Preserving Type Information

In order to be type safe, any SQL expression must be converted into a Scala defined type, Squeryl does this using implicit type conversion that are designed to ensure the following :

• The bit length of a numeric expressions is equal to the bit length of the longest argument

• An expression results in an Option[] if at least one of it’s argument is of type Option[]

• The result of a numerical expression is floating point if it has least one floating point operation or argument

• All aggregate functions (avg, min, max, etc…) with the exception of count result are Option[]

In plain english these rule say that conversions are designed to not cause loss of numerical precision,
that floating point absorb (or dominate) as they do in mathematics, and that the existence of an
unknown (None) value in an expression, causes it’s result to become unknown (None)

Here are some examples :

Note how in query q4 the presence of a single Option[] element causes the result to become an Option[],
this is consistent with the SQL92 standard. The & function is explained here .