Scalars

Custom and standard scalar types used throughout the pyck GraphQL API

Audience: Programmer

Scalar types represent the leaf values in a GraphQL type system. pyck uses both standard GraphQL scalars and custom scalars for specialized data types.

Standard Scalars

GraphQL provides these built-in scalar types:

• ID - Unique identifier (serialized as String)

• String - UTF-8 character sequence

• Int - 32-bit signed integer

• Float - Double-precision floating-point value

• Boolean - true or false

Custom Scalars

pyck defines additional scalar types for specific use cases:

Time and Date

• Time - RFC3339 formatted timestamps with timezone information

Data Structures

• Map - JSON object for storing custom data

• Any - Arbitrary JSON value

Identifiers

• UUID - Universally unique identifiers

• Cursor - Opaque pagination cursors for relay-style pagination

Federation

• Federation Scalars - Scalars required for Apollo Federation

Usage Examples

Time Scalar

query {
  inventoryItems(
    where: {
      createdAt_GTE: "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ) {
    edges {
      node {
        createdAt  # Returns Time scalar
      }
    }
  }
}

Map Scalar

mutation {
  updateInventoryItem(
    input: {
      id: "123"
      data: {  # Map scalar
        "color": "red",
        "size": "large"
      }
    }
  ) {
    inventoryItem {
      data
    }
  }
}

UUID Scalar

query {
  node(id: "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000") {  # UUID
    ... on InventoryItem {
      sku
    }
  }
}

Validation

Custom scalars include built-in validation:

• Time - Must be valid RFC3339 format

• UUID - Must be valid UUID v4 format

• Map - Must be valid JSON object

• Cursor - Must be base64 encoded

See Also

• Input Types - Complex input types

• Types - Object types that use scalars