Preloading (Eager Loading)

Preload

GORM allows eager loading relations in other SQL with Preload, for example:

type User struct {
gorm.Model
Username string
Orders []Order
}

type Order struct {
gorm.Model
UserID uint
Price float64
}

// Preload Orders when find users
db.Preload("Orders").Find(&users)
// SELECT * FROM users;
// SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (1,2,3,4);

db.Preload("Orders").Preload("Profile").Preload("Role").Find(&users)
// SELECT * FROM users;
// SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (1,2,3,4); // has many
// SELECT * FROM profiles WHERE user_id IN (1,2,3,4); // has one
// SELECT * FROM roles WHERE id IN (4,5,6); // belongs to

Joins Preloading

Preload loads the association data in a separate query, Join Preload will loads association data using left join, for example:

db.Joins("Company").Joins("Manager").Joins("Account").First(&user, 1)
db.Joins("Company").Joins("Manager").Joins("Account").First(&user, "users.name = ?", "jinzhu")
db.Joins("Company").Joins("Manager").Joins("Account").Find(&users, "users.id IN ?", []int{1,2,3,4,5})

Join with conditions

db.Joins("Company", DB.Where(&Company{Alive: true})).Find(&users)
// SELECT `users`.`id`,`users`.`name`,`users`.`age`,`Company`.`id` AS `Company__id`,`Company`.`name` AS `Company__name` FROM `users` LEFT JOIN `companies` AS `Company` ON `users`.`company_id` = `Company`.`id` AND `Company`.`alive` = true;

Join nested model

db.Joins("Manager").Joins("Manager.Company").Find(&users)
// SELECT "users"."id","users"."created_at","users"."updated_at","users"."deleted_at","users"."name","users"."age","users"."birthday","users"."company_id","users"."manager_id","users"."active","Manager"."id" AS "Manager__id","Manager"."created_at" AS "Manager__created_at","Manager"."updated_at" AS "Manager__updated_at","Manager"."deleted_at" AS "Manager__deleted_at","Manager"."name" AS "Manager__name","Manager"."age" AS "Manager__age","Manager"."birthday" AS "Manager__birthday","Manager"."company_id" AS "Manager__company_id","Manager"."manager_id" AS "Manager__manager_id","Manager"."active" AS "Manager__active","Manager__Company"."id" AS "Manager__Company__id","Manager__Company"."name" AS "Manager__Company__name" FROM "users" LEFT JOIN "users" "Manager" ON "users"."manager_id" = "Manager"."id" AND "Manager"."deleted_at" IS NULL LEFT JOIN "companies" "Manager__Company" ON "Manager"."company_id" = "Manager__Company"."id" WHERE "users"."deleted_at" IS NULL

NOTE Join Preload works with one-to-one relation, e.g: has one, belongs to

Preload All

clause.Associations can work with Preload similar like Select when creating/updating, you can use it to Preload all associations, for example:

type User struct {
gorm.Model
Name string
CompanyID uint
Company Company
Role Role
Orders []Order
}

db.Preload(clause.Associations).Find(&users)

clause.Associations won’t preload nested associations, but you can use it with Nested Preloading together, e.g:

db.Preload("Orders.OrderItems.Product").Preload(clause.Associations).Find(&users)

Preload with conditions

GORM allows Preload associations with conditions, it works similar to Inline Conditions

// Preload Orders with conditions
db.Preload("Orders", "state NOT IN (?)", "cancelled").Find(&users)
// SELECT * FROM users;
// SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (1,2,3,4) AND state NOT IN ('cancelled');

db.Where("state = ?", "active").Preload("Orders", "state NOT IN (?)", "cancelled").Find(&users)
// SELECT * FROM users WHERE state = 'active';
// SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (1,2) AND state NOT IN ('cancelled');

Custom Preloading SQL

You are able to custom preloading SQL by passing in func(db *gorm.DB) *gorm.DB, for example:

db.Preload("Orders", func(db *gorm.DB) *gorm.DB {
return db.Order("orders.amount DESC")
}).Find(&users)
// SELECT * FROM users;
// SELECT * FROM orders WHERE user_id IN (1,2,3,4) order by orders.amount DESC;

Nested Preloading

GORM supports nested preloading, for example:

db.Preload("Orders.OrderItems.Product").Preload("CreditCard").Find(&users)

// Customize Preload conditions for `Orders`
// And GORM won't preload unmatched order's OrderItems then
db.Preload("Orders", "state = ?", "paid").Preload("Orders.OrderItems").Find(&users)

Embedded Preloading

Embedded Preloading is used for Embedded Struct, especially the same struct. The syntax for Embedded Preloading is similar to Nested Preloading, they are divided by dot.

For example:

type Address struct {
CountryID int
Country Country
}

type Org struct {
PostalAddress Address `gorm:"embedded;embeddedPrefix:postal_address_"`
VisitingAddress Address `gorm:"embedded;embeddedPrefix:visiting_address_"`
Address struct {
ID int
Address
}
}

// Only preload Org.Address and Org.Address.Country
db.Preload("Address.Country") // "Address" is has_one, "Country" is belongs_to (nested association)

// Only preload Org.VisitingAddress
db.Preload("PostalAddress.Country") // "PostalAddress.Country" is belongs_to (embedded association)

// Only preload Org.NestedAddress
db.Preload("NestedAddress.Address.Country") // "NestedAddress.Address.Country" is belongs_to (embedded association)

// All preloaded include "Address" but exclude "Address.Country", because it won't preload nested associations.
db.Preload(clause.Associations)

We can omit embedded part when there is no ambiguity.

type Address struct {
CountryID int
Country Country
}

type Org struct {
Address Address `gorm:"embedded"`
}

db.Preload("Address.Country")
db.Preload("Country") // omit "Address" because there is no ambiguity

NOTE Embedded Preload only works with belongs to relation. Values of other relations are the same in database, we can’t distinguish them.

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors