‘news’.

vals :: IO [(CompanyName, TickerSymbol)]
vals = withDB $ \db -> stockInfo db "news"

The result is:

[("APN NEWS & MEDIA LIMITED","APN"),
 ("WEST AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPERS HOLDINGS LIMITED","WAN"),
 ("NEWS CORPORATION","NWS"),
 ("NEWSAT LIMITED","NWT")]

The database connection can be abstracted into a separate module:

module StockConnection where

import Database.HaskellDB
import Database.HaskellDB.HSQL.MySQL

opts = MySQLOptions {
        server="localhost",
        db="stocks",
        uid="stock_user",
        pwd="stock_pass"}

withDB :: (Database -> IO a) -> IO a
withDB = mysqlConnect opts

If you want more information, try:

• Introductory Slides (pdf) – a gentle introduction.
• Student Paper: HaskellDB Improved (pdf) – the report of the re-write.
• Database.HaskellDB.Query – list of the query combinators.

This approach to database programming is included in Microsoft’s .NET platform, called LINQ. Eric Meijer is the link between the two.

Posted by Geoff Wilson in: Haskell