Query Clause Classes

Nox's ORM provides class representation of certain MySQL query clauses. These clause objects are used when making queries against a ModelClass instance (such as a User class).

The ColumnQuery Class

The main methods of interest in a ColumnQuery are as follows

public function where(string $columnName, string $condition, string $value);
public function or();
public function and();
public function startConditionGroup();
public function endConditionGroup();

An example of creating a ColumnQuery that represents the below MySQL clause is shown below

WHERE (email LIKE "%example%" AND name LIKE "nox%") OR (id = 1)

$columnQuery = new \Nox\ORM\ColumnQuery()
    ->startConditionGroup() // Start a parenthesis group
    ->where("email", "LIKE", "%example%")
    ->and()
    ->where("name", "LIKE", "nox%")
    ->endConditionGroup() // close the parenthesis group
    ->or()
    ->where("id", "=", 1)

The first parameter of where() is the actual MySQL column name and not the property name represented in the model class. The synatx of the where() parameters is MySQL syntax. So to check against null you would write

->where("email", "IS NOT", "NULL")

->where("email", "IS", "NULL")

All clauses are query built as prepared queries or escaped queries (in the case of a multi-query situation, such as when saving a collection).

ResultOrder

The ResultOrder class is a simpler class that represents how to order a query's result set. It has only one method of interest

public function by(string $columnName, string $order);

$resultOrder = new \Nox\ORM\ResultOrder()
    ->by("email", "ASC");

Multiple by()'s can be strung together to have multiple orderings - just as MySQL natively allows.

Pager Class

The Pager class is the simplest clause class and represents how a query's result set will be limited and offset. It has no methods and simply uses properties in its constructor

$pager = new \Nox\ORM\Pager(
    pageNumber: 1,
    limit: 100,
);