Macros

sqlc.arg

Attach a name to a parameter in a SQL query. This macro expands to an engine-specific parameter placeholder. The name of the parameter is noted and used during code generation.

-- name: GetAuthorByName :one
SELECT *
FROM authors
WHERE lower(name) = sqlc.arg(name);

-- >>> EXPANDS TO >>>

-- name: GetAuthorByName :one
SELECT *
FROM authors
WHERE lower(name) = ?;

See more examples in Naming parameters.

sqlc.embed

Embedding allows you to reuse existing model structs in more queries, resulting in less manual serialization work. First, imagine we have the following schema with students and test scores.

CREATE TABLE students (
  id   bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
  name text,
  age  integer
);

CREATE TABLE test_scores (
  student_id bigint,
  score integer,
  grade text
);

-- name: GetStudentAndScore :one
SELECT sqlc.embed(students), sqlc.embed(test_scores)
FROM students
JOIN test_scores ON test_scores.student_id = students.id
WHERE students.id = $1;

-- >>> EXPANDS TO >>>

-- name: GetStudentAndScore :one
SELECT students.*, test_scores.*
FROM students
JOIN test_scores ON test_scores.student_id = students.id
WHERE students.id = $1;

The Go method will return a struct with a field for the Student and field for the test TestScore instead of each column existing on the struct.

type GetStudentAndScoreRow struct {
	Student   Student
	TestScore TestScore
}

func (q *Queries) GetStudentAndScore(ctx context.Context, id int64) (GetStudentAndScoreRow, error) {
    // ...
}

See a full example in Embedding structs.

sqlc.narg

The same as sqlc.arg, but always marks the parameter as nullable.

-- name: GetAuthorByName :one
SELECT *
FROM authors
WHERE lower(name) = sqlc.narg(name);

-- >>> EXPANDS TO >>>

-- name: GetAuthorByName :one
SELECT *
FROM authors
WHERE LOWER(name) = ?;

See more examples in Naming parameters.

sqlc.slice

For drivers that do not support passing slices to the IN operator, the sqlc.slice macro generates a dynamic query at runtime with the correct number of parameters.

/* name: SelectStudents :many */
SELECT * FROM students 
WHERE age IN (sqlc.slice("ages"))

-- >>> EXPANDS TO >>>

/* name: SelectStudents :many */
SELECT id, name, age FROM authors 
WHERE age IN (/*SLICE:ages*/?)

Since the /*SLICE:ages*/ placeholder is dynamically replaced on a per-query basis, this macro can’t be used with prepared statements.

See a full example in Passing a slice as a parameter to a query.