I assure you that whoever wrote that code knows SQL. The builder syntax is convenient because it allows queries to be composable without ugly string-smashing.

I assure you that whoever wrote that code knows SQL. The builder syntax is convenient because it allows queries to be composable without ugly string-smashing. For instance, you could take the object built out of that "User.select..." and pass it around into other functions that append extra 'where' clauses, etc.