django-queryset-feeler

Get a better feel for how your django views and serializers are accessing your app’s database. Use django-queryset-feeler (dqf) to measure the count, execution time, and raw SQL of your queries from the command line, ipython shell, or jupyter notebook without any configuration.

This extension is used differently than the popular django-debug-toolbar in a few ways. First, dqf can be used to profile more than just views. You can pass functions, querysets, model instances, views, class based views, and django-rest-framework serializers to dqf for profiling. Second, dqf profiles queries with only one object and can be used in the command line, ipython shell, or jupyter notebook. This is especially useful for prototyping or learning how django querysets are executed.

Usage

pip install django-queryset-feeler

from django_queryset_feeler import Feel

Create a Feel() instance by passing it any one of the following objects from your django project. No other configuration is required.

Query Type	About
Feel(view)	Execute a view using an empty HttpRequest. Add a request key word argument to supply your own request.
Feel(ClassBasedView)	Execute an eligible class based view using an empty HttpRequest with a GET method. Add a request key word argument to supply your own request.
Feel(serializer)	Execute a serializer on the model specified by the serializer's Meta class.
Feel(queryset)	Execute a queryset
Feel(model_instance)	Execute a model instance by calling it again from the database using .refresh_from_db()
Feel(function)	Execute a function

Profile your queries using any of the following properties.

Property	About
feel.query_time	Repeat the query 100 times (adjust iterations with the iterations key word argument) and return the average query duration in seconds.
feel.query_count	Execute the query and return the number of times that the database was accessed.
feel.sql_queries	Execute the query and return a formatted copy of the raw SQL.
feel.table_counts	Execute the query and return a dictionary containing each table and how many times it was accessed.
feel.report	Print the query time, count, and table count summary.

Example

The below example illustrates an easy to make django queryset mistake called an 'n + 1 query' and how to use dqf to find it.

project / app / models.py

class Topping(models.Model):
    name = CharField()
    vegetarian = BooleanField()

class Pizza(models.Model):
    name = CharField()
    toppings = ManyToManyField(Topping)

project / app / views.py

def pizza_list(request):
    pizzas = Pizza.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'pizza_list.html' context={'pizzas': pizzas})

project / app / templates / app / pizza_list.html

{% for pizza in pizzas %}
<tr>
    <td>{{ pizza.name }}</td>
    <td>
    {% for topping in pizza.toppings %}
        {{ topping.name }}
    {% endfor %}
    </td>
    <td>
    {% with last=pizza.toppings|dictsort:'vegetarian'|last %}
        {% if last.vegetarian %}
            🌱
        {% else %}
            🥩
        {% endif %}
    {% endwith %}
    </td>
<tr>
{% endfor %}

Pizza	Toppings
mediterranean	roasted eggplant, balsamic glaze	🌱
hawaiian	pineapple, smoked ham	🥩
meat lovers	pepperoni, andouille sausage, capicola	🥩

project / dqf.ipynb

Note that the DEBUG setting in project / settings.py must be True for dqf to work. DEBUG is enabled by default when you create a django project.

from django_queryset_feeler import Feel
from app.views import pizza_list

feel = Feel(pizza_list)

print(f'query count: {feel.query_count}')
print(f'average duration: {feel.duration} s')
print(feel.sql_queries)

'query count: 4'
'average duration: 0.00023 s'

SELECT "app_pizza"."id",
       "app_pizza"."name",
FROM "app_pizza"

SELECT "app_topping"."id",
       "app_topping"."name",
       "app_topping"."vegetarian"
FROM "app_topping"
WHERE "app_topping"."id" = '0'

SELECT "app_topping"."id",
       "app_topping"."name",
       "app_topping"."vegetarian"
FROM "app_topping"
WHERE "app_topping"."id" = '1'

SELECT "app_topping"."id",
       "app_topping"."name",
       "app_topping"."vegetarian"
FROM "app_topping"
WHERE "app_topping"."id" = '2'

In the above example django queried the database a total of 4 times: once to get a list of pizzas and then again for each pizza to find its toppings. As more pizzas are added to the menu n + 1 queries would be made to the database where n is the number of pizzas.

Note that even though the pizza's toppings are accessed once in column 2 for the name and again in column 3 to determine if the pizza is vegetarian the database is still accessed only once in this period. This is because after evaluation the results are stored in the queryset object and used for subsequent calls.

A more efficient way to render this template would be to fetch the list of pizzas and then query the toppings table once to get all the toppings for all the pizzas. Django makes this easy using prefetch_related().

project / app / views.py

def pizza_list(request):
    pizzas = Pizza.objects.all().prefetch_related('toppings')
    return render(request, 'pizza_list.html' context={'pizzas': pizzas})

project / dqf.ipynb

feel = Feel(pizza_list)
feel.report

     query count: 2         
average duration: 0.069 ms                
   unique tables: 2         
        accessed   

Run Django in a Jupyter Notebook

project / dqf.ipynb

# re-import modules when a cell is run. This ensures that changes made to
# the django app are synced with your notebook
%load_ext autoreload
%autoreload 2

import django
import os

# change 'project.settings' to '{your_project}.settings'
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'project.settings'
os.environ["DJANGO_ALLOW_ASYNC_UNSAFE"] = "true"
django.setup()