Snake Naming Strategy

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Employing SnakeNamingStrategy for Database Field Naming

In many NestJS applications, especially those interfacing with SQL databases, adopting a consistent and SQL-friendly naming convention for database fields is crucial. The SnakeNamingStrategy, a common approach in the NestJS ecosystem, offers a seamless way to handle field naming by converting typical JavaScript camelCase field names into snake_case. This strategy aligns well with the naming conventions often used in SQL databases.

Advantages of SnakeNamingStrategy

• SQL Compatibility: Snake case (field_name) is widely used in SQL databases, making SnakeNamingStrategy a natural fit for developers.
• Consistency: Provides a uniform naming convention across the database, improving readability and maintainability.
• Avoiding Ambiguities: By not relying on asterisks (*) for field selection in SQL queries, it reduces the risk of selecting unintended fields, especially in complex queries.

Implementing SnakeNamingStrategy

When setting up your NestJS project, you can configure TypeORM to use SnakeNamingStrategy for all database fields. This ensures that all your entity field names are automatically converted to snake case when interacting with the database.

Here’s a simple illustration:

import { SnakeNamingStrategy } from 'typeorm-naming-strategies';

// In your TypeORM configuration
@Allow()
namingStrategy: NamingStrategyInterface = new SnakeNamingStrategy();

In this setup, fields like tenantId or createdAt in your entities would be represented as tenant_id and created_at in your database tables, respectively.

Practical Example

Consider a scenario where you have a Tenant entity with a tenantId field. Using SnakeNamingStrategy, you can confidently write SQL queries like:

SELECT tenant_id FROM tenants;

This approach is more explicit and clear compared to using SELECT *, ensuring that only the required fields are fetched and reducing the likelihood of errors in data retrieval.

Conclusion

The SnakeNamingStrategy offers a streamlined and effective solution for field naming in SQL databases, enhancing the synergy between your NestJS application and the database. For a cohesive development experience, consider adopting this strategy in your projects.

For more information and advanced usage, refer to the typeorm-naming-strategies documentation.