Record functions

Record functions before SurrealDB 2.0 were located inside the module meta.

These functions can be used to retrieve specific metadata from a SurrealDB Record ID.

Function	Description
record::exists()	Checks to see if a SurrealDB Record ID exists
record::id()	Extracts and returns the table id from a SurrealDB Record ID
record::tb()	Extracts and returns the table name from a SurrealDB Record ID

record::exists

The record::exists function checks to see if a given record exists.

API DEFINITION
record::exists(record) -> bool

A simple example showing the output of this function when a record does not exist and when it does:

RETURN record::exists(r"person:tobie");
-- false

CREATE person:tobie;
RETURN record::exists(r"person:tobie");
-- true

A longer example of record::exists using method syntax:

FOR $person IN ["Haakon_VII", "Ferdinand_I", "Manuel_II", "Wilhelm_II", "George_I", "Albert_I", "Alfonso_XIII", "George_V", "Frederick_VIII"] {
    LET $record_name = type::thing("person", $person.lowercase());
    IF !$record_name.exists() {
        CREATE $record_name;
    }
}

record::id

The record::id function extracts and returns the table id from a SurrealDB Record ID.

API DEFINITION
record::id(record) -> value

The following example shows this function, and its output, when used in a RETURN statement:

RETURN record::id(person:tobie);

"tobie"

record::tb

The record::tb function extracts and returns the table name from a SurrealDB Record ID.

API DEFINITION
record::tb(record) -> string

The following example shows this function, and its output, when used in a RETURN statement:

RETURN record::tb(person:tobie);

"person"

Method chaining

Available since: v2.0.0

Method chaining allows functions to be called using the . dot operator on a value of a certain type instead of the full path of the function followed by the value.

-- Traditional syntax
record::id(r"person:aeon");

-- Method chaining syntax
r"person:aeon".id();

Response
'aeon'

This is particularly useful for readability when a function is called multiple times.

-- Traditional syntax
record::table(array::max([r"person:aeon", r"person:landevin"]));

-- Method chaining syntax
[r"person:aeon", r"person:landevin"].max().table();

Response
'person'

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