How to create an object for a Django model with a many to many field?

by

You cannot create m2m relations from unsaved objects. If you have the pks, try this:

sample_object = Sample()
sample_object.save()
sample_object.users.add(1,2)

Update: After reading the saverio’s answer, I decided to investigate the issue a bit more in depth. Here are my findings.

This was my original suggestion. It works, but isn’t optimal. (Note: I’m using Bars and a Foo instead of Users and a Sample, but you get the idea).

bar1 = Bar.objects.get(pk=1)
bar2 = Bar.objects.get(pk=2)
foo = Foo()
foo.save()
foo.bars.add(bar1)
foo.bars.add(bar2)

It generates a whopping total of 7 queries:

SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 1
SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 2
INSERT INTO "app_foo" ("name") VALUES ()
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (1))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 1)
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (2))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 2)

I’m sure we can do better. You can pass multiple objects to the add() method:

bar1 = Bar.objects.get(pk=1)
bar2 = Bar.objects.get(pk=2)
foo = Foo()
foo.save()
foo.bars.add(bar1, bar2)

As we can see, passing multiple objects saves one SELECT:

SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 1
SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 2
INSERT INTO "app_foo" ("name") VALUES ()
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (1, 2))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 1)
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 2)

I wasn’t aware that you can also assign a list of objects:

bar1 = Bar.objects.get(pk=1)
bar2 = Bar.objects.get(pk=2)
foo = Foo()
foo.save()
foo.bars = [bar1, bar2]

Unfortunately, that creates one additional SELECT:

SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 1
SELECT "app_bar"."id", "app_bar"."name" FROM "app_bar" WHERE "app_bar"."id" = 2
INSERT INTO "app_foo" ("name") VALUES ()
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."id", "app_foo_bars"."foo_id", "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE "app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (1, 2))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 1)
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 2)

Let’s try to assign a list of pks, as saverio suggested:

foo = Foo()
foo.save()
foo.bars = [1,2]

As we don’t fetch the two Bars, we save two SELECT statements, resulting in a total of 5:

INSERT INTO "app_foo" ("name") VALUES ()
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."id", "app_foo_bars"."foo_id", "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE "app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (1, 2))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 1)
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 2)

And the winner is:

foo = Foo()
foo.save()
foo.bars.add(1,2)

Passing pks to add() gives us a total of 4 queries:

INSERT INTO "app_foo" ("name") VALUES ()
SELECT "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" FROM "app_foo_bars" WHERE ("app_foo_bars"."foo_id" = 1  AND "app_foo_bars"."bar_id" IN (1, 2))
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 1)
INSERT INTO "app_foo_bars" ("foo_id", "bar_id") VALUES (1, 2)

More Related Contents:

  1. Convert Django Model object to dict with all of the fields intact
  2. What’s the difference between select_related and prefetch_related in Django ORM?
  3. Django Aggregation: Summation of Multiplication of two fields
  4. LEFT JOIN Django ORM
  5. Django Blob Model Field
  6. ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10:
  7. Datetime On Django on models?
  8. What is a “slug” in Django?
  9. Django. Override save for model
  10. Django – how to create a file and save it to a model’s FileField?
  11. How do I do a not equal in Django queryset filtering?
  12. Django: add image in an ImageField from image url
  13. Python script for Django app to access models without using manage.py shell
  14. Django signals vs. overriding save method
  15. How do I restrict foreign keys choices to related objects only in django
  16. Django self-referential foreign key
  17. Custom ordering in Django
  18. Django Model MultipleChoice
  19. How do I extend the Django Group model?
  20. Django values_list vs values
  21. ‘NOT NULL constraint failed’ after adding to models.py
  22. Why doesn’t django’s model.save() call full_clean()?
  23. “_set” in a queryset object in Django
  24. Nested inlines in the Django admin?
  25. Django – form.save() is not creating ModelForm
  26. What is the best way to access stored procedures in Django’s ORM
  27. QuerySet, Object has no attribute id – Django
  28. Django Multiple Databases – relation does not exist; LINE 1: SELECT COUNT(*) AS “__count” FROM
  29. Single Table Inheritance in Django
  30. Django admin: How to display the field marked as “editable=False” in the model?

Leave a Comment