Can you conditionally build-up a static SOQL query in Apex?

Question

Within Apex, is there a way to build up a static SOQL query using query "parts" or "fragments"?

Consider the following silly example:

public with sharing class MyController {
  @AuraEnabled(cacheable=true)
  public static List<Asset> getAssets(Boolean shouldSortDescending) {
    SomeType query = [SELECT Name from Asset];

    // Can we append to the query based on some conditions? 
    if (shouldSortDescending) { 
      query.push([ORDER BY Name DESC]);
    } else {
      query.push([ORDER BY Name ASC]);
    }

    return query;
  }
}

The best I can find is to drop down to Dynamic SOQL, build up the query using a String and then call Database.query() or Database.queryWithBinds().

One use-case for conditionally building up a static query would be to factor out some complex logic in the query into a helper function that could just return the relevant fragment.

(e.x.: This Apex class might have several methods that return Assets. In each case, we want to return the same fields. So the SELECT ... From Asset is identical in each case and it would be nice to just return that from a single function.)

Answer 1

No, there is not a way to append parts to a static query.

The use case that you describe is what dynamic SOQL was made to do.

In practice, I think that the main difference between static and dynamic SOQL is that you get compile-time checks on SObject and field references (it'll complain at compile time instead of at run-time if you misspell an object or field name, mess up the child relationship name, etc...). This can be convenient at times, and inconvenient at other times (e.g. when you want to use unpackaged metadata in an unlocked 2GP because your package depends on an artifact that's owned by a different package).

The conclusion here is that you should just use dynamic SOQL for what you want to do here.