Opened 16 years ago

Closed 9 years ago

#8375 closed New feature (wontfix)

It's better to allow using tables parameter with custom alias in extra query

Reported by: Wonlay Owned by: nobody
Component: Database layer (models, ORM) Version: dev
Severity: Normal Keywords: query, extra, tables, custom alias
Cc: wonlay@…, bas@…, tim.babych@… Triage Stage: Someday/Maybe
Has patch: yes Needs documentation: yes
Needs tests: yes Patch needs improvement: yes
Easy pickings: no UI/UX: no

Description

Sometimes we need specify tables that are already used in the query (In my case INNER JOIN on the save model).
Currently, django don't allow such queries, the extra table won't create another alias.
I find it's better, if we allow specifying a explicit alias, so that we can use the extra query like this:

MyModel.objects.extra(tables['app_table1 alias1'], where=['app_table1.col1=alias1.col1', 'alias1.name like ...'])

And the patch attached.

Attachments (1)

custom_alias_for_extra_tables_query.patch (1.2 KB ) - added by Wonlay 16 years ago.

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (14)

comment:1 by James Bennett, 16 years ago

milestone: 1.0post-1.0

Django is in feature freeze for 1.0, so this change -- if it goes in -- can't be targeted for the 1.0 milestone.

comment:2 by Malcolm Tredinnick, 16 years ago

Needs documentation: set
Needs tests: set
Patch needs improvement: set
Triage Stage: UnreviewedAccepted

Although encouraging yet more use of extra() is something we should avoid, since it's very fragile when combined with other things in querysets, if a reasonable API can be found, including this functionality (after 1.0) is a possibility. I don't like this syntax, however. Any change like this should also be leveraging the join() method on the Query class so that the alias is managed correctly.

Right now, the correct way to do this is to construct the queryset up to where the extra() call is required, then call qs.query.join(...) with the right parameters to get a join alias and then use that alias in the call to extra() on the queryset. It becomes three lines of code, which isn't too onerous. You'll have to read the docstring for join() and play around a bit, since this isn't public API at the moment, but it will remain stable, so you can rely on things working that way.

comment:3 by Wonlay, 16 years ago

I totally agree with mtredinnick.
And the join solution do solve my problem.

Maybe this kind of staff should be solved by something like (qs1 + qs2) , (qs1 - qs2) , (qs1 LEFT JOIN qs2 ON ('qs1__model_field1', 'qs2__model_field2')) , and other cross QuerySet operations.

Should I close this ticket now?

comment:4 by Malcolm Tredinnick, 16 years ago

Triage Stage: AcceptedSomeday/Maybe

Leave the ticket open so that we have a reference ticket for creating a decent API after 1.0 sometime. I don't know what that API will look like, but it's always been in the back of my mind that something would be nice. Fortunately, I don't need this behaviour very much, so I'm leaving it up to somebody with the motivation to solve the problem to come up with some API ideas for us to consider.

comment:5 by Phillip Temple, 15 years ago

Triage Stage: Someday/MaybeDesign decision needed

I think it's an excellent patch, and useful if you want to implement a tree branch totals query for django-mptt. It's backward compatible so I can't see any problem incorporating it. The only thing I could also suggest is having the syntax:

table = ['newtable as newalias']

This will allow additional arguments to be added, giving some future-proofing, with the added bonus you can simply cut and paste from your tried and tested SQL statement.

Phillip.

comment:6 by Russell Keith-Magee, 15 years ago

Triage Stage: Design decision neededSomeday/Maybe

A design decision has already been made. That decision was "Someday, maybe". Reverting ticket state.

comment:7 by (none), 15 years ago

milestone: post-1.0

Milestone post-1.0 deleted

comment:8 by anonymous, 14 years ago

Cc: bas@… added

comment:9 by tymofiy, 13 years ago

Cc: tim.babych@… added

comment:10 by Luke Plant, 13 years ago

Severity: Normal
Type: New feature

comment:11 by Aymeric Augustin, 12 years ago

UI/UX: unset

Change UI/UX from NULL to False.

comment:12 by Aymeric Augustin, 12 years ago

Easy pickings: unset

Change Easy pickings from NULL to False.

comment:13 by Tim Graham, 9 years ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: newclosed

We are no longer fixing bugs with QuerySet.extra() per discussion on django-developers.

Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.
Back to Top