difference between filter with multiple arguments and chain filter in django

Question

What is the difference between filter with multiple arguments and chain filter in django?

Answer 1

There is a difference when you have request to your related object, for example

class Book(models.Model):
    author = models.ForeignKey(Author)
    name = models.ForeignKey(Region)

class Author(models.Model):
    name = models.ForeignKey(Region)

request

Author.objects.filter(book_name='name1',book_name='name2')

returns empty set

and request

Author.objects.filter(book_name='name1').filter(book_name='name2')

returns authors that have books with both 'name1' and 'name2'

for details look at https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/queries/#s-spanning-multi-valued-relationships

Answer 2

As you can see in the generated SQL statements the difference is not the "OR" as some may suspect. It is how the WHERE and JOIN is placed.

Example1 (same joined table): from https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/db/queries/#spanning-multi-valued-relationships

Blog.objects.filter(
       entry__headline__contains='Lennon', 
       entry__pub_date__year=2008)

This will give you all the Blogs that have one entry with both (entry__headline__contains='Lennon') AND (entry__pub_date__year=2008), which is what you would expect from this query.

Result:

Blog with {entry.headline: 'Life of Lennon', entry.pub_date: '2008'}

Example 2 (chained)

Blog.objects.filter(
       entry__headline__contains='Lennon'
           ).filter(
       entry__pub_date__year=2008)

This will cover all the results from Example 1, but it will generate slightly more result. Because it first filters all the blogs with (entry__headline__contains='Lennon') and then from the result filters (entry__pub_date__year=2008).

The difference is that it will also give you results like:

A single Blog with multiple entries

{entry.headline: '**Lennon**', entry.pub_date: 2000}, 
{entry.headline: 'Bill', entry.pub_date: **2008**}

When the first filter was evaluated the book is included because of the first entry (even though it has other entries that don't match). When the second filter is evaluated the book is included because of the second entry.

One table: But if the query doesn't involve joined tables like the example from Yuji and DTing. The result is same.

Answer 3

The performance difference is huge. Try it and see.

Model.objects.filter(condition_a).filter(condition_b).filter(condition_c)

is surprisingly slow compared to

Model.objects.filter(condition_a, condition_b, condition_c)

As mentioned in Effective Django ORM,

• QuerySets maintain state in memory
• Chaining triggers cloning, duplicating that state
• Unfortunately, QuerySets maintain a lot of state
• If possible, don’t chain more than one filter