Ra

The relational language

Introducing Ra

Ra is a new programming language designed from the ground up to make working with data simpler, more consistent, and more powerful. Ra has relations as first-class data structures. This means cleaner, more algebraic operations, fewer pitfalls, and a language that lets you declare what you want instead of making you build nested loops to extract it.

Find the suppliers with a STATUS less than 30

S[STATUS < 30]

SNO SNAME STATUS CITY

S1 Smith 20 London
S2 Jones 10 Paris
S4 Clark 20 London

SNO	SNAME	STATUS	CITY
S1	Smith	20	London
S2	Jones	10	Paris
S4	Clark	20	London

For each city, show the number of suppliers

S{CITY}{*, suppliers:=count(!!S)}

suppliers CITY

1 Athens
2 London
2 Paris

suppliers	CITY
1	Athens
2	London
2	Paris

By eliminating problems — like nulls and duplicate rows — Ra enables more reliable and maintainable applications. No more wrestling with ORMs, juggling string-based queries, or dealing with edge cases from three-valued 'logic' that simply shouldn't exist. Just expressive, predictable, and efficient relational programming.

Ra isn’t ready for public testing just yet, but if you're interested in a better way to work with data, stay tuned.

Find suppliers who supply all parts

S[(!!SP){PNO} = P{PNO}]

SNO SNAME STATUS CITY

S1 Smith 20 London

SNO	SNAME	STATUS	CITY
S1	Smith	20	London

SQL equivalent

SELECT * FROM S 
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (
      SELECT PNO FROM SP 
      WHERE SP.SNO = S.SNO 
      EXCEPT 
      SELECT PNO FROM P)
    AND NOT EXISTS (
      SELECT PNO FROM P 
      EXCEPT 
      SELECT PNO FROM P 
      WHERE SP.SNO = S.SNO)

Find suppliers who supply the heaviest part

S &~ SP(quota(P, 1, {-WEIGHT}){PNO})

SNO SNAME STATUS CITY

S1 Smith 20 London

SNO	SNAME	STATUS	CITY
S1	Smith	20	London

SQL equivalent

SELECT * FROM S
    WHERE EXISTS (
      SELECT PNO FROM SP
      JOIN
      (SELECT PNO FROM P AS PX
      WHERE (
        SELECT COUNT(*)
        FROM P AS PY
        WHERE PX.WEIGHT < PY.WEIGHT
      ) < 1) AS HEAVIEST 
      ON SP.PNO = HEAVIEST.PNO)

Find the lightest parts and show their supplier details plus a total quantity per part

group(S & SP & quota(P, 2, {WEIGHT, PNO})~{CITY}, {SNO, SNAME, STATUS, CITY, QTY}, suppliers)
        {*, tqty:=sum(suppliers, QTY)}

tqty PNO PNAME COLOR WEIGHT suppliers

500 P5 Cam Blue 12 SNO SNAME STATUS CITY QTY

S1 Smith 20 London 100
S4 Clark 20 London 400
600 P1 Nut Red 12 SNO SNAME STATUS CITY QTY

S1 Smith 20 London 300
S2 Jones 10 Paris 300

A terminal REPL sample

Ra is inspired by "Databases, Types, and The Relational Model: The Third Manifesto", a book by Chris Date and Hugh Darwen.

The language is under development but is already showing some potential. On this site I'll highlight the features and progress made, though the syntax is subject to change.

Hello, world

Create main.ra

main := {} begin
    print("Hello, world")
end

$ ra hello.ra

Hello, world