Hello Everyone! :wave: Four optional filters. Six...

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[Ahmed Nobi95]

Hello Everyone! 👋

Four optional filters. Sixteen DAO methods. We've all written that file.

*Just released RoomQL 1.0.0 — one query { } block instead.*

val q = query {
    from(UserEntityTable)
    where {
        UserEntityTable.age gte minAge      // gone when minAge is null
        UserEntityTable.status eq status    // gone when status is null
    }
    orderBy(UserEntityTable.age, SortDirection.DESC)
}
dao.search(q.toQuery())

(18, "active") → SELECT * FROM users WHERE age >= ? AND status = ? ORDER BY age DESC
(18,  null   ) → SELECT * FROM users WHERE age >= ? ORDER BY age DESC
(null, null  ) → SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY age DESC

A null filter doesn't match NULL — it never reaches the SQL. No if ladders. No (:x IS NULL OR col = :x). No 2ⁿ overloads.

UserEntityTable.age is generated by KSP from your @Entity, so renaming a column breaks the build, not production. Args bind as positional ?. Nothing reflects at runtime, so R8 needs no keep rules.

The catch, since you'd find it in five minutes anyway: it's @RawQuery underneath, so Room no longer verifies the whole statement at compile time. Column references are checked; query logic isn't. Static query? Keep using @Query — it gives you more. This is for the ones @Query can't express, like an ``ORDER BY`` column chosen at runtime.

I didn't want to just claim the alternatives are worse, so the demo app implements the same search four ways — RoomQL, IS NULL OR, 16 overloaded DAOs, raw string concat — and a test asserts all four return identical rows across all 16 filter combinations. A subtly wrong baseline would have made the whole comparison a lie.

Kotlin 2.0.x · Room 2.6–2.7 · minSdk 21 · Apache 2.0

github.com/ahmednobii/RoomQL

Tell me where it breaks — especially query shapes it can't build yet. Whole-row selects only today, so no projections or subqueries.

[CLOVIS]

IMO the "if it's null ignore the constraint" is too implicit and risks being surprising. I would prefer separate gte (doesn't compile if null) and gteNotNull operators (ignore if null). It's what I've done in KtMongo: ktmongo.opensavvy.dev/features/optional-filters.html

[Ahmed Nobi95]

Noted, I will add that to the roadmap of that.