db.models.F

class F [source]

An F() object represents the value of a model field or annotated column. It makes it possible to refer to model field values and perform database operations using them without actually having to pull them out of the database into Python memory.

Instead, Django uses the F() object to generate an SQL expression that describes the required operation at the database level.

This is easiest to understand through an example. Normally, one might do something like this:

# Tintin filed a news story!
reporter = Reporters.objects.get(name='Tintin')
reporter.stories_filed += 1
reporter.save()

Here, we have pulled the value of reporter.stories_filed from the database into memory and manipulated it using familiar Python operators, and then saved the object back to the database. But instead we could also have done:

from django.db.models import F

reporter = Reporters.objects.get(name='Tintin')
reporter.stories_filed = F('stories_filed') + 1
reporter.save()

Although reporter.stories_filed = F('stories_filed') + 1 looks like a normal Python assignment of value to an instance attribute, in fact it’s an SQL construct describing an operation on the database.

When Django encounters an instance of F(), it overrides the standard Python operators to create an encapsulated SQL expression; in this case, one which instructs the database to increment the database field represented by reporter.stories_filed.

Whatever value is or was on reporter.stories_filed, Python never gets to know about it - it is dealt with entirely by the database. All Python does, through Django’s F() class, is create the SQL syntax to refer to the field and describe the operation.

reporter = Reporters.objects.get(pk=reporter.pk)
# Or, more succinctly:
reporter.refresh_from_db()

As well as being used in operations on single instances as above, F() can be used on QuerySets of object instances, with update(). This reduces the two queries we were using above - the get() and the save() - to just one:

reporter = Reporters.objects.filter(name='Tintin')
reporter.update(stories_filed=F('stories_filed') + 1)

We can also use update() to increment the field value on multiple objects - which could be very much faster than pulling them all into Python from the database, looping over them, incrementing the field value of each one, and saving each one back to the database:

Reporter.objects.all().update(stories_filed=F('stories_filed') + 1)

F() therefore can offer performance advantages by:

• getting the database, rather than Python, to do work
• reducing the number of queries some operations require