Prevent multiple SQL querys with model relations - django

Is it possible to prevent multiple querys when i use django ORM ? Example:
product = Product.objects.get(name="Banana")
for provider in product.providers.all():
print provider.name
This code will make 2 SQL querys:
1 - SELECT ••• FROM stock_product WHERE stock_product.name = 'Banana'
2 - SELECT stock_provider.id, stock_provider.name FROM stock_provider INNER JOIN stock_product_reference ON (stock_provider.id = stock_product_reference.provider_id) WHERE stock_product_reference.product_id = 1
I confess, i use Doctrine (PHP) for some projects. With doctrine it's possible to specify joins when retrieve the object (relations are populated in object, so no need to query database again for get attribute relation value).
Is it possible to do the same with Django's ORM ?
PS: I hop my question is comprehensive, english is not my primary language.

In Django 1.4 or later, you can use prefetch_related. It's like select_related but allows M2M relations and such.
product = Product.objects.prefetch_related('providers').get(name="Banana")
You still get two queries, though. From the docs:
prefetch_related, on the other hand, does a separate lookup for each relationship, and does the ‘joining’ in Python.
As for packing this down into a single query, Django won't do it like Doctrine because it doesn't do that much post-processing of the result set (Django would have to remove all the redundant column data, since you'll get a row per provider and each of these rows will have a copy of all of product's fields).
So if you want to pack this down to one query, you're going to have to turn it around and run the query on the Provider table (I'm guessing at your schema):
providers = Provider.objects.filter(product__name="Banana").select_related('product')
This should pack it down to one query, but you won't get a single product ORM object out of it, instead needing to get the product fields via providers[k].product.

You can use prefetch_related, sometimes in combination with select_related, to get all related objects in a single query: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/ref/models/querysets/#prefetch-related

Related

Django: ValueError: Prefetch querysets cannot use raw(), values(), and values_list()

I am trying to run prefetch as below and gives me error: Prefetch querysets cannot use raw(), values(), and values_list().
queryset = SymbolList.objects.prefetch_related(
Prefetch('stock_dailypricehistory_symbol',queryset = DailyPriceHistory.objects.filter(id__in=[1,2,3,4]).values('close','volume'))).all()
DailyPriceHistory model has lot of columns, i only want close and volume
Here id__in=[1,2,3,4] is just shown for example, it can go upto 10000+ ids at a time.
You can indeed not make use of .values(…) [Django-doc] and .values_list(…) [Django-doc] when prefetching. That would also result in extra complications, since then Django has more trouble to find out how to perform the "joining" at the Django/Python level, if this is even possible.
You however do not need to use .values(…) to limit the number of columns you fetch, you can use .only(…) [Django-doc] instead. .only(…) will only fetch the given columns and the primary key immediately in memory, and will "postpone" fetching other columns. Only if you later need these columns, it will make extra queries. This is thus a bit similar how Django will only fetch the related object of a ForeignKey in memory when you need it with an extra query.
queryset = SymbolList.objects.prefetch_related(
Prefetch(
'stock_dailypricehistory_symbol',
queryset = DailyPriceHistory.objects.filter(
id__in=[1,2,3,4]
).only('close', 'volume', 'symbol_id')
)
)
The symbol_id is the column of the ForeignKey that refers from the DailyPriceHistory to the SymbolList model, this might be a different field than symbol_id. If you do not include this, Django will have to make extra queries to find out how it can link DailyPriceHistory to the corresponding SymbolList, and this will only slow down processing with extra queries, therefore you better include this as well.

Django queryset behind the scenes

**
Difference between creating a foreign key for consistency and for joins
**
I am fine to use Foreignkey and Queryset API with Django.
I just want to understand little bit more deeply how it works behind the scenes.
In Django manual, it says
a database index is automatically created on the ForeignKey. You can
disable this by setting db_index to False. You may want to avoid the
overhead of an index if you are creating a foreign key for consistency
rather than joins, or if you will be creating an alternative index
like a partial of multiple column index.
creating for a foreign key for consistency rather than joins
this part is confusing me.
I expected that you use Join keyword if you do query with Foreign key like below.
SELECT
*
FROM
vehicles
INNER JOIN users ON vehicles.car_owner = users.user_id
For example,
class Place(models.Model):
name = models.Charfield(max_length=50)
address = models.Charfield(max_length=50)
class Comment(models.Model):
place = models.ForeignKeyField(Place)
content = models.Charfield(max_length=50)
if you use queryset like Comment.objects.filter(place=1), i expected using Join Keyword in low level SQL command.
but, when I checked it by printing out queryset.query in console, it showed like below.
(I simplified with Model just to explains. below, it shows all attributes in my model. you can ignore attributes)
SELECT
"bfm_comment"."id", "bfm_comment"."content", "bfm_comment"."user_id", "bfm_comment"."place_id", "bfm_comment"."created_at"
FROM "bfm_comment" WHERE "bfm_comment"."place_id" = 1
creating a foreign key for consistency vs creating a foreign key for joins
simply, I thought if you use any queryset, it means using foreign key for joins. Because you can get parent's table data by c = Comment.objects.get(id=1) c.place.name easily. I thought it joins two tables behind scenes. But result of Print(queryset.query) didn't how Join Keyword but Find it by Where keyword.
The way I understood from an answer
Case 1:
Comment.objects.filter(place=1)
result
SELECT
"bfm_comment"."id", "bfm_comment"."content", "bfm_comment"."user_id", "bfm_comment"."place_id", "bfm_comment"."created_at"
FROM "bfm_comment"
WHERE "bfm_comment"."id" = 1
Case 2:
Comment.objects.filter(place__name="df")
result
SELECT "bfm_comment"."id", "bfm_comment"."content", "bfm_comment"."user_id", "bfm_comment"."place_id", "bfm_comment"."created_at"
FROM "bfm_comment" INNER JOIN "bfm_place" ON ("bfm_comment"."place_id" = "bfm_place"."id")
WHERE "bfm_place"."name" = df
Case1 is searching rows which has comment.id column is 1 in just Comment table.
But in Case 2, it needs to know Place table's attribute 'name', so It has to use JOIN keyword to check values in column of Place table. Right?
So Is it alright to think that I create a foreign key for joins if i use queryset like Case2 and that it is better to create index on the Foreign Key?
for above question, I think I can take the answer from Django Manual
Consider adding indexes to fields that you frequently query using
filter(), exclude(), order_by(), etc. as indexes may help to speed up
lookups. Note that determining the best indexes is a complex
database-dependent topic that will depend on your particular
application. The overhead of maintaining an index may outweigh any
gains in query speed
In conclusion, it really depends on how my application work with it.
If you execute the following command the mystery will be revealed
./manage.py sqlmigrate myapp 0001
Take care to replace myapp with your app name (bfm I think) and 0001 with the actual migration where the Comment model is created.
The generated sql will reveal that the actual table is created with place_id int rather than a place Place that is because the RDBMS doesn't know anything about models, the models are only in the application level. It's the job of the django orm to fetch the data from the RDBMS and convert them into model instances. That's why you always get a place member in each of your Comment instances and that place member gives you access to the members of the related Place instance in turn.
So what happens when you do?
Comment.objects.filter(place=1)
Django is smart enough to know that you are referring to a place_id because 1 is obviously not an instance of a Place. But if you used a Place instance the result would be the same. So there is no join here. The above query would definitely benefit from having an index on the place_id, but it wouldn't benefit from having a foreign key constraint!! Only the Comment table is queried.
If you want a join, try this:
Comment.objects.filter(place__name='my home')
Queries of this nature with the __ often result in joins, but sometimes it results in a sub query.
Querysets are lazy.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.10/topics/db/queries/#querysets-are-lazy
QuerySets are lazy – the act of creating a QuerySet doesn’t involve
any database activity. You can stack filters together all day long,
and Django won’t actually run the query until the QuerySet is
evaluated. Take a look at this example:

django valueslist queryset across database engines

In one of the django apps we use two database engine A and B, both are the same database but with different schemas. We have a table called C in both schemas but using db routing it's always made to point to database B. We have formed a valuelist queryset from one of the models in A, tried to pass the same in table C using filter condition __in but it always fetches empty though there are matching records. When we convert valueslist queryset to a list and use it in table C using filter condition __in it works fine.
Not working
data = modelindbA.objects.values_list('somecolumn',flat=True)
info = C.objects.filter(somecolumn__in=data).values_list
Working
data = modelindbA.objects.values_list('somecolumn',flat=True)
data = list(data)
info = C.objects.filter(somecolumn__in=data).values_list
I have read django docs and other SO questions, couldn't find anything relative. My guess is that since both models are in different database schemas the above is not working. I need assistance on how to troubleshoot this issue.
When you use a queryset with __in, Django will construct a single SQL query that uses a subquery for the __in clause. Since the two tables are in different databases, no rows will match.
By contrast, if you convert the first queryset to a list, Django will go ahead and fetch the data from the first database. When you then pass that data to the second query, hitting the second database, it will work as expected.
See the documentation for the in field lookup for more details:
You can also use a queryset to dynamically evaluate the list of values instead of providing a list of literal values.... This queryset will be evaluated as subselect statement:
SELECT ... WHERE blog.id IN (SELECT id FROM ... WHERE NAME LIKE '%Cheddar%')
Because values_list method returns django.db.models.query.QuerySet, not a list.
When you use it with same schema the orm optimise it and should make just one query, but when schemas are different it fails.
Just use list().
I would even recommend to use it for one schema since it can decrease complexity of query and work better on big tables.

Django: Count of Group Elements

How can we achieve the following via the Django 1.5 ORM:
SELECT TO_CHAR(date, 'IW/YYYY') week_year, COUNT(*) FROM entries GROUP BY week_year;
EDIT: cf. Follow up: Count of Group Elements With Joins in Django in case you need a join.
I had to do something like this recently.
You need to add your week_year column via Django's extra, then you can use that column in the values method.
...it's not obvious but if you then use annotate Django will GROUP BY all of the fields mentioned in the values clause (as described in the docs here https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/aggregation/#values)
So your code should look like:
Entry.objects.extra(select={'week_year': "TO_CHAR(date, 'IW/YYYY')"}).values('week_year').annotate(Count('id'))

How to join non-relational models in Django 1.3 on 2 fields

I've got 2 existing models that I need to join that are non-relational (no foreign keys). These were written by other developers are cannot be modified by me.
Here's a quick description of them:
Model Process
Field filename
Field path
Field somethingelse
Field bar
Model Service
Field filename
Field path
Field servicename
Field foo
I need to join all instances of these two models on the filename and path columns. I've got existing filters I have to apply to each of them before this join occurs.
Example:
A = Process.objects.filter(somethingelse=231)
B = Service.objects.filter(foo='abc')
result = A.filter(filename=B.filename,path=B.path)
This sucks, but your best bet is to iterate all models of one type, and issue queries to get your joined models for the other type.
The other alternative is to run a raw SQL query to perform these joins, and retrieve the IDs for each model object, and then retrieve each joined pair based on that. More efficient at run time, but it will need to be manually maintained if your schema evolves.