Data Types

The .NET SDK translates datatypes native to SurrealQL into either datatypes native to .NET, or a custom implementation. This document describes all datatypes, and links to their respective documentation.

Data Types overview

None

The None type is a custom type that represents the absence of a value.

Signature
public readonly struct None { }

Working with None

Constructing
var none = new None();

// Change the value of a record to None
var myRecord = new MyRecord();
myRecord.Value = new None();

RecordId

When you receive a RecordId back from SurrealDB, it will always be represented as a RecordId. The class holds Table and Id fields, representing the table name, and a unique identifier for the record on that table.

Signature
public class RecordId
{
    public string Table { get; }

    public T DeserializeId<T>();

    // ... The rest is omitted for brevity
}

The RecordId is a non-generic class, allowing you to extract the Id field by providing the output type via the DeserializeId method. This can helpful when the RecordId is used in a generic context, for when you store the Id as an Object or an Array for example.

For cases where you are aware of the type of the Id field, you can use the generic version of RecordId to avoid the need for manual deserialization.

Signature with generics
public class RecordIdOf<T> : RecordId
{
    public T Id { get; }
}

The default type of an Id in SurrealDB being a string, you can choose to use the default provided type RecordIdOfString.

Default RecordId
public class RecordIdOfString : RecordIdOf<string>
{
    // The available properties, inherited from `RecordId` and `RecordIdOf<string>`
    public string Table { get; }
    public string Id { get; }
}

Working with a RecordId

Constructing
// Table is "person"
// Unique identifier on the table is "john"
var rid = new RecordId("person", "john");

// Alternatively, a RecordId can be inferred implicitly from a Tuple of 2 elements
RecordId rid = ("person", "john");
await client.Select(("person", "john"));

You are not exclusively limited to the string type for the Id part. The next section contains examples of how to work with different data types in the Id field.

Extracting data

The .NET SDK handles serialization and deserialization of the Table and Id parts in Record Id. The serialization is done automatically when sending data to the server. However, deserialization may need to be done manually according to the data type of the Id field. Below are some examples:

Simple record id
var rid = new RecordId("person", "john");
string table = rid.Table; // "person"
string id = rid.DeserializeId<string>(); // "john"

Record id with simple data type (other than string)
var rid = new RecordId("table", 42);
string table = rid.Table; // "table"
int id = rid.DeserializeId<int>(); // 42

Record id with complex data types
var rid = new RecordId("table", new CityId { city: "London" });
var id = rid.DeserializeId<CityId>(); // CityId { city: "London" }

var rid = new RecordId("table", ("London", 42));
var id = rid.DeserializeId<(string, int)>(); // ("London", 42)

Send back string

If you need to send back a Record Id in string format, you can do so with the StringRecordId class.

We do not implement the parsing of Record Ids in the .NET SDK, as that would mean that we need to be able to parse any SurrealQL value, which comes with a cost. Instead you can send it over as a string with StringRecordId, allowing the server to handle the parsing.

Signature
public class StringRecordId
{
    public string Value { get; }
}

Working with a StringRecordId

Constructing
// Table is "person"
// Unique identifier on the table is "john"
var rid = new StringRecordId("person:john");

// Alternatively, a StringRecordId can be inferred explicitly from a string
var rid = (StringRecordId)"person:john";
await client.Select((StringRecordId)"person:john");