First steps

SakaQL is the language you use to ask questions about data and to change it in Saka. This tutorial teaches it one idea at a time, and each page builds on the ones before it.

Type along

1. Open app.saka.io and choose New → New Database.
2. Press Ctrl+` to open the REPL, the console below the editor. The key is the same on macOS.
3. Enter each example in the REPL and press Enter. Alt+Enter starts a new line.

Each example is one entry. To enter a longer one, copy it with the button in its corner, paste it into the REPL, and press Enter. Keep using the same database for the whole tutorial: later pages use names from earlier ones.

Try your first entry:

{1, 2, 2}

The REPL answers {1, 2'2}.

Everything is a Bag

The braces make a Bag: a collection of Values that can repeat. 2'2 means two copies of 2. A Bag has no order.

Every expression gives a Bag, even one that holds a single number. In these pages, a comment after an example shows its result:

1 + 1 // {2}

The REPL leaves out the braces when a Bag holds one Value, so here it answers 2.

Tutorial path

1. Values, Bags, Records, and Sets: describe data.
2. Flows, pipelines, and grouping: compute with data.
3. Functions: reuse a computation with different inputs.
4. Stored data and changing data: keep data in the database and change it.
5. Modules: organize your code.