Using "extra fields" from django many-to-many relationships with extra fields

Question

Django docs provide this example of associating additional data with an M2M relationship. Although this is straightforward, now when I try to use additional data in my views, it feels very awkward (which usually means "I'm doing it wrong").

For example, using the models defined in the linked document above, I can do the following:

# Some people
ringo = Person.objects.create(name="Ringo Starr")
paul = Person.objects.create(name="Paul McCartney")
me = Person.objects.create(name="Me the rock Star")
# Some bands
beatles = Group.objects.create(name="The Beatles")
my_band = Group.objects.create(name="My Imaginary band")
# The Beatles form
m1 = Membership.objects.create(person=ringo, group=beatles,
    date_joined=date(1962, 8, 16),
    invite_reason= "Needed a new drummer.")
m2 = Membership.objects.create(person=paul, group=beatles,
    date_joined=date(1960, 8, 1),
    invite_reason= "Wanted to form a band.")
# My Imaginary band forms
m3 = Membership.objects.create(person=me, group=my_band,
    date_joined=date(1980, 10, 5),
    invite_reason= "Want to be a star.")
m4 = Membership.objects.create(person=paul, group=my_band,
    date_joined=date(1980, 10, 5),
    invite_reason= "Wanted to form a better band.")

Now, if I want to print a simple table that for each person gives the date they joined each group, at the moment I am doing this:

bands =  Group.objects.all().order_by('name')

for person in Person.objects.all():
    print person.name, 
    for band in bands:
        print band.name,
        try:
            m = person.membership_set.get(group=band.pk)
            print m.date_joined,
        except:
            print 'NA',
    print ""

, "m = person.membership_set.get(group = band.pk)". ?

, , (, ), - order_by, Person.objects.all(), ?

.

Answer 1

:

members = Membership.objects.select_related('person', 'group').all().order_by('date_joined')

for m in members:
    print m.band.name, m.person.name, m.date_joined

select_related , 1 + n , ORM .