id summary reporter owner description type status component version severity resolution keywords cc stage has_patch needs_docs needs_tests needs_better_patch easy ui_ux 5324 queryset exclude fails across a many-to-many list Robert Bunting nobody "If you try to exclude items from a queryset across a m2m link, it fails to give the expected result. For instance, assuming I have users, some of whom are in group Editors, some in group Sales, and most are not in a group at all. {{{ #!python from django.contrib.auth.models import User user_qs = User.objects.all() # all users non_editor_users = user_qs.exclude(groups__name='Editors') # should be all users excluding those in group Editors }}} The set wrongly returned is actually the set of users who are in Sales but not in Editors - it fails to include those users who have no group at all. The reason is the sql clause generated, which is doing {{{ FROM ""auth_user"" LEFT OUTER JOIN ""auth_user_groups"" AS ""m2m_auth_user__groups"" ON ""auth_user"".""id"" = ""m2m_auth_user__groups"".""user_id"" INNER JOIN ""auth_group"" AS ""auth_user__groups"" ON ""m2m_auth_user__groups"".""group_id"" = ""auth_user__groups"".""id"" WHERE ((NOT (""auth_user__groups"".""name"" = %s))) ORDER BY ""auth_user"".""username"" ASC', ['Editors'] }}} A workaround for this was posted some time back in http://groups.google.com/group/django-users/browse_thread/thread/81eb405071037248/2beb073a93fd68b7 I can't find a ticket for it - please excuse me if it's a duplicate. I guess #2091 might be related under the hood." closed Core (Other) dev fixed exclude m2m many-to-many, qs-rf-fixed Accepted 0 0 0 0 0 0