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Working with AQL

Learn more about the query language in the AQL documentation.

Run an AQL query​

First, we need to create some documents with the name “Homer” in the collection firstCollection:

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
    BaseDocument value = new BaseDocument(String.valueOf(i));
    value.addAttribute("name", "Homer");
    collection.insertDocument(value);
}

Get all documents with the name “Homer” from the collection firstCollection and iterate over the result:

String query = "FOR t IN firstCollection FILTER t.name == @name RETURN t";
Map<String, Object> bindVars = Collections.singletonMap("name", "Homer");
System.out.println("Executing read query ...");
ArangoCursor<BaseDocument> cursor = db.query(query, bindVars, null, BaseDocument.class);
cursor.forEach(aDocument -> System.out.println("Key: " + aDocument.getKey()));

After executing this program, the console output should look something like this:

Key: 1
Key: 0
Key: 5
Key: 3
Key: 4
Key: 9
Key: 2
Key: 7
Key: 8
Key: 6

Some details you should know about the code:

  • the AQL query uses the placeholder @name which has to be bound to a value
  • query() executes the defined query and returns a ArangoCursor with the given class (here: BaseDocument)
  • the order is not guaranteed

Delete via AQL​

Now we will delete the document created before:

String query = "FOR t IN firstCollection FILTER t.name == @name "
    + "REMOVE t IN firstCollection LET removed = OLD RETURN removed";
Map<String, Object> bindVars = Collections.singletonMap("name", "Homer");
System.out.println("Executing delete query ...");
ArangoCursor<BaseDocument> cursor = db.query(query, bindVars, null, BaseDocument.class);
cursor.forEach(aDocument -> System.out.println("Removed document " + aDocument.getKey()));

After executing this program, the console output should look something like this:

Removed document: 1
Removed document: 0
Removed document: 5
Removed document: 3
Removed document: 4
Removed document: 9
Removed document: 2
Removed document: 7
Removed document: 8
Removed document: 6
 
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