astronomy-commons/hats-tap

Translate box search in ADQL

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#18 opened on Dec 2, 2025

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enhancementgood first issue

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Description

Feature request

The following AQDL:

SELECT diaObjectId FROM ppdb.DiaObject as diaobj WHERE diaobj.ra >= 186 and diaobj.ra < 187

can be translated to

compute(ppdb.box_search(ra=(186,187), dec=(-90,90))["diaObjectId"])

Technically, it would also work to simply turn the conditions into the DNF filters= or into a .query, but it is much better to detect a box search as such so that the spatial sorting of LSDB can be leveraged.

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  • I have described the purpose of the suggested change, specifying what I need the enhancement to accomplish, i.e. what problem it solves.
  • I have included any relevant links, screenshots, environment information, and data relevant to implementing the requested feature, as well as pseudocode for how I want to access the new functionality.
  • If I have ideas for how the new feature could be implemented, I have provided explanations and/or pseudocode and/or task lists for the steps.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Examine the ADQL parser in hats tap to understand how WHERE clauses are currently translated. Implement detection of range conditions on `ra` and `dec` columns that form a box search. Then generate code using `ppdb.box search(ra=(...), dec=(...))` instead of generic filters. Consider leveraging LSDB's spatial sorting for efficiency.
Tech stack
python
Domain
backenddatabase
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
Half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
PythonSQL
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50