Serialization

dump() turns a tree into a JSON-serializable array and Expression::load() rebuilds it — in the same format as sqlglot's dump()/load(). Useful for caching ASTs, queueing queries, or snapshotting tests.

Dump and load

use Kwasii\LaravelSqlParser\Expressions\Expression;

$json = json_encode($query->dump());
$copy = Expression::load(json_decode($json, true));

$copy->equals($query); // true

The payload is plain arrays, strings, numbers, booleans, and null — safe for json_encode, cache stores, and queues.

Tree format

$tree = $query->toTree();
// ['class' => 'Select', 'args' => [...]]

The Artisan command can print it directly:

php artisan sql:transpile "SELECT 1" --ast

{
    "class": "Select",
    "args": {
        "expressions": [
            { "class": "Literal", "args": { "this": "1", "is_string": false } }
        ]
    }
}

Round-tripping across dialects

A dumped tree is dialect-agnostic. Load it anywhere and generate for any dialect:

$copy = Expression::load(json_decode($json, true));

$copy->sql('mysql');
$copy->sql('postgres');
$copy->sql('sqlite');

Equality

$a = Sql::parseOne('SELECT a FROM t', 'mysql');
$b = Sql::parseOne('select a from t', 'mysql');

$a->equals($b); // true — structural comparison, not string comparison