Query string Filters syntax idea

[tb-mtg]

Firstly well done on an excellent project.

I would just like to make a suggestion of a change that might make the Query string syntax easier to read.

Current Query string syntax:

• Greater than or equal :

age=[18 TO *[

• & Less than or equal :

age=]* TO 30]

Suggested Query string syntax:

• Greater than or equal :

age=[18 TO *]

• & Less than or equal :

age=[* TO 30]

[candoumbe]

Hi @tb-mtg and thank you for the suggestion !

The syntax choice for greater than and less than is deliberate when dealing with infinity value minimum/maximum : I wanted them to be consistent with the syntax used for finite values. Also the syntax kinda mimics to the interval syntax.

I, at some point, considered using parenthesis symbol ( and ) to denote the fact that a lower/upper bound of an interval was not included but finally decided not to. One symbol to represent inclusion and one for exclusion seemed to be a good option.

May I ask how did you come across this library and how are you using it ?

[tb-mtg]

I'm yet to use this in production yet.

I found this library while trying to find workaround for serializing JSON for new C# structs DateOnly & TimeOnly and noticed this library was using this DateOnlyTimeOnly.AspNet nuget package.

My suggestion was also inspired by another library (ElasticSearch - which I have tried in the past) as looks a little bit easier to read & explain to end users. This library has Ranges specified for date, numeric or string fields:

• Inclusive ranges are specified with square brackets [min TO max]
• Exclusive ranges with curly brackets {min TO max}

ElasticSearch Range Examples:

• [2012-01-01 TO 2012-12-31] is inclusive dates in 2012
• [1 TO 5] is inclusive numbers from 1 to 5
• {alpha TO omega} is strings alpha and omega, excluding alpha and omega:
• [10 TO *] is numbers from 10 upwards
• {* TO 2012-01-01} is dates before 2012:

Curly and square brackets can be combined:

• [1 TO 5} is numbers from 1 up to but not including 5

The interval syntax you mentioned also looks to be easier to read.

[candoumbe]

I'll have a look this weekend to add support for either parenthesis or accolade with square bracket in addition to the current syntax.
I'll let you know how things go

[candoumbe]

@tb-mtg
I've been giving a thought about adding support for additional charaters for opened ranges but I wonder what would the outcome of IntervalExpression.EscapedParseableString should be in such case (as for now there are only [ and ] that are allowed).

Anyway PRs are welcome so feel free to contribute 😉

[candoumbe]

@tb-mtg
I thought again about the suggestion you made and looking at the suggested syntax, I think both syntax could be supported.

Let me know if you have a PR ready with this feature so we can discuss it further