Bug: Edge inserted via INSERT cannot be queried with ->

[avoonix]

Describe the bug

I am using INSERT instead of RELATE because I am inserting many relationships at once and some relations may already exist (INSERT IGNORE INTO tagged ($values) where $values is an array of {in: thing, out: thing). The resulting table looks the same as if I had used RELATE, but querying does not work as intended.

If this is intended, then a warning should be added to the documentation that even though the result of adding a edge via INSERT looks identical to RELATE, the INSERTed edges cannot be queried with ->.

Steps to reproduce

I add tags and images to the database, and tag image 1 and 3 with car, but only image 3 is picked up by the -> queries:

update tag:smile set name = "smile";
update tag:car set name = "car";

update image:1 set path = "images/1.png";
update image:2 set path = "images/2.png";
update image:3 set path = "images/3.png";

# using insert because I can pass an array of relationships, which is not possible with relate
insert into tagged ({in: image:1, out: tag:car});
relate image:3->tagged->tag:car;

both have the same structure

select * from tagged;
[
    {
        "id": "tagged:62fe7dnbu0dwszryw1rl",
        "in": "image:1",
        "out": "tag:car"
    },
    {
        "id": "tagged:ttj5k4nop8dttddqafyb",
        "in": "image:3",
        "out": "tag:car"
    }
]

select all images that do not have any tags; this returns image 1 and 2 - it should only return image 2

SELECT * FROM image WHERE count(->tagged->tag) = 0;
[
    {
        "id": "image:1",
        "path": "images/1.png"
    },
    {
        "id": "image:2",
        "path": "images/2.png"
    }
]

select all images that have the car tag; this returns image 3 - it should also return image 1

select * from image where ->tagged->(tag where name = "car");
[
    {
        "id": "image:3",
        "path": "images/3.png"
    }
]

Expected behaviour

See comments in "steps to reproduce"

SurrealDB version

1.0.2 rust crate (not using the server, but embedded)

Contact Details

github

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[phughk]

Thanks for raising! Couple of this

• we don't really support insert this way, as we may change or do additional checks on relate tables in the future. For now it is a convenient workaround, thanks for sharing
• The select is likely a problem not with the RELATE but the actual implementation of the SELECT. We will need to have a look at this cc @DelSkayn

Would you like to join us on Developer Office Hours (Friday 1600 GMT) to discuss? It may be helpful to understand better how this is happening.

[AlbertMarashi]

I just ran into this really annoying bug, I was creating a relation using create instead of relate in surrealist for testing and the select happened to fail as a result, I was almost about to give up on surrealdb because of this 💀