Unfriendly Simbad.query_criteria functionality

[DinoBektesevic]

I either can't figure out how to, or the functionality for it isn't there but using Simbad.query_criteria wants me to pass full strings of my queries and will not accept SkyCoords. Currently the documentation shows these two usage cases:

result = Simbad.query_criteria('region(box, GAL, 0 +0, 3d 1d)', otype='SNR')
...
script = '(region(box, GAL, 0 +0, 0.5d 0.5d) | region(box, GAL, 43.3 -0.2, 0.25d 0.25d))'
result = Simbad.query_criteria(script, otype='SNR')

Could it be possible to add some friendliness to how this is scripted for some of the easier criterion operators such as region? For example:

result = Simbad.query_criteria(SkyCoord, criterion="region", shape="circle", radius=Unit)

Or something similar?

[bsipocz]

My thinking would be to provide a way to add criteria to the usual API methods, e.g.

query_region(coord, criteria={'otype': 'STAR',})

to query for stars, rather than forcing you to use query_criteria, and define regions by hand, etc. At the end of the day, we query the same API so this will all boil down to creating payload within astroquery.

[ManonMarchand]

Hi there,

I'm working on query criteria now and would like to pick your minds.

I like a lot brigitta's idea but what about different operators than =? (ADQL has =, !=, <>, <, >, <=, >=, BETWEN, IN, LIKE, IS NULL, IS NOT NULL, EXISTS') And what about other logical operators than AND (namely OR and NOT are also possible there)?

I was thinking to introduce a Criteria dataclass (or named tuples I don't know what is more in astroquery's philosophy). Maybe something along:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Any

@dataclass
class Criteria:
    column: str
    operator: str
    value: Any
    logic = 'AND'

Criteria('ra', '<=', '10')

Criteria(column='ra', operator='<=', value='10', logic='AND')

Then it would be called like this :

query_region(coord, Criteria('otype', '!=', 'Cl*'))

(where the signature of query_region would be query_region(coord, **criteria))

Would that be more friendly?

[bsipocz]

I like a lot brigitta's idea but what about different operators than =? (ADQL has =, !=, <>, <, >, <=, >=, BETWEN, IN, LIKE, IS NULL, IS NOT NULL, EXISTS') And what about other logical operators than AND (namely OR and NOT are also possible there)?

I wonder how much of this scenario gets resolved with #2856 getting merged, practically asking users to write ADQL queries for the more complicated ones.

[ManonMarchand]

I think it's a bit different from adding the possibility to do tap. It'd be a way to do moderately intricate queries (a few joins / criteria only) for the non adql-proficient users

A kind of replacement for the current query_criteria that is bound to disapear (could be deprecated for a few more years but sim-script is not maintained upstream so the current bugs and missing features will stay as they are)

The idea is to add this feature when doing the rewrite of #1468