Sequelize - order and exclude - node.js

Question

I have a table of items with foreign keys for two tables, and I try to do FindAll with order, limit, exclude and include, something like this:
Items.findAll({
order: [['creationDate', 'DESC']],
limit: 10,
include: [
{
model: Artists,
required: false,
attributes: ['id', 'name',]
},
{
model: Albums,
required: false,
},
],
attributes: { exclude: ['creationDate'] }
})
But I get an error:
DatabaseError [SequelizeDatabaseError]: (conn = 837, no: 1054, SQLState: 42S22) Unknown column 'Items.creationDate' in 'order clause'
If I delete this line:
attributes: { exclude: ['creationDate'] }
The error disappears.
What should I do to enable the query with the desired attributes?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

findAll with include tries to combine data from multiple tables. In SQL, Subqueries and JOIN both achieves this use case. However, there is a slight difference in how data is combined and that what you are seeing here. By default, Sequelize generates Subqueries for findAll + include and subQuery params is to tell Sequelize use Subquery (true) or JOIN (false).
For more about Subqueries vs JOIN: https://www.essentialsql.com/what-is-the-difference-between-a-join-and-subquery/#:~:text=Joins%20versus%20Subqueries,tables%20into%20a%20single%20result.&text=Subqueries%20can%20be%20used%20to,for%20use%20in%20a%20query
Back to Sequelize,
subQuery: true (default)
This will generate SQL like following
SELECT ...
FROM (SELECT ...(attributes except creationDate) FROM `Items` ...)
LEFT OUTER JOIN `Artists` ...
...
ORDER BY `Items`.`creationDate` DESC
LIMIT 10;
This SQL doesn't work, since nested Subquery is executed first and the Subquery is excluding creationDate and when main SQL with ORDER is executed, creationDate does not exist.
Then if you turn off Subquery.
subQuery: false
This will generate SQL like following
SELECT ... (Artist's, Album's attributes and Item's attributes except creationDate)
FROM `Items`
LEFT OUTER JOIN `Artists` ...
...
ORDER BY `Items`.`creationDate` DESC
LIMIT 10;
This will work because this won't filter attributes when ORDER is executed and exclude happens at top level.