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Joins and subqueries

To join one table to another, so load also related models you can use following methods.

  • select_related(related: Union[List, str]) -> QuerySet
  • select_all(follow: bool = True) -> QuerySet

  • prefetch_related(related: Union[List, str]) -> QuerySet

  • Model

    • Model.load() method

  • QuerysetProxy

    • QuerysetProxy.select_related(related: Union[List, str]) method
    • QuerysetProxy.select_all(follow: bool=True) method
    • QuerysetProxy.prefetch_related(related: Union[List, str]) method

select_related(related: Union[List, str]) -> QuerySet

Allows to prefetch related models during the same query.

With select_related always only one query is run against the database, meaning that one (sometimes complicated) join is generated and later nested models are processed in python.

To fetch related model use ForeignKey names.

To chain related Models relation use double underscores between names.

Note

If you are coming from django note that ormar select_related differs -> in django you can select_related only single relation types, while in ormar you can select related across ForeignKey relation, reverse side of ForeignKey (so virtual auto generated keys) and ManyToMany fields (so all relations as of current version).

Tip

To control which model fields to select use fields() and exclude_fields() QuerySet methods.

Tip

To control order of models (both main or nested) use order_by() method.

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class Album(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    is_best_seller: bool = ormar.Boolean(default=False)

class Track(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    album: Optional[Album] = ormar.ForeignKey(Album)
    title: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    position: int = ormar.Integer()
    play_count: int = ormar.Integer(nullable=True)

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# Django style
album = await Album.objects.select_related("tracks").all()

# Python style
album = await Album.objects.select_related(Album.tracks).all()

# will return album with all columns tracks

You can provide a string or a list of strings (or a field/ list of fields)

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class SchoolClass(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="schoolclasses")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    department: Optional[Department] = ormar.ForeignKey(Department, nullable=False)


class Category(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="categories")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)


class Student(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    schoolclass: Optional[SchoolClass] = ormar.ForeignKey(SchoolClass)
    category: Optional[Category] = ormar.ForeignKey(Category, nullable=True)


class Teacher(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    schoolclass: Optional[SchoolClass] = ormar.ForeignKey(SchoolClass)
    category: Optional[Category] = ormar.ForeignKey(Category, nullable=True)

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# Django style
classes = await SchoolClass.objects.select_related(
    ["teachers__category", "students"]).all()

# Python style
classes = await SchoolClass.objects.select_related(
    [SchoolClass.teachers.category, SchoolClass.students]).all()

# will return classes with teachers and teachers categories
# as well as classes students

Exactly the same behavior is for Many2Many fields, where you put the names of Many2Many fields and the final Models are fetched for you.

Warning

If you set ForeignKey field as not nullable (so required) during all queries the not nullable Models will be auto prefetched, even if you do not include them in select_related.

Note

All methods that do not return the rows explicitly returns a QuerySet instance so you can chain them together

So operations like filter(), select_related(), limit() and offset() etc. can be chained.

Something like Track.object.select_related("album").filter(album__name="Malibu").offset(1).limit(1).all()

select_all

select_all(follow: bool = False) -> QuerySet

By default when you select all() none of the relations are loaded, likewise, when select_related() is used you need to explicitly specify all relations that should be loaded. If you want to include also nested relations this can be cumberstone.

That's why select_all() was introduced, so by default load all relations of a model (so kind of opposite as with all() approach).

By default adds only directly related models of a parent model (from which the query is run).

If follow=True is set it adds also related models of related models.

Info

To not get stuck in an infinite loop as related models also keep a relation to parent model visited models set is kept.

That way already visited models that are nested are loaded, but the load do not follow them inside. So Model A -> Model B -> Model C -> Model A -> Model X will load second Model A but will never follow into Model X. Nested relations of those kind need to be loaded manually.

With sample date like follow:

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base_ormar_config = OrmarConfig(
    database=databases.Database(DATABASE_URL, force_rollback=True),
    metadata=sqlalchemy.MetaData(),
)


class Address(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="addresses")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    street: str = ormar.String(max_length=100, nullable=False)
    number: int = ormar.Integer(nullable=False)
    post_code: str = ormar.String(max_length=20, nullable=False)



class Branch(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="branches")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100, nullable=False)
    address = ormar.ForeignKey(Address)


class Company(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="companies")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100, nullable=False, name="company_name")
    founded: int = ormar.Integer(nullable=True)
    branches = ormar.ManyToMany(Branch)

To select all Companies with all Branches and Addresses you can simply query:

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companies = await Company.objects.select_all(follow=True).all()

# which is equivalent to:
companies = await Company.objects.select_related('branches__address').all()

Of course in this case it's quite easy to issue explicit relation names in select_related, but the benefit of select_all() shows when you have multiple relations.

If for example Company would have 3 relations and all of those 3 relations have it's own 3 relations you would have to issue 9 relation strings to select_related, select_all() is also resistant to change in names of relations.

Note

Note that you can chain select_all() with other QuerySet methods like filter, exclude_fields etc. To exclude relations use exclude_fields() call with names of relations (also nested) to exclude.

prefetch_related(related: Union[List, str]) -> QuerySet

Allows to prefetch related models during query - but opposite to select_related each subsequent model is fetched in a separate database query.

With prefetch_related always one query per Model is run against the database, meaning that you will have multiple queries executed one after another.

To fetch related model use ForeignKey names.

To chain related Models relation use double underscores between names.

Tip

To control which model fields to select use fields() and exclude_fields() QuerySet methods.

Tip

To control order of models (both main or nested) use order_by() method.

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class Album(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    is_best_seller: bool = ormar.Boolean(default=False)

class Track(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    album: Optional[Album] = ormar.ForeignKey(Album)
    title: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    position: int = ormar.Integer()
    play_count: int = ormar.Integer(nullable=True)

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# Django style
album = await Album.objects.prefetch_related("tracks").all()

# Python style
album = await Album.objects.prefetch_related(Album.tracks).all()


# will return album will all columns tracks

You can provide a string, or a list of strings

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class SchoolClass(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="schoolclasses")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    department: Optional[Department] = ormar.ForeignKey(Department, nullable=False)


class Category(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy(tablename="categories")

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)


class Student(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    schoolclass: Optional[SchoolClass] = ormar.ForeignKey(SchoolClass)
    category: Optional[Category] = ormar.ForeignKey(Category, nullable=True)


class Teacher(ormar.Model):
    ormar_config = base_ormar_config.copy()

    id: int = ormar.Integer(primary_key=True)
    name: str = ormar.String(max_length=100)
    schoolclass: Optional[SchoolClass] = ormar.ForeignKey(SchoolClass)
    category: Optional[Category] = ormar.ForeignKey(Category, nullable=True)

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# Django style
classes = await SchoolClass.objects.prefetch_related(
    ["teachers__category", "students"]).all()

# Python style
classes = await SchoolClass.objects.prefetch_related(
    [SchoolClass.teachers.category, SchoolClass.students]).all()
# will return classes with teachers and teachers categories
# as well as classes students

Exactly the same behavior is for Many2Many fields, where you put the names of Many2Many fields and the final Models are fetched for you.

Warning

If you set ForeignKey field as not nullable (so required) during all queries the not nullable Models will be auto prefetched, even if you do not include them in select_related.

Note

All methods that do not return the rows explicitly returns a QuerySet instance so you can chain them together

So operations like filter(), select_related(), limit() and offset() etc. can be chained.

Something like Track.object.select_related("album").filter(album__name="Malibu").offset(1).limit(1).all()

Which should you use -> select_related or prefetch_related?

Well, it really depends on your data. The best answer is try yourself and see which one performs faster/better in your system constraints.

What to keep in mind:

Performance

Number of queries: select_related always executes one query against the database, while prefetch_related executes multiple queries. Usually the query (I/O) operation is the slowest one but it does not have to be.

Number of rows: Imagine that you have 10 000 object in one table A and each of those objects have 3 children in table B, and subsequently each object in table B has 2 children in table C. Something like this:

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                     Model C
                   /
           Model B - Model C
         / 
Model A  - Model B - Model C
       \           \ 
        \            Model C
         \
           Model B - Model C
                   \ 
                     Model C

That means that select_related will always return 60 000 rows (10 000 * 3 * 2) later compacted to 10 000 models.

How many rows will return prefetch_related?

Well, that depends, if each of models B and C is unique it will return 10 000 rows in first query, 30 000 rows (each of 3 children of A in table B are unique) in second query and 60 000 rows (each of 2 children of model B in table C are unique) in 3rd query.

In this case select_related seems like a better choice, not only it will run one query comparing to 3 of prefetch_related but will also return 60 000 rows comparing to 100 000 of prefetch_related (10+30+60k).

But what if each Model A has exactly the same 3 models B and each models C has exactly same models C? select_related will still return 60 000 rows, while prefetch_related will return 10 000 for model A, 3 rows for model B and 2 rows for Model C. So in total 10 006 rows. Now depending on the structure of models (i.e. if it has long Text() fields etc.) prefetch_related might be faster despite it needs to perform three separate queries instead of one.

Memory

ormar is does not keep a registry of already loaded models.

That means that in select_related example above you will always have 10 000 Models A, 30 000 Models B (even if the unique number of rows in db is 3 - processing of select_related spawns new child models for each parent model). And 60 000 Models C.

If the same Model B is shared by rows 1, 10, 100 etc. and you update one of those, the rest of rows that share the same child will not be updated on the spot. If you persist your changes into the database the change will be available only after reload (either each child separately or the whole query again). That means that select_related will use more memory as each child is instantiated as a new object - obviously using it's own space.

Note

This might change in future versions if we decide to introduce caching.

Warning

By default all children (or event the same models loaded 2+ times) are completely independent, distinct python objects, despite that they represent the same row in db.

They will evaluate to True when compared, so in example above: 

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# will return True if child1 of both rows is the same child db row 
row1.child1 == row100.child1

# same here:
model1 = await Model.get(pk=1)
model2 = await Model.get(pk=1) # same pk = same row in db
# will return `True`
model1 == model2

but 

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# will return False (note that id is a python `builtin` function not ormar one).
id(row1.child1) == id(ro100.child1)

# from above - will also return False
id(model1) == id(model2)

On the contrary - with prefetch_related each unique distinct child model is instantiated only once and the same child models is shared across all parent models. That means that in prefetch_related example above if there are 3 distinct models in table B and 2 in table C, there will be only 5 children nested models shared between all model A instances. That also means that if you update any attribute it will be updated on all parents as they share the same child object.

Model methods

Each model instance have a set of methods to save, update or load itself.

load

You can load the ForeignKey related model by calling load() method.

load() can be used to refresh the model from the database (if it was changed by some other process).

Tip

Read more about load() method in models methods

QuerysetProxy methods

When access directly the related ManyToMany field as well as ReverseForeignKey returns the list of related models.

But at the same time it exposes subset of QuerySet API, so you can filter, create, select related etc related models directly from parent model.

Works exactly the same as select_related function above but allows you to fetch related objects from other side of the relation.

Tip

To read more about QuerysetProxy visit querysetproxy section

select_all

Works exactly the same as select_all function above but allows you to fetch related objects from other side of the relation.

Tip

To read more about QuerysetProxy visit querysetproxy section

Works exactly the same as prefetch_related function above but allows you to fetch related objects from other side of the relation.

Tip

To read more about QuerysetProxy visit querysetproxy section