Constraints

Constraints are an EdgeDB mechanism that provides fine-grained control over which data is considered valid. A constraint may be defined on a scalar type, an object type, a concrete link, or a concrete property. In case of a constraint on a scalar type, the subjects of the constraint are the instances of that scalar, thus the values that the scalar can take will be restricted. Whereas for link or property constraints the subjects are the targets of those links or properties, restricting what objects or values those links and properties may reference. The subject of a constraint can be referred to in the constraint expression as __subject__.

Standard Constraints

The standard library defines the following constraints:

constraint

std::one_of

std::one_of(VARIADIC members: anytype)

Specifies the list of allowed values directly.

Example:

Copy

scalar type Status extending str {
    constraint one_of ('Open', 'Closed', 'Merged');
}

constraint

std::expression

std::expression on (expr)

Arbitrary constraint expression.

Example of using an expression constraint to create a custom scalar:

Copy

scalar type starts_with_a extending str {
    constraint expression on (__subject__[0] = 'A');
}

Example of using an expression constraint based on a couple of object properties to restrict maximum magnitude for a vector:

Copy

type Vector {
    required property x -> float64;
    required property y -> float64;
    constraint expression on (
        __subject__.x^2 + __subject__.y^2 < 25
    );
}

constraint

std::max_value

std::max_value(max: anytype)

Specifies the maximum value for the subject.

Example:

Copy

scalar type max_100 extending int64 {
    constraint max_value(100);
}

constraint

std::max_ex_value

std::max_ex_value(max: anytype)

Specifies the maximum value (as an open interval) for the subject.

Example:

Copy

scalar type maxex_100 extending int64 {
    constraint max_ex_value(100);
}

constraint

std::max_len_value

std::max_len_value(max: int64)

Specifies the maximum length of subject string representation.

Example:

Copy

scalar type Username extending str {
    constraint max_len_value(30);
}

constraint

std::min_value

std::min_value(min: anytype)

Specifies the minimum value for the subject.

Example:

Copy

scalar type non_negative extending int64 {
    constraint min_value(0);
}

constraint

std::min_ex_value

std::min_ex_value(min: anytype)

Specifies the minimum value (as an open interval) for the subject.

Example:

Copy

scalar type positive_float extending float64 {
    constraint min_ex_value(0);
}

constraint

std::min_len_value

std::min_len_value(min: int64)

Specifies the minimum length of subject string representation.

Example:

Copy

scalar type four_decimal_places extending int64 {
    constraint min_len_value(4);
}

constraint

std::regexp

std::regexp(pattern: str)

Specifies that the string representation of the subject must match a regexp.

Example:

Copy

scalar type LettersOnly extending str {
    constraint regexp(r'[A-Za-z]*');
}

See here for more details on regexp patterns.

constraint

std::exclusive

Specifies that the link or property value must be exclusive (unique).

When applied to a multi link or property, the exclusivity constraint guarantees that for every object, the set of values held by a link or property does not intersect with any other such set in any other object of this type.

This constraint is only valid for concrete links and properties. Scalar type definitions cannot include this constraint.

Example:

Copy

type User {
    # Make sure user names are unique.
    required property name -> str {
        constraint exclusive;
    }

    # Make sure none of the "owned" items belong
    # to any other user.
    multi link owns -> Item {
        constraint exclusive;
    }
}

Sometimes it’s necessary to create a type where each combination of properties is unique. This can be achieved by defining an exclusive constraint for the type, rather than on each property:

Copy

type UniqueCoordinates {
    required property x -> int64;
    required property y -> int64;

    # Each combination of x and y must be unique.
    constraint exclusive on ( (.x, .y) );
}

In principle, many possible expressions can appear in the on (<expr>) clause of the exclusive constraint with a few caveats:

The expression can only contain references to the immediate properties or links of the type.
No backlinks or long paths are allowed.
Only Immutable functions are allowed in the constraint expression.

This constraint also has an additional effect of creating an implicit index on the link or property. This means that in the above example there’s no need to add explicit indexes for the name property.

Constraints​

Standard Constraints​

See Also​

Constraints

Standard Constraints

See Also