pycel2sql 0.3.1

Convert CEL (Common Expression Language) expressions to SQL WHERE clauses

pycel2sql

Convert CEL (Common Expression Language) expressions to SQL WHERE clauses.

Python port of cel2sql (Go).

Installation

pip install pycel2sql

Requires Python 3.12+.

Quick Start

from pycel2sql import convert

# Default dialect is PostgreSQL
sql = convert('name == "alice" && age > 30')
# => name = 'alice' AND age > 30

sql = convert('status == "active" || tags.size() > 0')
# => status = 'active' OR ARRAY_LENGTH(tags, 1) > 0

Dialects

Six SQL dialects are supported:

from pycel2sql import convert
from pycel2sql.dialect import get_dialect

# Using get_dialect() factory
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("postgresql"))
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("mysql"))
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("sqlite"))
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("duckdb"))
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("bigquery"))
sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=get_dialect("spark"))

# Or instantiate directly
from pycel2sql import (
    PostgresDialect, MySQLDialect, SQLiteDialect, DuckDBDialect,
    BigQueryDialect, SparkDialect,
)

sql = convert('name == "alice"', dialect=MySQLDialect())

Parameterized Queries

Use convert_parameterized() to produce parameterized SQL with bind placeholders:

from pycel2sql import convert_parameterized, MySQLDialect

result = convert_parameterized('name == "alice" && age > 30')
# result.sql => 'name = $1 AND age > $2'  (PostgreSQL default)
# result.parameters => ['alice', 30]

result = convert_parameterized('name == "alice"', dialect=MySQLDialect())
# result.sql => 'name = ?'
# result.parameters => ['alice']

Placeholder styles per dialect:

Dialect	Placeholder
PostgreSQL	$1, $2, ...
DuckDB	$1, $2, ...
BigQuery	@p1, @p2, ...
MySQL	? (positional)
SQLite	? (positional)
Apache Spark	? (positional)

Conversion Options

json_variables

Declare CEL variable names that correspond to flat JSONB columns. Field access via dot notation or bracket notation emits dialect-specific JSON extraction:

from pycel2sql import convert

# PostgreSQL: dot and bracket notation both produce ->> operators
sql = convert("context.host == 'a'", json_variables={"context"})
# => context->>'host' = 'a'

sql = convert('context["host"] == "a"', json_variables={"context"})
# => context->>'host' = 'a'

# Nested paths: intermediate keys use ->, final key uses ->>
sql = convert("tags.corpus.section == 'x'", json_variables={"tags"})
# => tags->'corpus'->>'section' = 'x'

json_variables takes precedence over schema-declared JSON. Comprehension iter vars shadow json_variables (collisions are not treated as JSON inside the comprehension body).

column_aliases

Map CEL identifier names to SQL column names. Useful when database columns use prefixed names while user-facing CEL expressions use clean names:

sql = convert("name == 'a'", column_aliases={"name": "usr_name"})
# => usr_name = 'a'

The alias is validated against the dialect's identifier rules. The original CEL name remains the schema key — alias is output-only.

param_start_index

Shift the placeholder counter for convert_parameterized() when embedding the generated fragment into a larger pre-parameterized query:

result = convert_parameterized(
    "name == 'a' && age > 30",
    param_start_index=5,
)
# result.sql => 'name = $5 AND age > $6'
# result.parameters => ['a', 30]

Values less than 1 are clamped to 1. For positional-? dialects (MySQL, SQLite, Apache Spark) the placeholder text is unchanged but the parameter ordering is preserved.

format() per-dialect mapping

CEL's string.format(args) dispatches to dialect-specific SQL:

Dialect	Output
PostgreSQL	FORMAT('...', ...)
BigQuery	FORMAT('...', ...)
SQLite	printf('...', ...)
DuckDB	printf('...', ...)
Apache Spark	format_string('...', ...)
MySQL	raises UnsupportedDialectFeatureError

JSON Fields

Provide schemas to enable JSON field detection:

from pycel2sql import convert, PostgresDialect
from pycel2sql.schema import Schema, FieldSchema

schemas = {
    "usr": Schema([FieldSchema("metadata", is_jsonb=True)])
}

sql = convert(
    'usr.metadata.role == "admin"',
    dialect=PostgresDialect(),
    schemas=schemas,
)
# => usr.metadata->>'role' = 'admin'

Schema Validation

Enable strict validation to catch typos and references to nonexistent fields:

from pycel2sql import convert, InvalidSchemaError
from pycel2sql.schema import Schema, FieldSchema

schemas = {
    "usr": Schema([
        FieldSchema("name"),
        FieldSchema("age", type="integer"),
        FieldSchema("metadata", is_jsonb=True),
    ])
}

# Valid field — works normally
sql = convert('usr.name == "alice"', schemas=schemas, validate_schema=True)

# Unknown field — raises InvalidSchemaError
convert('usr.email == "test"', schemas=schemas, validate_schema=True)
# => InvalidSchemaError: field not found in schema

Validation scope:

• Validates: table.field references — table must exist in schemas, field must exist in that table's Schema
• Skips: Nested JSON paths beyond the first field (e.g., usr.metadata.settings.theme validates metadata exists, not settings)
• Skips: Comprehension variables (t in tags.all(t, t > 0))
• Skips: Bare identifiers without a table prefix (age > 10)

Works with all three public API functions: convert(), convert_parameterized(), and analyze().

Schema Introspection

Auto-discover table schemas from a live database connection instead of building Schema objects manually:

from pycel2sql import convert, introspect
from pycel2sql.dialect.postgres import PostgresDialect
import psycopg

conn = psycopg.connect("postgresql://localhost/mydb")

# Introspect specific tables — detects JSON, JSONB, and array columns
schemas = introspect("postgresql", conn, table_names=["users", "orders"])

sql = convert(
    'users.metadata.role == "admin"',
    dialect=PostgresDialect(),
    schemas=schemas,
)
# => users.metadata->>'role' = 'admin'

Per-dialect functions are also available:

from pycel2sql.introspect import introspect_postgres, introspect_sqlite

# PostgreSQL — detects JSONB, JSON, and ARRAY columns
schemas = introspect_postgres(conn, table_names=["users"], schema_name="public")

# SQLite — explicit json_columns since SQLite has no JSON type
schemas = introspect_sqlite(
    conn,
    table_names=["events"],
    json_columns={"events": ["payload", "tags"]},
)

All five JDBC-style dialects are supported: introspect_postgres, introspect_duckdb, introspect_bigquery, introspect_mysql, introspect_sqlite. Apache Spark introspection is not provided — construct Schema directly.

Supported CEL Features

• Comparisons: ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=
• Logic: &&, ||, !
• Arithmetic: +, -, *, /, %
• String functions: contains(), startsWith(), endsWith(), matches(), size(), split(), join()
• Type casting: int(), uint(), double(), string(), bool(), bytes(), timestamp(), duration()
• Collections: in operator, list literals, size(), index access
• Timestamps & durations: arithmetic, getFullYear(), getMonth(), getDayOfMonth(), getHours(), getMinutes(), getSeconds()
• Macros: exists(), all(), exists_one(), map(), filter()
• Ternary: conditional expressions
• JSON: field access, has() existence checks, nested paths
• Regex: matches() with RE2 syntax
• Structs: struct construction

Index Analysis

Analyze expressions for PostgreSQL index recommendations:

from pycel2sql import analyze

result = analyze('name == "alice" && age > 30')
# result.sql => "name = 'alice' AND age > 30"
# result.recommendations => [IndexRecommendation(...), ...]

Security Limits

Configurable resource limits prevent abuse:

from pycel2sql import convert

sql = convert(
    cel_expr,
    max_depth=100,           # AST recursion depth (default: 100)
    max_output_length=50000, # Max SQL output bytes (default: 50000)
)

Additional built-in limits: comprehension nesting (3 levels), regex pattern length (500 chars), field name length (63 chars), byte array size (10,000).

Development

# Setup
uv venv && uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Tests
uv run pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/integration -v

# Integration tests (requires Docker/Podman)
uv pip install -e ".[integration]"
uv run pytest tests/integration/ -v

# Lint & type check
uv run ruff check src/ tests/
uv run mypy src/pycel2sql/

License

MIT