.. py:currentmodule:: lsst.daf.butler .. _daf_butler_queries: .. py:currentmodule:: lsst.daf.butler Querying datasets ================= Datasets in a butler-managed data repository are identified by the combination of their *dataset type* and *data ID* within a *collection*. The `Registry` class's query methods (`~Registry.queryDatasetTypes`, `~Registry.queryCollections`, `~Registry.queryDataIds`, `~Registry.queryDatasets`, and `~Registry.queryDimensionRecords`) allow these to be specified either fully or partially in various ways. .. note:: Registry queries utilize locally-cached information and heuristics to generate simpler queries and provide diagnostics when queries yield no results. Concurrent writes by other butler clients may not be reflected in these caches, if they happened since this `Registry` was initialized, and new datasets may not be found by queries as a result. Users can call `Registry.refresh` before querying to update the caches. Other `Registry` and `Butler` methods (`Registry.findDataset` and `Butler.get` variants in particular) do not suffer from this limitation; if caching is used in these contexts, we always fall back to database searches when cached information indicates that a dataset does not exist. .. _daf_butler_dataset_type_expressions: DatasetType expressions ----------------------- Arguments that specify one or more dataset types can generally take any of the following: - `DatasetType` instances; - `str` values (corresponding to `DatasetType.name`); - `str` values using glob wildcard syntax which will be converted to `re.Pattern`; - `re.Pattern` values (matched to `DatasetType.name` strings, via `~re.Pattern.fullmatch`); - iterables of any of the above; - the special value "``...``", which matches all dataset types. Some of these are not allowed in certain contexts (as documented there). .. _daf_butler_collection_expressions: Collection expressions ---------------------- Arguments that specify one or more collections are similar to those for dataset types; they can take: - `str` values (the full collection name); - `str` values using glob wildcard syntax which will be converted to `re.Pattern`; - `re.Pattern` values (matched to the collection name, via `~re.Pattern.fullmatch`); - iterables of any of the above; - the special value "``...``", which matches all collections; Collection expressions are processed by the `~registry.wildcards.CollectionQuery` class. User code will rarely need to interact with these directly, but they can be passed to `Registry` instead of the expression objects themselves, and hence may be useful as a way to transform an expression that may include single-pass iterators into an equivalent form that can be reused. Ordered collection searches ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ An *ordered* collection expression is required in contexts where we want to search collections only until a dataset with a particular dataset type and data ID is found. These include all direct `Butler` operations, the definitions of `~CollectionType.CHAINED` collections, `Registry.findDataset`, and the ``findFirst=True`` mode of `Registry.queryDatasets`. In these contexts, regular expressions and "``...``" are not allowed for collection names, because they make it impossible to unambiguously define the order in which to search. Ordered collection searches are processed by the `~registry.wildcards.CollectionSearch` class. .. _daf_butler_dimension_expressions: Dimension expressions --------------------- Constraints on the data IDs returned by a query can take two forms: - an explicit data ID value can be provided (as a `dict` or `DataCoordinate` instance) to directly constrain the dimensions in the data ID and indirectly constrain any related dimensions (see :ref:`Dimensions Overview `); - a string expression resembling a SQL WHERE clause can be provided to constrain dimension values in a much more general way. In most cases, the two can be provided together, requiring that returned data IDs match both constraints. The rest of this section describes the latter in detail. The language grammar is defined in the ``exprParser.parserYacc`` module, which is responsible for transforming a string with the user expression into a syntax tree with nodes represented by various classes defined in the ``exprParser.exprTree`` module. Modules in the ``exprParser`` package are considered butler/registry implementation details and are not exposed at the butler package level. The grammar is based on standard SQL; it is a subset of SQL expression language that can appear in WHERE clause of standard SELECT statement with some extensions, such as range support for the ``IN`` operator and time literals. Expression structure ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The expression is passed as a string via the ``where`` arguments of `~Registry.queryDataIds` and `~Registry.queryDatasets`. The string contains a single boolean expression which evaluates to true or false (if it is a valid expression). Expression can contain a bunch of standard logical operators, comparisons, literals, and identifiers which are references to registry objects. A few words in expression grammar are reserved: ``AND``, ``OR``, ``NOT``, ``IN``, and ``OVERLAPS``. Reserved words are not case sensitive and can appear in either upper or lower case, or a mixture of both. Language operator precedence rules are the same as for the other languages like C++ or Python. When in doubt use grouping operators (parentheses) for sub-expressions. General note --- the parser itself does not evaluate any expressions even if they consist of literals only, all evaluation happens in the SQL engine when registry runs the resulting SQL query. Following sections describe each of the parts in detail. Literals ^^^^^^^^ The language supports these types of literals: Strings This is just a sequence of characters enclosed in single quotation marks. The parser itself fully supports Unicode, but some tools such as database drivers may have limited support for it, depending on environment or encoding chosen. Numbers Integer numbers are series of decimal numbers optionally preceded by minus sign. Parser does not support octal/hexadecimal numbers. Floating point numbers use standard notation with decimal point and/or exponent. For numbers parser passes a string representation of a number to downstream registry code to avoid possible rounding issues. Time literals Timestamps in a query are defined using special syntax which consists of a capital letter "T" followed by quoted string: ``T'time-string'``. Time string contains time information together with optional time format and time scale. For detailed description of supported time specification check section :ref:`time-literals-syntax`. Range literals This sort of literal is allowed inside ``IN`` expressions only. It consists of two integer literals separated by double dots and optionally followed by a colon and one more integer literal. Two integers define start and stop values for the range; both are inclusive values. The optional third integer defines stride value, which defaults to 1; it cannot be negative. Ranges are equivalent to a sequence of integers (but not to intervals of floats). Examples of range literals: * ``1..5`` -- equivalent to ``1,2,3,4,5`` * ``1..10:3`` -- equivalent to ``1,4,7,10`` * ``-10..-1:2`` -- equivalent to ``-10,-8,-6,-4,-2`` Identifiers ^^^^^^^^^^^ Identifiers represent values external to a parser, such as values stored in a database. The parser itself cannot define identifiers or their values; it is the responsibility of translation layer (registry) to map identifiers into something sensible. Like in most programming languages, an identifier starts with a letter or underscore followed by zero or more letters, underscores, or digits. Parser also supports dotted identifiers consisting of two simple identifiers separated by a dot. Identifiers are case-sensitive on parser side but individual database back-ends may have special rules about case sensitivity. In current implementation simple identifiers are used by registry to represent dimensions, e.g. ``visit`` identifier is used to represent a value of ``visit`` dimension in registry database. Dotted identifiers are mapped to tables and columns in registry database, e.g. ``detector.raft`` can be used for accessing raft name (obviously dotted names need knowledge of database schema and how SQL query is built). A simple identifier with a name ``ingest_date`` is used to reference dataset ingest time, which can be used to filter query results based on that property of datasets. Unary arithmetic operators ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Two unary operators ``+`` (plus) and ``-`` (minus) can be used in the expressions in front of (numeric) literals, identifiers, or other expressions which should evaluate to a numeric value. Binary arithmetic operators ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Language supports five arithmetic operators: ``+`` (add), ``-`` (subtract), ``*`` (multiply), ``/`` (divide), and ``%`` (modulo). Usual precedence rules apply to these operators. Operands for them can be anything that evaluates to a numeric value. Comparison operators ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Language supports set of regular comparison operators: ``=``, ``!=``, ``<``, ``<=``, ``>``, ``>=``. This can be used on operands that evaluate to a numeric values or timestamps, for (in)equality operators operands can also be boolean expressions. .. note :: The equality comparison operator is a single ``=`` like in SQL, not double ``==`` like in Python or C++. IN operator ^^^^^^^^^^^ The ``IN`` operator (and ``NOT IN``) are an expanded version of a regular SQL IN operator. Its general syntax looks like: .. code-block:: sql IN ( [, , ... ]) NOT IN ( [, , ... ]) where each item in the right hand side list is one of the supported literals or identifiers. Unlike regular SQL IN operator the list cannot contain expressions, only literals or identifiers. The extension to regular SQL IN is that literals can be range literals as defined above. The query language allows mixing of different types of literals and ranges but it may not make sense to mix them when expressions is translated to SQL. Regular use of ``IN`` operator is for checking whether an integer number is in set of numbers. For that case the list on right side can be a mixture of integer literals, identifiers that represent integers, and range literals. For an example of this type of usage, these two expressions are equivalent: .. code-block:: sql visit IN (100, 110, 130..145:5) visit in (100, 110, 130, 135, 140, 145) as are these: .. code-block:: sql visit NOT IN (100, 110, 130..145:5) visit Not In (100, 110, 130, 135, 140, 145) Another usage of ``IN`` operator is for checking whether a timestamp or a time range is contained wholly in other time range. Time range in this case can be specified as a tuple of two time literals or identifers each representing a timestamp, or as a single identifier representing a time range. In case a single identifier appears on the right side of ``IN`` it has to be enclosed in parentheses. Here are few examples for checking containment in a time range: .. code-block:: sql -- using literals for both timestamp and time range T'2020-01-01' IN (T'2019-01-01', T'2020-01-01') (T'2020-01-01', T'2020-02-01') NOT IN (T'2019-01-01', T'2020-01-01') -- using identifiers for each timestamp in a time range T'2020-01-01' IN (interval.begin, interval.end) T'2020-01-01' NOT IN (interval_id) -- identifier on left side can represent either a timestamp or time range timestamp_id IN (interval.begin, interval.end) range_id NOT IN (interval_id) The same ``IN`` operator can be used for checking containment of a point or region inside other region. Presently there are no special literal type for regions, so this can only be done with regions represented by identifiers. Few examples of region containment: .. code-block:: sql POINT(ra, dec) IN (region1) region2 NOT IN (region1) OVERLAPS operator ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The ``OVERLAPS`` operator checks for overlapping time ranges or regions, its arguments have to have consistent types. Like with ``IN`` operator time ranges can be represented with a tuple of two timestamps (literals or identifiers) or with a single identifier. Regions can only be used as identifiers. ``OVERLAPS`` syntax is similar to ``IN`` but it does not require parentheses on right hand side when there is a single identifier representing a time range or a region. Few examples of the syntax: .. code-block:: sql (T'2020-01-01', T'2022-01-01') OVERLAPS (T'2019-01-01', T'2021-01-01') (interval.begin, interval.end) OVERLAPS interval_2 interval_1 OVERLAPS interval_2 NOT (region_1 OVERLAPS region_2) Boolean operators ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ``NOT`` is the standard unary boolean negation operator. ``AND`` and ``OR`` are binary logical and/or operators. All boolean operators can work on expressions which return boolean values. Grouping operator ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Parentheses should be used to change evaluation order (precedence) of sub-expressions in the full expression. Function call ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Function call syntax is similar to other languages, expression for call consists of an identifier followed by zero or more comma-separated arguments enclosed in parentheses (e.g. ``func(1, 2, 3)``). An argument to a function can be any expression. Presently there only one construct that uses this syntax, ``POINT(ra, dec)`` is function which declares (or returns) sky coordinates similarly to ADQL syntax. Name of the ``POINT`` function is not case-sensitive. .. _time-literals-syntax: Time literals ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Timestamps in a query language are specified using syntax ``T'time-string'``. The content of the ``time-string`` specifies a time point in one of the supported time formats. For internal time representation Registry uses `astropy.time.Time`_ class and parser converts time string into an instance of that class. For string-based time formats such as ISO the conversion of a time string to an object is done by the ``Time`` constructor. The syntax of the string could be anything that is supported by ``astropy``, for details see `astropy.time`_ reference. For numeric time formats such as MJD the parser converts string to a floating point number and passes that number to ``Time`` constructor. Parser guesses time format from the content of the time string: - If time string is a floating point number then parser assumes that time is in "mjd" format. - If string matches ISO format then parser assumes "iso" or "isot" format depending on presence of "T" separator in a string. - If string starts with "+" sign followed by ISO string then parser assumes "fits" format. - If string matches ``year:day:time`` format then "yday" is used. The format can be specified explicitly by prefixing time string with a format name and slash, e.g. ``T'mjd/58938.515'``. Any of the formats supported by ``astropy`` can be specified explicitly. Time scale that parser passes to ``Time`` constructor depends on time format, by default parser uses: - "utc" scale for "iso", "isot", "fits", "yday", and "unix" formats, - "tt" scale for "cxcsec" format, - "tai" scale for anything else. Default scale can be overridden by adding a suffix to time string consisting of a slash and time scale name, e.g. ``T'58938.515/tai'``. Any combination of explicit time format and time scale can be given at the same time, e.g. ``T'58938.515'``, ``T'mjd/58938.515'``, ``T'58938.515/tai'``, and ``T'mjd/58938.515/tai'`` all mean the same thing. Note that `astropy.time.Time`_ class imposes few restrictions on the format of the string that it accepts for iso/isot/fits/yday formats, in particular: - time zone specification is not supported - hour-only time is not supported, at least minutes have to be specified for time (but time can be omitted entirely) .. _astropy.time: https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/time/ .. _astropy.time.Time: https://docs.astropy.org/en/stable/api/astropy.time.Time.html Examples ^^^^^^^^ Few examples of valid expressions using some of the constructs: .. code-block:: sql visit > 100 AND visit < 200 visit IN (100..200) AND tract = 500 visit IN (100..200) AND visit NOT IN (159, 191) AND band = 'i' (visit = 100 OR visit = 101) AND exposure % 2 = 1 visit.datetime_begin > T'2020-03-30 12:20:33' exposure.datetime_begin > T'58938.515' visit.datetime_end < T'mjd/58938.515/tai' ingest_date < T'2020-11-06 21:10:00'