calculations.md

Calculations

Calculations in Ash allow for displaying complex values as a top level value of a resource.

Primer

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxaqpDlI-Hk?si=leaR-xQ5SD7PKOXo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Declaring calculations on a resource

Expression Calculations

The simplest kind of calculation refers to an Ash expression. For example:

calculations do
  calculate :full_name, :string, expr(first_name <> " " <> last_name)
end

See the Expressions guide for more.

Module Calculations

When calculations require more complex code or can't be pushed down into the data layer, a module that uses Ash.Resource.Calculation can be used.

defmodule Concat do
  # An example concatenation calculation, that accepts the delimiter as an argument,
  #and the fields to concatenate as options
  use Ash.Resource.Calculation

  # Optional callback that verifies the passed in options (and optionally transforms them)
  @impl true
  def init(opts) do
    if opts[:keys] && is_list(opts[:keys]) && Enum.all?(opts[:keys], &is_atom/1) do
      {:ok, opts}
    else
      {:error, "Expected a `keys` option for which keys to concat"}
    end
  end

  @impl true
  # A callback to tell Ash what keys must be loaded/selected when running this calculation
  # you can include related data here, but be sure to include the attributes you need from said related data
  # i.e `posts: [:title, :body]`.
  def load(_query, opts, _context) do
    opts[:keys]
  end

  @impl true
  def calculate(records, opts, %{arguments: %{separator: separator}}) do
    Enum.map(records, fn record ->
      Enum.map_join(opts[:keys], separator, fn key ->
        to_string(Map.get(record, key))
      end)
    end)
  end

  # You can implement this callback to make this calculation possible in the data layer
  # *and* in elixir. Ash expressions are already executable in Elixir or in the data layer, but this gives you fine grain control over how it is done
  # @impl true
  # def expression(opts, context) do
  # end
end

# Usage in a resource
calculations do
  calculate :full_name, :string, {Concat, keys: [:first_name, :last_name]} do
    # You need to use the [allow_empty?: true, trim?: false] constraints here.
    # The separator could be an empty string or require a leading or trailing space,
    # but would be trimmed or even set to `nil` without the constraints shown below.
    argument :separator, :string do
      allow_nil? false
      constraints [allow_empty?: true, trim?: false]
      default ""
    end
  end
end

See the documentation for the calculations section in Resource DSL docs and the Ash.Resource.Calculation docs for more information.

The calculations declared on a resource allow for declaring a set of named calculations that can be used by extensions. They can also be loaded in the query using Ash.Query.load/2, or after the fact using Ash.load/3. Calculations declared on the resource will be keys in the resource's struct.

Custom calculations in the query

Example:

User
|> Ash.Query.calculate(:full_name, {Concat, keys: [:first_name, :last_name]}, :string, %{separator: ","})

See the documentation for Ash.Query.calculate/4 for more information.

Arguments in calculations

Using the above example with arguments, you can load a calculation with arguments like so:

load(full_name: [separator: ","])

If the calculation uses an expression, you can also filter and sort on it like so:

query
|> Ash.Query.filter(full_name(separator: " ") == "Zach Daniel")
|> Ash.Query.sort(full_name: {%{separator: " "}, :asc})