ORM ordering vs Model "Meta" ordering - Django 1.11

Question

Small question - what is better way for ordering items:
1)

class Table(models.Model):
    ...
    class Meta:
        ordering = ['user']

2) Table.objects.all().order_by("user")

I think second is better cuz first always will return ordered querysets, and if sometimes we don't need order - it will take additional time? Are there any other reasons to use 1 approach, exсept convenience of "not-writing" .order_by("user") every time?

Answer 1

You are right, Meta Ordering does result in additional time if it is not required. The amount of extra overhead can vary depending on the ordering specified.

This is described in the docs here:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/ref/models/options/#ordering

In light of that, it becomes a design choice. If you always need the Model instances to be in the same order, such as an alphabetical list of product names for sale, then you may want Meta Ordering. If you are processing the Model instances in all kinds of different ways which require different ordering/filtering, then you probably wouldn't want to incur the overhead of Meta Ordering.