Difference between filter and filter_by in SQLAlchemy

filter_by is used for simple queries on the column names using regular kwargs, like

db.users.filter_by(name='Joe')

The same can be accomplished with filter, not using kwargs, but instead using the '==' equality operator, which has been overloaded on the db.users.name object:

db.users.filter(db.users.name=='Joe')

You can also write more powerful queries using filter, such as expressions like:

db.users.filter(or_(db.users.name=='Ryan', db.users.country=='England'))

We actually had these merged together originally, i.e. there was a "filter"-like method that accepted *args and **kwargs, where you could pass a SQL expression or keyword arguments (or both). I actually find that a lot more convenient, but people were always confused by it, since they're usually still getting over the difference between column == expression and keyword = expression. So we split them up.

filter_by uses keyword arguments, whereas filter allows pythonic filtering arguments like filter(User.name=="john")

Apart from all the technical information posted before, there is a significant difference between filter() and filter_by() in its usability.

The second one, filter_by(), may be used only for filtering by something specifically stated - a string or some number value. So it's usable only for category filtering, not for expression filtering.

On the other hand filter() allows using comparison expressions (==, <, >, etc.) so it's helpful e.g. when 'less/more than' filtering is needed. But can be used like filter_by() as well (when == used).

Just to remember both functions have different syntax for argument typing.