#5929 closed New feature (duplicate)
Allow Fields to use multiple db columns (complex datatypes)
Reported by: | Daniel Poelzleithner | Owned by: | HAMA Barhamou |
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Component: | Database layer (models, ORM) | Version: | dev |
Severity: | Normal | Keywords: | |
Cc: | Pavel Anossov, artagnon, Daniel Barreto, James Turk, glassreistor, ben.coughlan@…, ognajd@…, j.arnds@…, carlos.palol@…, cmawebsite@…, Frank Sachsenheim | Triage Stage: | Accepted |
Has patch: | no | Needs documentation: | no |
Needs tests: | no | Patch needs improvement: | no |
Easy pickings: | no | UI/UX: | no |
Description
Currently it seems that it is not possible to have complex db filds. For example:
Implementation of a IP model which actually should be a field type not a model. The implementation is not clean, because foreign key lookups for example do not work. The model maps for example:
NetworkAddress.objects.filter(ip__in="192.168.0.10/16")
into a complex query for a ip resisting in a network range.
Due the fact that model fields can only map to one db column, many complex data types can't be implemented. For example a ipv6 ip address which is a 128 bit value can't be handled by most db implementations of integer fields, so it has to be expanded to multiple columns plus a additional netmask column. Using varchar doesn't work because there is no way to search for network ranges or IPs in ranges, etc...
I think a field should be able to implement lookup mappings which can be overridden to implement complex datatypes as well as use multiple db fields.
Change History (32)
comment:1 by , 17 years ago
comment:2 by , 17 years ago
Triage Stage: | Unreviewed → Design decision needed |
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Let's see another example:
http://django-coordinatesfield.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/field.py
This Field is implemented as a Charfield which is actually not the right datatype. The right datatype would be 2 or 3 float or decimal values or a real geos point value.
First thing: I'm not sure if it is currently possible to fix the IP Model, but currently the lookups only work if you filter trough the NetworkAddress model itself, because it uses a special manager to rewrite the simplified lookup methods into real ones. Becaus this is manager specific, there is no way to make lookups through the normal ForeignKey interface. So every lookups is specific for this model. Not good.
The NetworkAddress Model is quite complex, because it implements some other required tools. But actually, the system uses ForeignKey relations to this model that really only represents a simple IP without all the blow, but blowing this table into a really hugh one. This is another point: performance. If you have some models with only a view records that has to be fast, and some with really many entries, lets say millions and you have lookups to the ip field queries are much slower than real implementations.
For me this is a point of clarity. A field implements a type of data, which will be implemented in one way or the other depending on the database backend used. Thats the sense of having a abstraction layer, and if most or non of the databases don't have a type that fits, it's still one field for me, even when the implementation of field uses more then one db field to implement a the functionality as it should. A model represents for me a more or less independent peace of informations that could be referred to, but is not essentially coupled to. It's just, that i don't feel like that it's right designed right in such cases :-)
comment:3 by , 17 years ago
Keywords: | qs-rf removed |
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Removing the qs-rf keyword, since this is out of scope for the SQL construction rewrite. It's something we can look at after that is completed, though.
comment:4 by , 17 years ago
Version: | other branch → SVN |
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comment:5 by , 17 years ago
Triage Stage: | Design decision needed → Accepted |
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comment:6 by , 16 years ago
Cc: | added |
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Owner: | changed from | to
Status: | new → assigned |
comment:7 by , 16 years ago
Owner: | removed |
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Status: | assigned → new |
Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to assign this ticket, just wanted to add myself to the Cc list.
comment:8 by , 16 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:9 by , 16 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:10 by , 16 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:11 by , 16 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:12 by , 15 years ago
Guys,
any chance it will be implemented in reasonable time?
I'm sure many users are looking forward it.
comment:14 by , 14 years ago
coderanger convinced me to offer this up on github:
http://gist.github.com/476058
This appears to interact nicely with both the admin interface and South, but I defer to others on how to make this prettier.
comment:15 by , 14 years ago
Also, my inspiration/base code for that github posting was from dcramer's ratings system:
http://github.com/dcramer/django-ratings
So if there's anything particularly clever in my gist, it is probably his idea.
comment:16 by , 14 years ago
Severity: | → Normal |
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Type: | → New feature |
comment:17 by , 14 years ago
Cc: | added |
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Easy pickings: | unset |
This would 'really' simplify django support for python-money. I'd like to have a MoneyField which needs two columns, one for a Decimal value and another for a 3 character currency code.
Right now we're using the example found here but it leaves a lot to be desired regarding lookups and aggregates.
comment:19 by , 13 years ago
Any update? I need pseudo-tz-aware field for date time, as anything but PostgreSQL supports timezone aware. I plan to use one column for date time and another for timezone name.
comment:20 by , 13 years ago
comment:21 by , 13 years ago
Cc: | removed |
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comment:22 by , 11 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:24 by , 11 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:25 by , 10 years ago
Cc: | added |
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This should be much easier now that the _meta refactor is complete.
comment:27 by , 6 years ago
Cc: | added |
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comment:28 by , 2 years ago
hi, there has been a gap in my schedule. so if it's ok with you we can start as soon as possible. or if you want we can wait until 4pm as planned
comment:29 by , 2 years ago
Owner: | set to |
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Status: | new → assigned |
comment:30 by , 22 months ago
Another example is a Blood Pressure field composed of 2 values that should be stored in separate db columns.
comment:31 by , 16 months ago
This is also needed if you want to support a user entering a value in different units.
Required for this this plugin .
The relational db literature seems to teach me that related tables (and so related models) would seem to already be the standard way to handle complex data types. Why do you say that this IP model should be a field type rather than a model?