Stop guessing data type in the client side

[arikfr]

For reasons I no longer remember, we guess the column data type in the client side code:

redash/client/app/services/query-result.js

Lines 112 to 135 in e4c933a

	forOwn(row, (v, k) => {
	let newType = null;
	if (isNumber(v)) {
	newType = 'float';
	} else if (isString(v) && v.match(/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}T/)) {
	row[k] = moment.utc(v);
	newType = 'datetime';
	} else if (isString(v) && v.match(/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/)) {
	row[k] = moment.utc(v);
	newType = 'date';
	} else if (typeof v === 'object' && v !== null) {
	row[k] = JSON.stringify(v);
	} else {
	newType = 'string';
	}
	if (newType !== null) {
	if (columnTypes[k] !== undefined && columnTypes[k] !== newType) {
	columnTypes[k] = 'string';
	} else {
	columnTypes[k] = newType;
	}
	}
	});

While this has some upsides (not all data sources return proper types) it also has downsides. Sometimes users want more control over their data representation, which this type guessing overrides.

• Remove type guessing from the client side
• Make sure all query runners apply correct types where possible

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This is open for discussion, and if someone thinks we should keep current behavior -- please speak.

[kravets-levko]

@arikfr How about data types such as date/time which is not JSON-serializable?

[arikfr]

@kravets-levko when the server reports something as date/time, we will convert it to a date/time object (moment). But we won't do this just because it follows a certain pattern.

[FJK-NZ-zz]

I'm wondering if this is causing the issue I'm having where it appears that "sorting" values on a chart defaults values to "strings".

I.e if you have integers:
1 , 2, 10, 20 if you sort them on the chart settings it returns this order:

1, 10, 2, 20

You can test with:
If you create a bar chart from this SQL and try order the x column
with data as ( Select 1 as x , 1 as y union Select 2 as x, 2 as y union Select 10 as x, 10 as y union Select 20 as x, 20 as y ) Select * from data

You get: