ArangoDB
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  1. 3.12.4
  2. AQL
  3. Fundamentals

AQL Fundamentals

Learn about the core aspects of ArangoDB’s query language, like the structure of queries, the available data types, as well as result and error handling

Syntax

Query types, whitespace, comments, keywords, and names in the AQL language explained

Data types

AQL supports both primitive data types consisting of exactly one value and compound data types comprised of multiple values

Bind Parameters

Bind parameters allow you to separate the query logic from literal values used in the query and safely use user-provided input for these placeholders

Type and value order

AQL uses a set of rules for equality checks and comparisons that takes both the data types and the actual values into account

Accessing data from collections

You can access collection data by looping over a collection and reading document attributes, with non-existing attributes returning a null value

Subqueries

Subqueries let you form complex requests and allow you to process more data in with a single query

Query Results

The result set of an AQL query is always an array of values, even if it returns a single element only

Query Errors

Errors can occur for queries at compile time, like for syntax errors and missing collections, but warnings and errors can also occur during query execution

Limitations

AQL has restrictions with regards to the complexity of queries and the data they operate on, as well as design limitations to be aware of

How to invoke AQL

Syntax