AR/Arel - How can i compose a query to SELECT a conditional CONCAT of columns - sql

Question

I've got a model method that conditionally concatenates the user's username ("login") and real name, if they've saved a real name - otherwise it just shows the username. I'd like to rewrite the query in ActiveRecord or Arel.
It looks like I should use an Arel::Nodes::NamedFunction. But i don't understand how to do the conditional concatenation with a named function. (Does Arel know about "if"? I can't find any reference in the docs.)
def primer_values
connection.select_values(%(
SELECT CONCAT(users.login,
IF(users.name = "", "", CONCAT(" <", users.name, ">")))
FROM users
ORDER BY IF(last_login > CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL 1 MONTH,
last_login, NULL) DESC,
contribution DESC
LIMIT 1000
)).uniq.sort
end
There's also similarly a conditional in ORDER BY.

Answer 1

While generally I abhor Raw SQL in rails given this usage I'd leave it as is. Although I might change it to something a bit more idiomatic like.
User
.order(
Arel.sql("IF(last_login > CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL 1 MONTH,last_login, NULL)").desc,
User.arel_table[:contribution].desc)
.limit(1000)
.pluck(Arel.sql(
'CONCAT(users.login,
IF(users.name = "", "",
CONCAT(" <", users.name, ">")))'))
.uniq.sort
Converting this to Arel without abstracting it into an object of its own will damage the readability significantly.
That being said just to give you an idea; the first part would be 3 NamedFunctions
CONCAT
IF
CONCAT
Arel::Nodes::NamedFuction.new(
"CONCAT",
[User.arel_table[:name],
Arel::Nodes::NamedFuction.new(
"IF",
[User.arel_table[:name].eq(''),
Arel.sql("''"),
Arel::Nodes::NamedFuction.new(
"CONCAT",
[Arel.sql("' <'"),
User.arel_table[:name],
Arel.sql("'>'")]
)]
)]
)
A NamedFunction is a constructor for FUNCTION_NAME(ARG1,ARG2,ARG3) so any SQL that uses this syntax can be created using NamedFunction including empty functions like NOW() or other syntaxes like LATERAL(query).