Programming Ecto

Adding Imports and Aliases

One of the most useful things you can do is add aliases for the modules you work with often. You’ll most likely want to start with Repo and most (if not all) of your schema modules. For the MusicDB app, you might do the following:

priv/examples/optimizing_iex.exs

alias MusicDB.{
  Repo,
  Artist,
  Album,
  Track,
  Genre,
  Log
}

This one addition means that instead of typing this:

album = MusicDB.Repo.get(MusicDB.Album, 1) |> MusicDB.Repo.preload(:tracks)

You can type this:

album = Repo.get(Album, 1) |> Repo.preload(:tracks)

Those saved keystrokes start to add up after a while.

Next, you should import the Ecto.Query module. IEx is a great place to try out queries you’re working ...