What are Inline Fragments?
- An inline fragment is a fragment that has no name. Inline fragments in GraphQL allow us to conditionally include fields based on the type of the object being queried. They are used within a selection set to specify different fields or directives for different types.
- This is particularly useful when dealing with interfaces or unions, where the actual type of the object may vary. It is a unit of data that belongs to a type in a schema.
- They are simply fragments without names and we can spread them inline where we define them.
- Inline fragments are written using the
...
on
TypeName
syntax, whereTypeName
is the name of the type we want to apply the fragment to. we can then include fields specific to that type within the inline fragment.
Syntax:
{
fieldName {
... on TypeName {
field1
field2
# Additional fields specific to TypeName
}
... on OtherTypeName {
field3
field4
# Additional fields specific to OtherTypeName
}
# Additional fields common to all types
}
}
Explanation:
fieldName
is the name of the field you are querying.TypeName
andOtherTypeName
are the names of the types you want to apply the inline fragments to.field1
,field2
,field3
,field4
, etc are the fields specific to each type.
Inline Fragments in GraphQL
GraphQL’s flexibility in querying diverse data structures is one of its key strengths. Inline fragments are a powerful feature that allows developers to conditionally query fields based on the type of an object. In this article, We will explore the concept of inline fragments in GraphQL, how they work, and practical examples along with the usage and so on.