.. _topics-db-queries: ============== Making queries ============== .. currentmodule:: django.db.models Once you've created your :ref:`data models `, Django automatically gives you a database-abstraction API that lets you create, retrieve, update and delete objects. This document explains how to use this API. Refer to the `data model reference ` for full details of all the various model lookup options. Throughout this guide (and in the reference), we'll refer to the following models, which comprise a weblog application: .. _queryset-model-example: .. code-block:: python class Blog(models.Model): name = models.CharField(max_length=100) tagline = models.TextField() def __unicode__(self): return self.name class Author(models.Model): name = models.CharField(max_length=50) email = models.EmailField() def __unicode__(self): return self.name class Entry(models.Model): blog = models.ForeignKey(Blog) headline = models.CharField(max_length=255) body_text = models.TextField() pub_date = models.DateTimeField() authors = models.ManyToManyField(Author) def __unicode__(self): return self.headline Creating objects ================ To represent database-table data in Python objects, Django uses an intuitive system: A model class represents a database table, and an instance of that class represents a particular record in the database table. To create an object, instantiate it using keyword arguments to the model class, then call ``save()`` to save it to the database. You import the model class from wherever it lives on the Python path, as you may expect. (We point this out here because previous Django versions required funky model importing.) Assuming models live in a file ``mysite/blog/models.py``, here's an example:: >>> from mysite.blog.models import Blog >>> b = Blog(name='Beatles Blog', tagline='All the latest Beatles news.') >>> b.save() This performs an ``INSERT`` SQL statement behind the scenes. Django doesn't hit the database until you explicitly call ``save()``. The ``save()`` method has no return value. .. seealso:: ``save()`` takes a number of advanced options not described here. See the documentation for ``save()`` for complete details. To create an object and save it all in one step see the ```create()``` method. Saving changes to objects ========================= To save changes to an object that's already in the database, use ``save()``. Given a ``Blog`` instance ``b5`` that has already been saved to the database, this example changes its name and updates its record in the database:: >> b5.name = 'New name' >> b5.save() This performs an ``UPDATE`` SQL statement behind the scenes. Django doesn't hit the database until you explicitly call ``save()``. Saving ``ForeignKey`` and ``ManyToManyField`` fields ---------------------------------------------------- Updating ``ForeignKey`` fields works exactly the same way as saving a normal field; simply assign an object of the right type to the field in question:: >>> cheese_blog = Blog.objects.get(name="Cheddar Talk") >>> entry.blog = cheese_blog >>> entry.save() Updating a ``ManyToManyField`` works a little differently; use the ``add()`` method on the field to add a record to the relation:: >> joe = Author.objects.create(name="Joe") >> entry.authors.add(joe) Django will complain if you try to assign or add an object of the wrong type. Retrieving objects ================== To retrieve objects from your database, you construct a ``QuerySet`` via a ``Manager`` on your model class. A ``QuerySet`` represents a collection of objects from your database. It can have zero, one or many *filters* -- criteria that narrow down the collection based on given parameters. In SQL terms, a ``QuerySet`` equates to a ``SELECT`` statement, and a filter is a limiting clause such as ``WHERE`` or ``LIMIT``. You get a ``QuerySet`` by using your model's ``Manager``. Each model has at least one ``Manager``, and it's called ``objects`` by default. Access it directly via the model class, like so:: >>> Blog.objects >>> b = Blog(name='Foo', tagline='Bar') >>> b.objects Traceback: ... AttributeError: "Manager isn't accessible via Blog instances." .. note:: ``Managers`` are accessible only via model classes, rather than from model instances, to enforce a separation between "table-level" operations and "record-level" operations. The ``Manager`` is the main source of ``QuerySets`` for a model. It acts as a "root" ``QuerySet`` that describes all objects in the model's database table. For example, ``Blog.objects`` is the initial ``QuerySet`` that contains all ``Blog`` objects in the database. Retrieving all objects ---------------------- The simplest way to retrieve objects from a table is to get all of them. To do this, use the ``all()`` method on a ``Manager``:: >>> all_entries = Entry.objects.all() The ``all()`` method returns a ``QuerySet`` of all the objects in the database. (If ``Entry.objects`` is a ``QuerySet``, why can't we just do ``Entry.objects``? That's because ``Entry.objects``, the root ``QuerySet``, is a special case that cannot be evaluated. The ``all()`` method returns a ``QuerySet`` that *can* be evaluated.) Retrieving specific objects with filters ---------------------------------------- The root ``QuerySet`` provided by the ``Manager`` describes all objects in the database table. Usually, though, you'll need to select only a subset of the complete set of objects. To create such a subset, you refine the initial ``QuerySet``, adding filter conditions. The two most common ways to refine a ``QuerySet`` are: ``filter(**kwargs)`` Returns a new ``QuerySet`` containing objects that match the given lookup parameters. ``exclude(**kwargs)`` Returns a new ``QuerySet`` containing objects that do *not* match the given lookup parameters. The lookup parameters (``**kwargs`` in the above function definitions) should be in the format described in `Field lookups`_ below. For example, to get a ``QuerySet`` of blog entries from the year 2006, use ``filter()`` like so:: Entry.objects.filter(pub_date__year=2006) We don't have to add an ``all()`` -- ``Entry.objects.all().filter(...)``. That would still work, but you only need ``all()`` when you want all objects from the root ``QuerySet``. .. _chaining-filters: Chaining filters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The result of refining a ``QuerySet`` is itself a ``QuerySet``, so it's possible to chain refinements together. For example:: >>> Entry.objects.filter( ... headline__startswith='What' ... ).exclude( ... pub_date__gte=datetime.now() ... ).filter( ... pub_date__gte=datetime(2005, 1, 1) ... ) This takes the initial ``QuerySet`` of all entries in the database, adds a filter, then an exclusion, then another filter. The final result is a ``QuerySet`` containing all entries with a headline that starts with "What", that were published between January 1, 2005, and the current day. .. _filtered-querysets-are-unique: Filtered QuerySets are unique ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each time you refine a ``QuerySet``, you get a brand-new ``QuerySet`` that is in no way bound to the previous ``QuerySet``. Each refinement creates a separate and distinct ``QuerySet`` that can be stored, used and reused. Example:: >> q1 = Entry.objects.filter(headline__startswith="What") >> q2 = q1.exclude(pub_date__gte=datetime.now()) >> q3 = q1.filter(pub_date__gte=datetime.now()) These three ``QuerySets`` are separate. The first is a base ``QuerySet`` containing all entries that contain a headline starting with "What". The second is a subset of the first, with an additional criteria that excludes records whose ``pub_date`` is greater than now. The third is a subset of the first, with an additional criteria that selects only the records whose ``pub_date`` is greater than now. The initial ``QuerySet`` (``q1``) is unaffected by the refinement process. .. _querysets-are-lazy: 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:: >>> q = Entry.objects.filter(headline__startswith="What") >>> q = q.filter(pub_date__lte=datetime.now()) >>> q = q.exclude(body_text__icontains="food") >>> print q Though this looks like three database hits, in fact it hits the database only once, at the last line (``print q``). In general, the results of a ``QuerySet`` aren't fetched from the database until you "ask" for them. When you do, the ``QuerySet`` is *evaluated* by accessing the database. For more details on exactly when evaluation takes place, see :ref:`when-querysets-are-evaluated`. Other QuerySet methods ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most of the time you'll use ``all()``, ``filter()`` and ``exclude()`` when you need to look up objects from the database. However, that's far from all there is; see the :ref:`QuerySet API Reference ` for a complete list of all the various ``QuerySet`` methods. .. _limiting-querysets: Limiting QuerySets ------------------ Use Python's array-slicing syntax to limit your ``QuerySet`` to a certain number of results. This is the equivalent of SQL's ``LIMIT`` and ``OFFSET`` clauses. For example, this returns the first 5 objects (``LIMIT 5``):: >>> Entry.objects.all()[:5] This returns the sixth through tenth objects (``OFFSET 5 LIMIT 5``):: >>> Entry.objects.all()[5:10] Generally, slicing a ``QuerySet`` returns a new ``QuerySet`` -- it doesn't evaluate the query. An exception is if you use the "step" parameter of Python slice syntax. For example, this would actually execute the query in order to return a list of every *second* object of the first 10:: >>> Entry.objects.all()[:10:2] To retrieve a *single* object rather than a list (e.g. ``SELECT foo FROM bar LIMIT 1``), use a simple index instead of a slice. For example, this returns the first ``Entry`` in the database, after ordering entries alphabetically by headline:: >>> Entry.objects.order_by('headline')[0] This is roughly equivalent to:: >>> Entry.objects.order_by('headline')[0:1].get() Note, however, that the first of these will raise ``IndexError`` while the second will raise ``DoesNotExist`` if no objects match the given criteria. See ``get()`` for more details. .. _field-lookups-intro: Field lookups ------------- Field lookups are how you specify the meat of an SQL ``WHERE`` clause. They're specified as keyword arguments to the ``QuerySet`` methods ``filter()``, ``exclude()`` and ``get()``. Basic lookups keyword arguments take the form ``field__lookuptype=value``. (That's a double-underscore). For example:: >>> Entry.objects.filter(pub_date__lte='2006-01-01') translates (roughly) into the following SQL:: SELECT * FROM blog_entry WHERE pub_date <= '2006-01-01'; .. admonition:: How this is possible Python has the ability to define functions that accept arbitrary name-value arguments whose names and values are evaluated at runtime. For more information, see `Keyword Arguments`_ in the official Python tutorial. .. _`Keyword Arguments`: http://docs.python.org/tut/node6.html#SECTION006720000000000000000 If you pass an invalid keyword argument, a lookup function will raise ``TypeError``. The database API supports about two dozen lookup types; a complete reference can be found in the :ref:`field lookup reference `. To give you a taste of what's available, here's some of the more common lookups you'll probably use: :lookup:`exact` An "exact" match. For example:: >>> Entry.objects.get(headline__exact="Man bites dog") Would generate SQL along these lines: .. code-block:: sql SELECT ... WHERE headline = 'Man bites dog'; If you don't provide a lookup type -- that is, if your keyword argument doesn't contain a double underscore -- the lookup type is assumed to be ``exact``. For example, the following two statements are equivalent:: >>> Blog.objects.get(id__exact=14) # Explicit form >>> Blog.objects.get(id=14) # __exact is implied This is for convenience, because ``exact`` lookups are the common case. :lookup:`iexact` A case-insensitive match. So, the query:: >>> Blog.objects.get(name__iexact="beatles blog") Would match a ``Blog`` titled "Beatles Blog", "beatles blog", or even "BeAtlES blOG". :lookup:`contains` Case-sensitive containment test. For example:: Entry.objects.get(headline__contains='Lennon') Roughly translates to this SQL: .. code-block:: sql SELECT ... WHERE headline LIKE '%Lennon%'; Note this will match the headline ``'Today Lennon honored'`` but not ``'today lennon honored'``. There's also a case-insensitive version, :lookup:`icontains`. :lookup:`startswith`, :lookup:`endswith` Starts-with and ends-with search, respectively. There are also case-insensitive versions called :lookup:`istartswith` and :lookup:`iendswith`. Again, this only scratches the surface. A complete reference can be found in the :ref:`field lookup reference `. Lookups that span relationships ------------------------------- Django offers a powerful and intuitive way to "follow" relationships in lookups, taking care of the SQL ``JOIN``\s for you automatically, behind the scenes. To span a relationship, just use the field name of related fields across models, separated by double underscores, until you get to the field you want. This example retrieves all ``Entry`` objects with a ``Blog`` whose ``name`` is ``'Beatles Blog'``:: >>> Entry.objects.filter(blog__name__exact='Beatles Blog') This spanning can be as deep as you'd like. It works backwards, too. To refer to a "reverse" relationship, just use the lowercase name of the model. This example retrieves all ``Blog`` objects which have at least one ``Entry`` whose ``headline`` contains ``'Lennon'``:: >>> Blog.objects.filter(entry__headline__contains='Lennon') If you are filtering across multiple relationships and one of the intermediate models doesn't have a value that meets the filter condition, Django will treat it as if there is an empty (all values are ``NULL``), but valid, object there. All this means is that no error will be raised. For example, in this filter:: Blog.objects.filter(entry__author__name='Lennon') (if there was a related ``Author`` model), if there was no ``author`` associated with an entry, it would be treated as if there was also no ``name`` attached, rather than raising an error because of the missing ``author``. Usually this is exactly what you want to have happen. The only case where it might be confusing is if you are using ``isnull``. Thus:: Blog.objects.filter(entry__author__name__isnull=True) will return ``Blog`` objects that have an empty ``name`` on the ``author`` and also those which have an empty ``author`` on the ``entry``. If you don't want those latter objects, you could write:: Blog.objects.filter(entry__author__isnull=False, entry__author__name__isnull=True) Spanning multi-valued relationships ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. versionadded:: 1.0 When you are filtering an object based on a ``ManyToManyField`` or a reverse ``ForeignKeyField``, there are two different sorts of filter you may be interested in. Consider the ``Blog``/``Entry`` relationship (``Blog`` to ``Entry`` is a one-to-many relation). We might be interested in finding blogs that have an entry which has both *"Lennon"* in the headline and was published in 2008. Or we might want to find blogs that have an entry with *"Lennon"* in the headline as well as an entry that was published in 2008. Since there are multiple entries associated with a single ``Blog``, both of these queries are possible and make sense in some situations. The same type of situation arises with a ``ManyToManyField``. For example, if an ``Entry`` has a ``ManyToManyField`` called ``tags``, we might want to find entries linked to tags called *"music"* and *"bands"* or we might want an entry that contains a tag with a name of *"music"* and a status of *"public"*. To handle both of these situations, Django has a consistent way of processing ``filter()`` and ``exclude()`` calls. Everything inside a single ``filter()`` call is applied simultaneously to filter out items matching all those requirements. Successive ``filter()`` calls further restrict the set of objects, but for multi-valued relations, they apply to any object linked to the primary model, not necessarily those objects that were selected by an earlier ``filter()`` call. That may sound a bit confusing, so hopefully an example will clarify. To select all blogs that contains entries with *"Lennon"* in the headline and were published in 2008, we would write:: Blog.objects.filter(entry__headline__contains='Lennon', entry__pub_date__year=2008) To select all blogs that contain an entry with *"Lennon"* in the headline **as well as** an entry that was published in 2008, we would write:: Blog.objects.filter(entry__headline__contains='Lennon').filter( entry__pub_date__year=2008) In this second example, the first filter restricted the queryset to all those blogs linked to that particular type of entry. The second filter restricted the set of blogs *further* to those that are also linked to the second type of entry. The entries select by the second filter may or may not be the same as the entries in the first filter. We are filtering the ``Blog`` items with each filter statement, not the ``Entry`` items. All of this behavior also applies to ``exclude()``: all the conditions in a single ``exclude()`` statement apply to a single instance (if those conditions are talking about the same multi-valued relation). Conditions in subsequent ``filter()`` or ``exclude()`` calls that refer to the same relation may end up filtering on different linked objects. The pk lookup shortcut ---------------------- For convenience, Django provides a ``pk`` lookup shortcut, which stands for "primary key". In the example ``Blog`` model, the primary key is the ``id`` field, so these three statements are equivalent:: >>> Blog.objects.get(id__exact=14) # Explicit form >>> Blog.objects.get(id=14) # __exact is implied >>> Blog.objects.get(pk=14) # pk implies id__exact The use of ``pk`` isn't limited to ``__exact`` queries -- any query term can be combined with ``pk`` to perform a query on the primary key of a model:: # Get blogs entries with id 1, 4 and 7 >>> Blog.objects.filter(pk__in=[1,4,7]) # Get all blog entries with id > 14 >>> Blog.objects.filter(pk__gt=14) ``pk`` lookups also work across joins. For example, these three statements are equivalent:: >>> Entry.objects.filter(blog__id__exact=3) # Explicit form >>> Entry.objects.filter(blog__id=3) # __exact is implied >>> Entry.objects.filter(blog__pk=3) # __pk implies __id__exact Escaping percent signs and underscores in LIKE statements --------------------------------------------------------- The field lookups that equate to ``LIKE`` SQL statements (``iexact``, ``contains``, ``icontains``, ``startswith``, ``istartswith``, ``endswith`` and ``iendswith``) will automatically escape the two special characters used in ``LIKE`` statements -- the percent sign and the underscore. (In a ``LIKE`` statement, the percent sign signifies a multiple-character wildcard and the underscore signifies a single-character wildcard.) This means things should work intuitively, so the abstraction doesn't leak. For example, to retrieve all the entries that contain a percent sign, just use the percent sign as any other character:: >>> Entry.objects.filter(headline__contains='%') Django takes care of the quoting for you; the resulting SQL will look something like this: .. code-block:: sql SELECT ... WHERE headline LIKE '%\%%'; Same goes for underscores. Both percentage signs and underscores are handled for you transparently. .. _caching-and-querysets: Caching and QuerySets --------------------- Each ``QuerySet`` contains a cache, to minimize database access. It's important to understand how it works, in order to write the most efficient code. In a newly created ``QuerySet``, the cache is empty. The first time a ``QuerySet`` is evaluated -- and, hence, a database query happens -- Django saves the query results in the ``QuerySet``'s cache and returns the results that have been explicitly requested (e.g., the next element, if the ``QuerySet`` is being iterated over). Subsequent evaluations of the ``QuerySet`` reuse the cached results. Keep this caching behavior in mind, because it may bite you if you don't use your ``QuerySet``\s correctly. For example, the following will create two ``QuerySet``\s, evaluate them, and throw them away:: >>> print [e.headline for e in Entry.objects.all()] >>> print [e.pub_date for e in Entry.objects.all()] That means the same database query will be executed twice, effectively doubling your database load. Also, there's a possibility the two lists may not include the same database records, because an ``Entry`` may have been added or deleted in the split second between the two requests. To avoid this problem, simply save the ``QuerySet`` and reuse it:: >>> queryset = Poll.objects.all() >>> print [p.headline for p in queryset] # Evaluate the query set. >>> print [p.pub_date for p in queryset] # Re-use the cache from the evaluation. Complex lookups with Q objects ============================== Keyword argument queries -- in ``filter()``, etc. -- are "AND"ed together. If you need to execute more complex queries (for example, queries with ``OR`` statements), you can use ``Q`` objects. A ``Q`` object (``django.db.models.Q``) is an object used to encapsulate a collection of keyword arguments. These keyword arguments are specified as in "Field lookups" above. For example, this ``Q`` object encapsulates a single ``LIKE`` query:: Q(question__startswith='What') ``Q`` objects can be combined using the ``&`` and ``|`` operators. When an operator is used on two ``Q`` objects, it yields a new ``Q`` object. For example, this statement yields a single ``Q`` object that represents the "OR" of two ``"question__startswith"`` queries:: Q(question__startswith='Who') | Q(question__startswith='What') This is equivalent to the following SQL ``WHERE`` clause:: WHERE question LIKE 'Who%' OR question LIKE 'What%' You can compose statements of arbitrary complexity by combining ``Q`` objects with the ``&`` and ``|`` operators. You can also use parenthetical grouping. Each lookup function that takes keyword-arguments (e.g. ``filter()``, ``exclude()``, ``get()``) can also be passed one or more ``Q`` objects as positional (not-named) arguments. If you provide multiple ``Q`` object arguments to a lookup function, the arguments will be "AND"ed together. For example:: Poll.objects.get( Q(question__startswith='Who'), Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2)) | Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6)) ) ... roughly translates into the SQL:: SELECT * from polls WHERE question LIKE 'Who%' AND (pub_date = '2005-05-02' OR pub_date = '2005-05-06') Lookup functions can mix the use of ``Q`` objects and keyword arguments. All arguments provided to a lookup function (be they keyword arguments or ``Q`` objects) are "AND"ed together. However, if a ``Q`` object is provided, it must precede the definition of any keyword arguments. For example:: Poll.objects.get( Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2)) | Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6)), question__startswith='Who') ... would be a valid query, equivalent to the previous example; but:: # INVALID QUERY Poll.objects.get( question__startswith='Who', Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2)) | Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6))) ... would not be valid. .. seealso:: The `OR lookups examples`_ in the Django unit tests show some possible uses of ``Q``. .. _OR lookups examples: http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/trunk/tests/modeltests/or_lookups/models.py Comparing objects ================= To compare two model instances, just use the standard Python comparison operator, the double equals sign: ``==``. Behind the scenes, that compares the primary key values of two models. Using the ``Entry`` example above, the following two statements are equivalent:: >>> some_entry == other_entry >>> some_entry.id == other_entry.id If a model's primary key isn't called ``id``, no problem. Comparisons will always use the primary key, whatever it's called. For example, if a model's primary key field is called ``name``, these two statements are equivalent:: >>> some_obj == other_obj >>> some_obj.name == other_obj.name Deleting objects ================ The delete method, conveniently, is named ``delete()``. This method immediately deletes the object and has no return value. Example:: e.delete() You can also delete objects in bulk. Every ``QuerySet`` has a ``delete()`` method, which deletes all members of that ``QuerySet``. For example, this deletes all ``Entry`` objects with a ``pub_date`` year of 2005:: Entry.objects.filter(pub_date__year=2005).delete() Keep in mind that this will, whenever possible, be executed purely in SQL, and so the ``delete()`` methods of individual object instances will not necessarily be called during the process. If you've provided a custom ``delete()`` method on a model class and want to ensure that it is called, you will need to "manually" delete instances of that model (e.g., by iterating over a ``QuerySet`` and calling ``delete()`` on each object individually) rather than using the bulk ``delete()`` method of a ``QuerySet``. When Django deletes an object, it emulates the behavior of the SQL constraint ``ON DELETE CASCADE`` -- in other words, any objects which had foreign keys pointing at the object to be deleted will be deleted along with it. For example:: b = Blog.objects.get(pk=1) # This will delete the Blog and all of its Entry objects. b.delete() Note that ``delete()`` is the only ``QuerySet`` method that is not exposed on a ``Manager`` itself. This is a safety mechanism to prevent you from accidentally requesting ``Entry.objects.delete()``, and deleting *all* the entries. If you *do* want to delete all the objects, then you have to explicitly request a complete query set:: Entry.objects.all().delete() Updating multiple objects at once ================================= .. versionadded:: 1.0 Sometimes you want to set a field to a particular value for all the objects in a ``QuerySet``. You can do this with the ``update()`` method. For example:: # Update all the headlines with pub_date in 2007. Entry.objects.filter(pub_date__year=2007).update(headline='Everything is the same') You can only set non-relation fields and ``ForeignKey`` fields using this method, and the value you set the field to must be a hard-coded Python value (i.e., you can't set a field to be equal to some other field at the moment). To update ``ForeignKey`` fields, set the new value to be the new model instance you want to point to. Example:: >>> b = Blog.objects.get(pk=1) # Change every Entry so that it belongs to this Blog. >>> Entry.objects.all().update(blog=b) The ``update()`` method is applied instantly and doesn't return anything (similar to ``delete()``). The only restriction on the ``QuerySet`` that is updated is that it can only access one database table, the model's main table. So don't try to filter based on related fields or anything like that; it won't work. Be aware that the ``update()`` method is converted directly to an SQL statement. It is a bulk operation for direct updates. It doesn't run any ``save()`` methods on your models, or emit the ``pre_save`` or ``post_save`` signals (which are a consequence of calling ``save()``). If you want to save every item in a ``QuerySet`` and make sure that the ``save()`` method is called on each instance, you don't need any special function to handle that. Just loop over them and call ``save()``:: for item in my_queryset: item.save() Related objects =============== When you define a relationship in a model (i.e., a ``ForeignKey``, ``OneToOneField``, or ``ManyToManyField``), instances of that model will have a convenient API to access the related object(s). Using the models at the top of this page, for example, an ``Entry`` object ``e`` can get its associated ``Blog`` object by accessing the ``blog`` attribute: ``e.blog``. (Behind the scenes, this functionality is implemented by Python descriptors_. This shouldn't really matter to you, but we point it out here for the curious.) Django also creates API accessors for the "other" side of the relationship -- the link from the related model to the model that defines the relationship. For example, a ``Blog`` object ``b`` has access to a list of all related ``Entry`` objects via the ``entry_set`` attribute: ``b.entry_set.all()``. All examples in this section use the sample ``Blog``, ``Author`` and ``Entry`` models defined at the top of this page. .. _descriptors: http://users.rcn.com/python/download/Descriptor.htm One-to-many relationships ------------------------- Forward ~~~~~~~ If a model has a ``ForeignKey``, instances of that model will have access to the related (foreign) object via a simple attribute of the model. Example:: >>> e = Entry.objects.get(id=2) >>> e.blog # Returns the related Blog object. You can get and set via a foreign-key attribute. As you may expect, changes to the foreign key aren't saved to the database until you call ``save()``. Example:: >>> e = Entry.objects.get(id=2) >>> e.blog = some_blog >>> e.save() If a ``ForeignKey`` field has ``null=True`` set (i.e., it allows ``NULL`` values), you can assign ``None`` to it. Example:: >>> e = Entry.objects.get(id=2) >>> e.blog = None >>> e.save() # "UPDATE blog_entry SET blog_id = NULL ...;" Forward access to one-to-many relationships is cached the first time the related object is accessed. Subsequent accesses to the foreign key on the same object instance are cached. Example:: >>> e = Entry.objects.get(id=2) >>> print e.blog # Hits the database to retrieve the associated Blog. >>> print e.blog # Doesn't hit the database; uses cached version. Note that the ``select_related()`` ``QuerySet`` method recursively prepopulates the cache of all one-to-many relationships ahead of time. Example:: >>> e = Entry.objects.select_related().get(id=2) >>> print e.blog # Doesn't hit the database; uses cached version. >>> print e.blog # Doesn't hit the database; uses cached version. .. _backwards-related-objects: Following relationships "backward" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If a model has a ``ForeignKey``, instances of the foreign-key model will have access to a ``Manager`` that returns all instances of the first model. By default, this ``Manager`` is named ``FOO_set``, where ``FOO`` is the source model name, lowercased. This ``Manager`` returns ``QuerySets``, which can be filtered and manipulated as described in the "Retrieving objects" section above. Example:: >>> b = Blog.objects.get(id=1) >>> b.entry_set.all() # Returns all Entry objects related to Blog. # b.entry_set is a Manager that returns QuerySets. >>> b.entry_set.filter(headline__contains='Lennon') >>> b.entry_set.count() You can override the ``FOO_set`` name by setting the ``related_name`` parameter in the ``ForeignKey()`` definition. For example, if the ``Entry`` model was altered to ``blog = ForeignKey(Blog, related_name='entries')``, the above example code would look like this:: >>> b = Blog.objects.get(id=1) >>> b.entries.all() # Returns all Entry objects related to Blog. # b.entries is a Manager that returns QuerySets. >>> b.entries.filter(headline__contains='Lennon') >>> b.entries.count() You cannot access a reverse ``ForeignKey`` ``Manager`` from the class; it must be accessed from an instance:: >>> Blog.entry_set Traceback: ... AttributeError: "Manager must be accessed via instance". In addition to the ``QuerySet`` methods defined in "Retrieving objects" above, the ``ForeignKey`` ``Manager`` has additional methods used to handle the set of related objects. A synopsis of each is below, and complete details can be found in the :ref:`related objects reference `. ``add(obj1, obj2, ...)`` Adds the specified model objects to the related object set. ``create(**kwargs)`` Creates a new object, saves it and puts it in the related object set. Returns the newly created object. ``remove(obj1, obj2, ...)`` Removes the specified model objects from the related object set. ``clear()`` Removes all objects from the related object set. To assign the members of a related set in one fell swoop, just assign to it from any iterable object. Example:: b = Blog.objects.get(id=1) b.entry_set = [e1, e2] If the ``clear()`` method is available, any pre-existing objects will be removed from the ``entry_set`` before all objects in the iterable (in this case, a list) are added to the set. If the ``clear()`` method is *not* available, all objects in the iterable will be added without removing any existing elements. Each "reverse" operation described in this section has an immediate effect on the database. Every addition, creation and deletion is immediately and automatically saved to the database. Many-to-many relationships -------------------------- Both ends of a many-to-many relationship get automatic API access to the other end. The API works just as a "backward" one-to-many relationship, above. The only difference is in the attribute naming: The model that defines the ``ManyToManyField`` uses the attribute name of that field itself, whereas the "reverse" model uses the lowercased model name of the original model, plus ``'_set'`` (just like reverse one-to-many relationships). An example makes this easier to understand:: e = Entry.objects.get(id=3) e.authors.all() # Returns all Author objects for this Entry. e.authors.count() e.authors.filter(name__contains='John') a = Author.objects.get(id=5) a.entry_set.all() # Returns all Entry objects for this Author. Like ``ForeignKey``, ``ManyToManyField`` can specify ``related_name``. In the above example, if the ``ManyToManyField`` in ``Entry`` had specified ``related_name='entries'``, then each ``Author`` instance would have an ``entries`` attribute instead of ``entry_set``. One-to-one relationships ------------------------ One-to-one relationships are very similar to many-to-one relationships. If you define a :class:`~django.db.models.OneToOneField` on your model, instances of that model will have access to the related object via a simple attribute of the model. For example:: class EntryDetail(models.Model): entry = models.OneToOneField(Entry) details = models.TextField() ed = EntryDetail.objects.get(id=2) ed.entry # Returns the related Entry object. The difference comes in "reverse" queries. The related model in a one-to-one relationship also has access to a :class:`~django.db.models.Manager` object, but that :class:`~django.db.models.Manager` represents a single object, rather than a collection of objects:: e = Entry.objects.get(id=2) e.entrydetail # returns the related EntryDetail object If no object has been assigned to this relationship, Django will raise a ``DoesNotExist`` exception. Instances can be assigned to the reverse relationship in the same way as you would assign the forward relationship:: e.entrydetail = ed How are the backward relationships possible? -------------------------------------------- Other object-relational mappers require you to define relationships on both sides. The Django developers believe this is a violation of the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle, so Django only requires you to define the relationship on one end. But how is this possible, given that a model class doesn't know which other model classes are related to it until those other model classes are loaded? The answer lies in the :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` setting. The first time any model is loaded, Django iterates over every model in :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` and creates the backward relationships in memory as needed. Essentially, one of the functions of :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` is to tell Django the entire model domain. Queries over related objects ---------------------------- Queries involving related objects follow the same rules as queries involving normal value fields. When specifying the value for a query to match, you may use either an object instance itself, or the primary key value for the object. For example, if you have a Blog object ``b`` with ``id=5``, the following three queries would be identical:: Entry.objects.filter(blog=b) # Query using object instance Entry.objects.filter(blog=b.id) # Query using id from instance Entry.objects.filter(blog=5) # Query using id directly Falling back to raw SQL ======================= If you find yourself needing to write an SQL query that is too complex for Django's database-mapper to handle, you can fall back into raw-SQL statement mode. The preferred way to do this is by giving your model custom methods or custom manager methods that execute queries. Although there's nothing in Django that *requires* database queries to live in the model layer, this approach keeps all your data-access logic in one place, which is smart from an code-organization standpoint. For instructions, see :ref:`topics-db-sql`. Finally, it's important to note that the Django database layer is merely an interface to your database. You can access your database via other tools, programming languages or database frameworks; there's nothing Django-specific about your database.