sqlalchemy.orm.util.AliasedClass

Represents an "aliased" form of a mapped class for usage with Query. The ORM equivalent of a :func:`~sqlalchemy.sql.expression.alias` construct, this object mimics the mapped class using a ``__getattr__`` scheme and maintains a reference to a real :class:`~sqlalchemy.sql.expression.Alias` object. A primary purpose of :class:`.AliasedClass` is to serve as an alternate within a SQL statement generated by the ORM, such that an existing mapped entity can be used in multiple contexts. A simple example:: # find all pairs of users with the same name user_alias = aliased(User) session.query(User, user_alias).\ join((user_alias, User.id > user_alias.id)).\ filter(User.name == user_alias.name) :class:`.AliasedClass` is also capable of mapping an existing mapped class to an entirely new selectable, provided this selectable is column- compatible with the existing mapped selectable, and it can also be configured in a mapping as the target of a :func:`_orm.relationship`. See the links below for examples. The :class:`.AliasedClass` object is constructed typically using the :func:`_orm.aliased` function. It also is produced with additional configuration when using the :func:`_orm.with_polymorphic` function. The resulting object is an instance of :class:`.AliasedClass`. This object implements an attribute scheme which produces the same attribute and method interface as the original mapped class, allowing :class:`.AliasedClass` to be compatible with any attribute technique which works on the original class, including hybrid attributes (see :ref:`hybrids_toplevel`). The :class:`.AliasedClass` can be inspected for its underlying :class:`_orm.Mapper`, aliased selectable, and other information using :func:`_sa.inspect`:: from sqlalchemy import inspect my_alias = aliased(MyClass) insp = inspect(my_alias) The resulting inspection object is an instance of :class:`.AliasedInsp`. .. seealso:: :func:`.aliased` :func:`.with_polymorphic` :ref:`relationship_aliased_class` :ref:`relationship_to_window_function`