Ecto Patterns Reference

Name: ecto-patterns
Rating: 92
Author: oliver-kriska

Reference for working with Ecto schemas, queries, and migrations.

Iron Laws — Never Violate These

•CHANGESETS ARE FOR EXTERNAL DATA — Use cast/4 for user/API input, change/2 or put_change/3 for internal trusted data
•NEVER USE :float FOR MONEY — Always use :decimal or :integer (cents)
•NO RAILS-STYLE POLYMORPHIC ASSOCIATIONS — They break foreign key constraints; use multiple nullable FKs or separate join tables
•ALWAYS PIN VALUES IN QUERIES — u.name == ^user_input is safe, string interpolation causes SQL injection
•PRELOAD COLLECTIONS, NOT INDIVIDUALS — Preloading in loops = N+1 queries
•CONSTRAINTS BEAT VALIDATIONS FOR RACE CONDITIONS — Validations provide quick feedback, constraints provide DB-level safety
•SEPARATE QUERIES FOR has_many, JOIN FOR belongs_to — Avoids row multiplication
•NO IMPLICIT CROSS JOINS — from(a in A, b in B) without on: creates Cartesian product
•DEDUP BEFORE cast_assoc WITH SHARED DATA — When multiple parents share child data, deduplicate child records BEFORE building changesets. Dedup only works within a single changeset

Quick Schema Template

elixir

defmodule MyApp.Context.Entity do
  use Ecto.Schema
  import Ecto.Changeset

  @primary_key {:id, :binary_id, autogenerate: true}
  @foreign_key_type :binary_id

  schema "entities" do
    field :name, :string
    field :status, Ecto.Enum, values: [:draft, :active, :archived]
    field :amount_cents, :integer  # Never :float for money!
    belongs_to :user, MyApp.Accounts.User
    timestamps(type: :utc_datetime_usec)
  end

  def changeset(entity, attrs) do
    entity
    |> cast(attrs, [:name, :status, :amount_cents])
    |> validate_required([:name])
    |> foreign_key_constraint(:user_id)
  end
end

Quick Decisions

cast vs put_change vs change

Function	Use When
`cast/4`	External data (user input, API)
`put_change/3`	Internal trusted data (timestamps, computed)
`change/2`	Internal data from existing struct

Preload Strategy

Relationship	Strategy
`belongs_to`	JOIN (single query)
`has_many`	Separate queries (avoid row multiplication)

Common Anti-patterns

Wrong	Right
`field :amount, :float`	`field :amount_cents, :integer`
`"SELECT * WHERE name = '#{name}'"`	`from(u in User, where: u.name == ^name)`
`Repo.all(User) \|> Enum.filter(& &1.active)`	`from(u in User, where: u.active)`
Preloading in loops	`Repo.preload(posts, :comments)`
`Repo.get!(User, user_id)` with user input	`Repo.get(User, id)` + handle nil

References

For detailed patterns, see:

•references/changesets.md - cast vs put_change, custom validations, prepare_changes
•references/queries.md - Composable queries, dynamic, subqueries, preloading
•references/migrations.md - Safe migrations, concurrent indexes, NOT NULL
•references/transactions.md - Repo.transact, Ecto.Multi, upserts