Table aliases in a JOIN (was "discriminating two FK refs..")

Rails
1

Note: I’ve got SQL doing what I need. Now I just need ActiveRecord to
produce the corresponding query. Consequently, this is a re-framing of
the post
Discriminating two FK references into one table? - Rails - Ruby-Forum
‘discriminating two FK references into one table?’

Here’s an SQL query I’d like ActiveRecord to produce, without dropping
down into raw SQL (model and schema are listed at the end of this post):

SELECT sales_facts.asking_price, sales_facts.sale_price, listed.datetime AS listed_date, sold.datetime AS sold_date FROM sales_facts JOIN date_dimensions listed ON listed.id = sales_facts.listed_date_dimension_id JOIN date_dimensions sold ON sold.id = sales_facts.sold_date_dimension_id;

A few things to notice:

  • There are two joins onto the same date_dimensions table. We’re using
    table name aliases to distinguish the two (‘listed’ and ‘sold’).

  • We’re using column name aliases to distinguish the results in the
    SELECT (‘AS listed_date’ and "AS sold_date’). Without this, we wouldn’t
    know which datetime came from the listed_date join and which came from
    the sold_date join.

So the real question is: what associations and embellishments do I add
to my SalesFact ActiveRecord so I can make queries w/o dropping down
into raw SQL? And what query would produce the SQL as written above?

The schema and models follow. Thanks.

  • ff

Models:

class SalesFact < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :address_dimension
  belongs_to :listed_date_dimension, :class_name => 'DateDimension',
:foreign_key => 'listed_date_dimension_id'
  belongs_to :sold_date_dimension, :class_name => 'DateDimension',
:foreign_key => 'sold_date_dimension_id'
end
class AddressDimension < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :sales_facts
end
class DateDimension < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :sales_facts
end

Schema:

  create_table "sales_facts", :id => false, :force => true do |t|
    t.integer "address_dimension_id"
    t.integer "listed_date_dimension_id"
    t.integer "sold_date_dimension_id"
    t.float   "asking_price"
    t.float   "sale_price"
  end
  create_table "address_dimensions", :force => true do |t|
    t.string   "street_address"
    t.string   "zip5"
    t.float    "latitude"
    t.float    "longitude"
    # snip...
  end
  create_table "date_dimensions", :force => true do |t|
    t.datetime "datetime"
    t.string   "short_day_name"
    t.string   "short_month_name"
    t.string   "quarter"
    t.boolean  "is_weekend"
    t.boolean  "is_holiday"
    # snip...
  end
2

By the way, the following works, but I was hoping that ActiveRecord
could assemble a query without so much exposed SQL. Does anyone have
anything better?

s = SalesFact.all(
:select => 'sold.short_month_name AS sold_month, ’ +
‘COUNT(*) as units_sold’,
:joins => 'INNER JOIN date_dimensions listed ON listed.id =
sales_facts.listed_date_dimension_id ’ +
‘INNER JOIN date_dimensions sold ON sold.id =
sales_facts.sold_date_dimension_id’,
:group => ‘sold.short_month_name’,
:order => ‘sold.month_of_year’
) ; true

[For those watching at home, this counts how many sales closed in each
month of the year, and returns the result ordered from Jan … Dec.]