I'm switching from PHP to Django/Python, and one thing I don't really like about django so far is the ORM. When inserting new rows, it's fine, but when I want to SELECT something more specific, I find that the ORM is more troublesome than pure SQL, specially since I already know SQL quite well.
So, can I write pure SQL in Django, or I am forced to use the ORM?
If it's possible, examples on how to use SQL in django would be very welcome.
Yes! You can.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/db/sql/
From Django's awesome documentation;
There are two ways;
using a manager method raw()
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/db/sql/#performing-raw-queries
class Person(models.Model):
first_name = models.CharField(...)
last_name = models.CharField(...)
birth_date = models.DateField(...)
You could then execute custom SQL like so:
>>> for p in Person.objects.raw('SELECT * FROM myapp_person'):
... print(p)
John Smith
Jane Jones
Use the following method to pass parameters.
>>> lname = 'Doe'
>>> Person.objects.raw('SELECT * FROM myapp_person WHERE last_name = %s', [lname])
Executing custom SQL directly.
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/db/sql/#executing-custom-sql-directly
from django.db import connection
def my_custom_sql(self):
cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.execute("UPDATE bar SET foo = 1 WHERE baz = %s", [self.baz])
cursor.execute("SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE baz = %s", [self.baz])
row = cursor.fetchone()
return row
yes, it is. Suppose you have a model like this:
class Foo(models.Model):
bar = models.CharField('bar', max_length=32)
you could write
Foo.objects.raw("SELECT bar from appname__foo LIMIT 5;")
or whatever SQL you like. the key is to use models.Model.objects.raw method.
It is up to you to make sure the query returns Foo objects though
.raw()? That should be what you're looking for. See docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/sql