title: Django: use a chain or a new order number field for sorting a large set of items?
body: <p>I have a set of items that are due for people in a system and some items are in a checklist and others are just used for display. I want to get a list of items for display, and a list of items in order for a checklist report showing items still not completed. I was hoping to get some insight on performance and options for ordering items. I could a) add a field "order" as a positive integer and order them by that order number, or b) create a chain object where one item has a next link to the next item in the chain so I can iterate through rapidly.</p>
  
  <p>I guess the second option would require more overhead from the database since it would require a SQL call each time calling item.next, right? The benefit of making a chain would be in resorting the items when I need to make an ordering change.</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts on performance, and maintainability for which direction I should go? This is a general case question, would it generally be better to use SQL to get the ordering or create a data structure like a chain to iterate?</p>