Some backend libraries let you write SQL queries as they are and deliver them to the database. They still handle making the connection, pooling, etc.
ORMs introduce a different API for making SQL queries, with the aim to make it easier. But I find them always subpar to SQL, and often times they miss advanced features (and sometimes not even those advanced).
It also means every time I use a ORM, I have to learn this ORM’s API.
SQL is already a high level language abstracting inner workings of the database. So I find the promise of ease of use not to beat SQL. And I don’t like abstracting an already high level abstraction.
Alright, I admit, there are a few advantages:
- if I don’t know SQL and don’t plan on learning it, it is easier to learn a ORM
- if I want better out of the box syntax highlighting (as SQL queries may be interpreted as pure strings)
- if I want to use structures similar to my programming language (classes, functions, etc).
But ultimately I find these benefits far outweighed by the benefits of pure sql.
Better than an ORM is to use a query builder. You get the expressiveness of SQL with the safety and convenience of an ORM.
Most developers that use ORMs create poorly performing monstrosities, and most developers who write raw SQL create brittle, unsafe and unmaintainable software. There is a happy medium here.
I also find ORMs and query builders much easier to debug than most mative SQL database queries. Mostly because native SQL error messages tend to be some of the most unhelpful, most undescriptive crap out there, and ORMs help a bit with that.
Seriously, fuck MySQL error messages. 9 times out of 10 shit boils down to “you got some sort of error somewhere roughly over there, go fix”.
