Creating a new EdgeDB client can be done in a single line:

let client = edgedb_tokio::create_client().await?;

Under the hood, this will create a Builder, look for environment variables and/or an edgedb.toml file, and return an Ok(Self) if successful. This Builder can be used on its own instead of create_client() if you need a more customized setup.

Here are the simplified signatures of the client methods used for querying:

fn query -> Result<Vec<R>, Error>
fn query_json -> Result<Json, Error>

fn query_single -> Result<Option<R>, Error>
fn query_single_json -> Result<Option<Json>>

fn query_required_single -> Result<R, Error>
fn query_required_single_json -> Result<Json, Error>

fn execute -> Result<(), Error>

Note the difference between the _single and the _required_single methods:

• The _required_single methods return empty results as a NoDataError which allows propagating errors normally through an application.

• The _single methods will simply give you an Ok(None) in this case.

These methods all take a query (a &str) and arguments (something that implements the QueryArgs trait).

The () unit type implements QueryArgs and is used when no arguments are present so &() is a pretty common sight when using the Rust client.

// Without arguments: just add &() after the query
let query_res: String =
    client.query_required_single("select 'Just a string'", &()).await?;

// With arguments, same output as the previous example
let a = " a ";
let b = "string";
let query_res: String = client
    .query_required_single("select 'Just' ++ <str>$0 ++ <str>$1", &(a, b))
    .await?;

For more, see the section on passing in arguments.

These methods take two generic parameters which can be specified with the turbofish syntax:

let query_res = client
     .query_required_single::<String, ()>("select 'Just a string'", &())
     .await?;
// or
let query_res = client
     .query_required_single::<String, _>("select 'Just a string'", &())
     .await?;

But declaring the final expected type upfront tends to look neater.

let query_res: String = client
    .query_required_single("select 'Just a string'", &())
    .await?;

Using the .query() method works fine for any cardinality, but returns a Vec of results. This query with a cardinality of 1 returns a Result<Vec<String>> which becomes a Vec<String> after the error is handled:

let query = "select 'Just a string'";
let query_res: Vec<String> = client.query(query, &()).await?;

But if you know that only a single result will be returned, using .query_required_single() or .query_single() will be more ergonomic:

let query = "select 'Just a string'";
let query_res: String = client
    .query_required_single(query, &()).await?;
let query_res_opt: Option<String> = client
    .query_single(query, &()).await?;