Model field reference¶
This document contains all the API references ofField including thefield options andfield types Django offers.
See also
If the built-in fields don’t do the trick, you can trydjango-localflavor (documentation), which contains assortedpieces of code that are useful for particular countries and cultures.
Also, you can easilywrite your own custom model fields.
Note
Technically, these models are defined indjango.db.models.fields, butfor convenience they’re imported intodjango.db.models; the standardconvention is to usefromdjango.dbimportmodels and refer to fields asmodels.<Foo>Field.
Field options¶
The following arguments are available to all field types. All are optional.
null¶
Field.null¶
IfTrue, Django will store empty values asNULL in the database. DefaultisFalse.
Avoid usingnull on string-based fields such asCharField andTextField. If a string-based field hasnull=True, that means it has two possible values for “no data”:NULL,and the empty string. In most cases, it’s redundant to have two possible valuesfor “no data;” the Django convention is to use the empty string, notNULL. One exception is when aCharField has bothunique=Trueandblank=True set. In this situation,null=True is required to avoidunique constraint violations when saving multiple objects with blank values.
For both string-based and non-string-based fields, you will also need tosetblank=True if you wish to permit empty values in forms, as thenull parameter only affects database storage(seeblank).
Note
When using the Oracle database backend, the valueNULL will be stored todenote the empty string regardless of this attribute.
blank¶
Field.blank¶
IfTrue, the field is allowed to be blank. Default isFalse.
Note that this is different thannull.null ispurely database-related, whereasblank is validation-related. Ifa field hasblank=True, form validation will allow entry of an empty value.If a field hasblank=False, the field will be required.
choices¶
Field.choices¶
An iterable (e.g., a list or tuple) consisting itself of iterables of exactlytwo items (e.g.[(A,B),(A,B)...]) to use as choices for this field. Ifchoices are given, they’re enforced bymodel validation and the default form widget will be a select box withthese choices instead of the standard text field.
The first element in each tuple is the actual value to be set on the model,and the second element is the human-readable name. For example:
YEAR_IN_SCHOOL_CHOICES=(('FR','Freshman'),('SO','Sophomore'),('JR','Junior'),('SR','Senior'),)
Generally, it’s best to define choices inside a model class, and todefine a suitably-named constant for each value:
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassStudent(models.Model):FRESHMAN='FR'SOPHOMORE='SO'JUNIOR='JR'SENIOR='SR'YEAR_IN_SCHOOL_CHOICES=((FRESHMAN,'Freshman'),(SOPHOMORE,'Sophomore'),(JUNIOR,'Junior'),(SENIOR,'Senior'),)year_in_school=models.CharField(max_length=2,choices=YEAR_IN_SCHOOL_CHOICES,default=FRESHMAN,)defis_upperclass(self):returnself.year_in_schoolin(self.JUNIOR,self.SENIOR)
Though you can define a choices list outside of a model class and thenrefer to it, defining the choices and names for each choice inside themodel class keeps all of that information with the class that uses it,and makes the choices easy to reference (e.g,Student.SOPHOMOREwill work anywhere that theStudent model has been imported).
You can also collect your available choices into named groups that canbe used for organizational purposes:
MEDIA_CHOICES=(('Audio',(('vinyl','Vinyl'),('cd','CD'),)),('Video',(('vhs','VHS Tape'),('dvd','DVD'),)),('unknown','Unknown'),)
The first element in each tuple is the name to apply to the group. Thesecond element is an iterable of 2-tuples, with each 2-tuple containinga value and a human-readable name for an option. Grouped options may becombined with ungrouped options within a single list (such as theunknown option in this example).
For each model field that haschoices set, Django will add amethod to retrieve the human-readable name for the field’s current value. Seeget_FOO_display() in the database APIdocumentation.
Note that choices can be any iterable object – not necessarily a list or tuple.This lets you construct choices dynamically. But if you find yourself hackingchoices to be dynamic, you’re probably better off using a properdatabase table with aForeignKey.choices is meant forstatic data that doesn’t change much, if ever.
Unlessblank=False is set on the field along with adefault then a label containing"---------" will be renderedwith the select box. To override this behavior, add a tuple tochoicescontainingNone; e.g.(None,'YourStringForDisplay').Alternatively, you can use an empty string instead ofNone where this makessense - such as on aCharField.
db_column¶
Field.db_column¶
The name of the database column to use for this field. If this isn’t given,Django will use the field’s name.
If your database column name is an SQL reserved word, or containscharacters that aren’t allowed in Python variable names – notably, thehyphen – that’s OK. Django quotes column and table names behind thescenes.
db_tablespace¶
Field.db_tablespace¶
The name of thedatabase tablespace to use forthis field’s index, if this field is indexed. The default is the project’sDEFAULT_INDEX_TABLESPACE setting, if set, or thedb_tablespace of the model, if any. If the backend doesn’tsupport tablespaces for indexes, this option is ignored.
default¶
Field.default¶
The default value for the field. This can be a value or a callable object. Ifcallable it will be called every time a new object is created.
The default can’t be a mutable object (model instance,list,set, etc.),as a reference to the same instance of that object would be used as the defaultvalue in all new model instances. Instead, wrap the desired default in acallable. For example, if you want to specify a defaultdict forJSONField, use a function:
defcontact_default():return{"email":"to1@example.com"}contact_info=JSONField("ContactInfo",default=contact_default)
lambdas can’t be used for field options likedefault because theycan’t beserialized by migrations. See thatdocumentation for other caveats.
For fields likeForeignKey that map to model instances, defaultsshould be the value of the field they reference (pk unlessto_field is set) instead of model instances.
The default value is used when new model instances are created and a valueisn’t provided for the field. When the field is a primary key, the default isalso used when the field is set toNone.
editable¶
Field.editable¶
IfFalse, the field will not be displayed in the admin or any otherModelForm. They are also skipped duringmodelvalidation. Default isTrue.
error_messages¶
Field.error_messages¶
Theerror_messages argument lets you override the default messages that thefield will raise. Pass in a dictionary with keys matching the error messages youwant to override.
Error message keys includenull,blank,invalid,invalid_choice,unique, andunique_for_date. Additional error message keys arespecified for each field in theField types section below.
These error messages often don’t propagate to forms. SeeConsiderations regarding model’s error_messages.
help_text¶
Field.help_text¶
Extra “help” text to be displayed with the form widget. It’s useful fordocumentation even if your field isn’t used on a form.
Note that this value isnot HTML-escaped in automatically-generatedforms. This lets you include HTML inhelp_text if you sodesire. For example:
help_text="Please use the following format: <em>YYYY-MM-DD</em>."
Alternatively you can use plain text anddjango.utils.html.escape() to escape any HTML special characters. Ensurethat you escape any help text that may come from untrusted users to avoid across-site scripting attack.
primary_key¶
Field.primary_key¶
IfTrue, this field is the primary key for the model.
If you don’t specifyprimary_key=True for any field in your model, Djangowill automatically add anAutoField to hold the primary key, so youdon’t need to setprimary_key=True on any of your fields unless you want tooverride the default primary-key behavior. For more, seeAutomatic primary key fields.
primary_key=True impliesnull=False andunique=True. Only one primary key is allowed on anobject.
The primary key field is read-only. If you change the value of the primarykey on an existing object and then save it, a new object will be createdalongside the old one.
unique¶
Field.unique¶
IfTrue, this field must be unique throughout the table.
This is enforced at the database level and by model validation. Ifyou try to save a model with a duplicate value in auniquefield, adjango.db.IntegrityError will be raised by the model’ssave() method.
This option is valid on all field types exceptManyToManyField andOneToOneField.
Note that whenunique isTrue, you don’t need to specifydb_index, becauseunique implies the creation of an index.
unique_for_date¶
Field.unique_for_date¶
Set this to the name of aDateField orDateTimeField torequire that this field be unique for the value of the date field.
For example, if you have a fieldtitle that hasunique_for_date="pub_date", then Django wouldn’t allow the entry of tworecords with the sametitle andpub_date.
Note that if you set this to point to aDateTimeField, only the dateportion of the field will be considered. Besides, whenUSE_TZ isTrue, the check will be performed in thecurrent time zone at the time the object gets saved.
This is enforced byModel.validate_unique() during model validationbut not at the database level. If anyunique_for_date constraintinvolves fields that are not part of aModelForm (forexample, if one of the fields is listed inexclude or haseditable=False),Model.validate_unique() willskip validation for that particular constraint.
unique_for_month¶
Field.unique_for_month¶
Likeunique_for_date, but requires the field to be unique withrespect to the month.
verbose_name¶
Field.verbose_name¶
A human-readable name for the field. If the verbose name isn’t given, Djangowill automatically create it using the field’s attribute name, convertingunderscores to spaces. SeeVerbose field names.
validators¶
Field.validators¶
A list of validators to run for this field. See thevalidatorsdocumentation for more information.
Registering and fetching lookups¶
Field implements thelookup registration API.The API can be used to customize which lookups are available for a field class, andhow lookups are fetched from a field.
Field types¶
AutoField¶
AnIntegerField that automatically incrementsaccording to available IDs. You usually won’t need to use this directly; aprimary key field will automatically be added to your model if you don’t specifyotherwise. SeeAutomatic primary key fields.
BigAutoField¶
A 64-bit integer, much like anAutoField except that it isguaranteed to fit numbers from1 to9223372036854775807.
BigIntegerField¶
A 64-bit integer, much like anIntegerField except that it isguaranteed to fit numbers from-9223372036854775808 to9223372036854775807. The default form widget for this field is aTextInput.
BinaryField¶
A field to store raw binary data. It can be assignedbytes,bytearray, ormemoryview.
By default,BinaryField setseditable toFalse, in whichcase it can’t be included in aModelForm.
Older versions don’t allow settingeditable toTrue.
BinaryField has one extra optional argument:
BinaryField.max_length¶The maximum length (in characters) of the field. The maximum length isenforced in Django’s validation using
MaxLengthValidator.
AbusingBinaryField
Although you might think about storing files in the database, consider thatit is bad design in 99% of the cases. This field isnot a replacement forproperstatic files handling.
BooleanField¶
A true/false field.
The default form widget for this field isCheckboxInput,orNullBooleanSelect ifnull=True.
The default value ofBooleanField isNone whenField.defaultisn’t defined.
In older versions, this field doesn’t permitnull=True, so you have touseNullBooleanField instead. Using the latter is now discouragedas it’s likely to be deprecated in a future version of Django.
In older versions, this field hasblank=Trueimplicitly. You can restore the previous behavior by settingblank=True.
CharField¶
A string field, for small- to large-sized strings.
For large amounts of text, useTextField.
The default form widget for this field is aTextInput.
CharField has one extra required argument:
CharField.max_length¶The maximum length (in characters) of the field. The max_length is enforcedat the database level and in Django’s validation using
MaxLengthValidator.
Note
If you are writing an application that must be portable to multipledatabase backends, you should be aware that there are restrictions onmax_length for some backends. Refer to thedatabase backendnotes for details.
DateField¶
A date, represented in Python by adatetime.date instance. Has a few extra,optional arguments:
DateField.auto_now¶Automatically set the field to now every time the object is saved. Usefulfor “last-modified” timestamps. Note that the current date isalwaysused; it’s not just a default value that you can override.
The field is only automatically updated when calling
Model.save(). The field isn’t updated when making updatesto other fields in other ways such asQuerySet.update(), though you can specify a customvalue for the field in an update like that.
DateField.auto_now_add¶Automatically set the field to now when the object is first created. Usefulfor creation of timestamps. Note that the current date isalways used;it’s not just a default value that you can override. So even if youset a value for this field when creating the object, it will be ignored.If you want to be able to modify this field, set the following instead of
auto_now_add=True:- For
DateField:default=date.today- fromdatetime.date.today() - For
DateTimeField:default=timezone.now- fromdjango.utils.timezone.now()
- For
The default form widget for this field is aTextInput. The admin adds a JavaScript calendar,and a shortcut for “Today”. Includes an additionalinvalid_date errormessage key.
The optionsauto_now_add,auto_now, anddefault are mutually exclusive.Any combination of these options will result in an error.
Note
As currently implemented, settingauto_now orauto_now_add toTrue will cause the field to haveeditable=False andblank=Trueset.
Note
Theauto_now andauto_now_add options will always use the date inthedefault timezone at the moment ofcreation or update. If you need something different, you may want toconsider simply using your own callable default or overridingsave()instead of usingauto_now orauto_now_add; or using aDateTimeField instead of aDateField and deciding how to handle theconversion from datetime to date at display time.
DateTimeField¶
A date and time, represented in Python by adatetime.datetime instance.Takes the same extra arguments asDateField.
The default form widget for this field is a singleTextInput. The admin uses two separateTextInput widgets with JavaScript shortcuts.
DecimalField¶
A fixed-precision decimal number, represented in Python by aDecimal instance. It validates the input usingDecimalValidator.
Has tworequired arguments:
DecimalField.max_digits¶The maximum number of digits allowed in the number. Note that this numbermust be greater than or equal to
decimal_places.
DecimalField.decimal_places¶The number of decimal places to store with the number.
For example, to store numbers up to999 with a resolution of 2 decimalplaces, you’d use:
models.DecimalField(...,max_digits=5,decimal_places=2)
And to store numbers up to approximately one billion with a resolution of 10decimal places:
models.DecimalField(...,max_digits=19,decimal_places=10)
The default form widget for this field is aNumberInputwhenlocalize isFalse orTextInput otherwise.
Note
For more information about the differences between theFloatField andDecimalField classes, pleaseseeFloatField vs. DecimalField.
DurationField¶
A field for storing periods of time - modeled in Python bytimedelta. When used on PostgreSQL, the data typeused is aninterval and on Oracle the data type isINTERVALDAY(9)TOSECOND(6). Otherwise abigint of microseconds is used.
Note
Arithmetic withDurationField works in most cases. However on alldatabases other than PostgreSQL, comparing the value of aDurationFieldto arithmetic onDateTimeField instances will not work as expected.
EmailField¶
ACharField that checks that the value is a valid email address usingEmailValidator.
FileField¶
A file-upload field.
Note
Theprimary_key argument isn’t supported and will raise an error ifused.
Has two optional arguments:
FileField.upload_to¶This attribute provides a way of setting the upload directory and file name,and can be set in two ways. In both cases, the value is passed to the
Storage.save()method.If you specify a string value, it may contain
strftime()formatting, which will be replaced by the date/time of the file upload (sothat uploaded files don’t fill up the given directory). For example:classMyModel(models.Model):# file will be uploaded to MEDIA_ROOT/uploadsupload=models.FileField(upload_to='uploads/')# or...# file will be saved to MEDIA_ROOT/uploads/2015/01/30upload=models.FileField(upload_to='uploads/%Y/%m/%d/')
If you are using the default
FileSystemStorage, the string valuewill be appended to yourMEDIA_ROOTpath to form the location onthe local filesystem where uploaded files will be stored. If you are usinga different storage, check that storage’s documentation to see how ithandlesupload_to.upload_tomay also be a callable, such as a function. This will becalled to obtain the upload path, including the filename. This callable mustaccept two arguments and return a Unix-style path (with forward slashes)to be passed along to the storage system. The two arguments are:Argument Description instanceAn instance of the model where the
FileFieldis defined. More specifically,this is the particular instance where thecurrent file is being attached.In most cases, this object will not have beensaved to the database yet, so if it uses thedefault
AutoField,it might not yet have avalue for its primary key field.filenameThe filename that was originally given to thefile. This may or may not be taken into accountwhen determining the final destination path. For example:
defuser_directory_path(instance,filename):# file will be uploaded to MEDIA_ROOT/user_<id>/<filename>return'user_{0}/{1}'.format(instance.user.id,filename)classMyModel(models.Model):upload=models.FileField(upload_to=user_directory_path)
FileField.storage¶A storage object, which handles the storage and retrieval of yourfiles. SeeManaging files for details on how to provide this object.
The default form widget for this field is aClearableFileInput.
Using aFileField or anImageField (see below) in a modeltakes a few steps:
- In your settings file, you’ll need to define
MEDIA_ROOTas thefull path to a directory where you’d like Django to store uploaded files.(For performance, these files are not stored in the database.) DefineMEDIA_URLas the base public URL of that directory. Make surethat this directory is writable by the Web server’s user account. - Add the
FileFieldorImageFieldto your model, definingtheupload_tooption to specify a subdirectory ofMEDIA_ROOTto use for uploaded files. - All that will be stored in your database is a path to the file(relative to
MEDIA_ROOT). You’ll most likely want to use theconvenienceurlattributeprovided by Django. For example, if yourImageFieldis calledmug_shot, you can get the absolute path to your image in a template with{{object.mug_shot.url}}.
For example, say yourMEDIA_ROOT is set to'/home/media', andupload_to is set to'photos/%Y/%m/%d'. The'%Y/%m/%d'part ofupload_to isstrftime() formatting;'%Y' is the four-digit year,'%m' is the two-digit month and'%d' isthe two-digit day. If you upload a file on Jan. 15, 2007, it will be saved inthe directory/home/media/photos/2007/01/15.
If you wanted to retrieve the uploaded file’s on-disk filename, or the file’ssize, you could use thename andsize attributes respectively; for moreinformation on the available attributes and methods, see theFile class reference and theManaging filestopic guide.
Note
The file is saved as part of saving the model in the database, so the actualfile name used on disk cannot be relied on until after the model has beensaved.
The uploaded file’s relative URL can be obtained using theurl attribute. Internally,this calls theurl() method of theunderlyingStorage class.
Note that whenever you deal with uploaded files, you should pay close attentionto where you’re uploading them and what type of files they are, to avoidsecurity holes.Validate all uploaded files so that you’re sure the files arewhat you think they are. For example, if you blindly let somebody upload files,without validation, to a directory that’s within your Web server’s documentroot, then somebody could upload a CGI or PHP script and execute that script byvisiting its URL on your site. Don’t allow that.
Also note that even an uploaded HTML file, since it can be executed by thebrowser (though not by the server), can pose security threats that areequivalent to XSS or CSRF attacks.
FileField instances are created in your database asvarcharcolumns with a default max length of 100 characters. As with other fields, youcan change the maximum length using themax_length argument.
FileField andFieldFile¶
When you access aFileField on a model, you aregiven an instance ofFieldFile as a proxy for accessing the underlyingfile.
The API ofFieldFile mirrors that ofFile,with one key difference:The object wrapped by the class is not necessarily awrapper around Python’s built-in file object. Instead, it is a wrapper aroundthe result of theStorage.open()method, which may be aFile object, or it may be acustom storage’s implementation of theFile API.
In addition to the API inherited fromFile such asread() andwrite(),FieldFile includes several methods thatcan be used to interact with the underlying file:
Warning
Two methods of this class,save() anddelete(), default to saving the model object of theassociatedFieldFile in the database.
FieldFile.name¶
The name of the file including the relative path from the root of theStorage of the associatedFileField.
FieldFile.size¶
The result of the underlyingStorage.size() method.
FieldFile.url¶
A read-only property to access the file’s relative URL by calling theurl() method of the underlyingStorage class.
Opens or reopens the file associated with this instance in the specifiedmode. Unlike the standard Pythonopen() method, it doesn’t return afile descriptor.
Since the underlying file is opened implicitly when accessing it, it may beunnecessary to call this method except to reset the pointer to the underlyingfile or to change themode.
Behaves like the standard Pythonfile.close() method and closes the fileassociated with this instance.
This method takes a filename and file contents and passes them to the storageclass for the field, then associates the stored file with the model field.If you want to manually associate file data withFileField instances on your model, thesave()method is used to persist that file data.
Takes two required arguments:name which is the name of the file, andcontent which is an object containing the file’s contents. Theoptionalsave argument controls whether or not the model instance issaved after the file associated with this field has been altered. Defaults toTrue.
Note that thecontent argument should be an instance ofdjango.core.files.File, not Python’s built-in file object.You can construct aFile from an existingPython file object like this:
fromdjango.core.filesimportFile# Open an existing file using Python's built-in open()f=open('/path/to/hello.world')myfile=File(f)
Or you can construct one from a Python string like this:
fromdjango.core.files.baseimportContentFilemyfile=ContentFile("hello world")
For more information, seeManaging files.
Deletes the file associated with this instance and clears all attributes onthe field. Note: This method will close the file if it happens to be open whendelete() is called.
The optionalsave argument controls whether or not the model instance issaved after the file associated with this field has been deleted. Defaults toTrue.
Note that when a model is deleted, related files are not deleted. If you needto cleanup orphaned files, you’ll need to handle it yourself (for instance,with a custom management command that can be run manually or scheduled to runperiodically via e.g. cron).
FilePathField¶
ACharField whose choices are limited to the filenames in a certaindirectory on the filesystem. Has three special arguments, of which the first isrequired:
FilePathField.path¶Required. The absolute filesystem path to a directory from which this
FilePathFieldshould get its choices. Example:"/home/images".
FilePathField.match¶Optional. A regular expression, as a string, that
FilePathFieldwill use to filter filenames. Note that the regex will be applied to thebase filename, not the full path. Example:"foo.*\.txt$", which willmatch a file calledfoo23.txtbut notbar.txtorfoo23.png.
FilePathField.recursive¶Optional. Either
TrueorFalse. Default isFalse. Specifieswhether all subdirectories ofpathshould be included
FilePathField.allow_files¶Optional. Either
TrueorFalse. Default isTrue. Specifieswhether files in the specified location should be included. Either this orallow_foldersmust beTrue.
FilePathField.allow_folders¶Optional. Either
TrueorFalse. Default isFalse. Specifieswhether folders in the specified location should be included. Either thisorallow_filesmust beTrue.
Of course, these arguments can be used together.
The one potential gotcha is thatmatch applies to thebase filename, not the full path. So, this example:
FilePathField(path="/home/images",match="foo.*",recursive=True)
…will match/home/images/foo.png but not/home/images/foo/bar.pngbecause thematch applies to the base filename(foo.png andbar.png).
FilePathField instances are created in your database asvarcharcolumns with a default max length of 100 characters. As with other fields, youcan change the maximum length using themax_length argument.
FloatField¶
A floating-point number represented in Python by afloat instance.
The default form widget for this field is aNumberInputwhenlocalize isFalse orTextInput otherwise.
FloatField vs.DecimalField
TheFloatField class is sometimes mixed up with theDecimalField class. Although they both represent real numbers, theyrepresent those numbers differently.FloatField uses Python’sfloattype internally, whileDecimalField uses Python’sDecimal type. Forinformation on the difference between the two, see Python’s documentationfor thedecimal module.
ImageField¶
- class
ImageField(upload_to=None,height_field=None,width_field=None,max_length=100,**options)[source]¶
Inherits all attributes and methods fromFileField, but alsovalidates that the uploaded object is a valid image.
In addition to the special attributes that are available forFileField,anImageField also hasheight andwidth attributes.
To facilitate querying on those attributes,ImageField has two extraoptional arguments:
ImageField.height_field¶Name of a model field which will be auto-populated with the height of theimage each time the model instance is saved.
ImageField.width_field¶Name of a model field which will be auto-populated with the width of theimage each time the model instance is saved.
Requires thePillow library.
ImageField instances are created in your database asvarcharcolumns with a default max length of 100 characters. As with other fields, youcan change the maximum length using themax_length argument.
The default form widget for this field is aClearableFileInput.
IntegerField¶
An integer. Values from-2147483648 to2147483647 are safe in alldatabases supported by Django.
It usesMinValueValidator andMaxValueValidator to validate the input basedon the values that the default database supports.
The default form widget for this field is aNumberInputwhenlocalize isFalse orTextInput otherwise.
GenericIPAddressField¶
An IPv4 or IPv6 address, in string format (e.g.192.0.2.30 or2a02:42fe::4). The default form widget for this field is aTextInput.
The IPv6 address normalization followsRFC 4291#section-2.2 section 2.2,including using the IPv4 format suggested in paragraph 3 of that section, like::ffff:192.0.2.0. For example,2001:0::0:01 would be normalized to2001::1, and::ffff:0a0a:0a0a to::ffff:10.10.10.10. All charactersare converted to lowercase.
GenericIPAddressField.protocol¶Limits valid inputs to the specified protocol.Accepted values are
'both'(default),'IPv4'or'IPv6'. Matching is case insensitive.
GenericIPAddressField.unpack_ipv4¶Unpacks IPv4 mapped addresses like
::ffff:192.0.2.1.If this option is enabled that address would be unpacked to192.0.2.1. Default is disabled. Can only be usedwhenprotocolis set to'both'.
If you allow for blank values, you have to allow for null values since blankvalues are stored as null.
NullBooleanField¶
LikeBooleanField withnull=True. Use that instead of this fieldas it’s likely to be deprecated in a future version of Django.
PositiveIntegerField¶
Like anIntegerField, but must be either positive or zero (0).Values from0 to2147483647 are safe in all databases supported byDjango. The value0 is accepted for backward compatibility reasons.
PositiveSmallIntegerField¶
Like aPositiveIntegerField, but only allows values under a certain(database-dependent) point. Values from0 to32767 are safe in alldatabases supported by Django.
SlugField¶
Slug is a newspaper term. A slug is a short label for something,containing only letters, numbers, underscores or hyphens. They’re generally usedin URLs.
Like a CharField, you can specifymax_length (read the noteabout database portability andmax_length in that section,too). Ifmax_length is not specified, Django will use adefault length of 50.
Implies settingField.db_index toTrue.
It is often useful to automatically prepopulate a SlugField based on the valueof some other value. You can do this automatically in the admin usingprepopulated_fields.
It usesvalidate_slug orvalidate_unicode_slug for validation.
SlugField.allow_unicode¶If
True, the field accepts Unicode letters in addition to ASCIIletters. Defaults toFalse.
SmallIntegerField¶
Like anIntegerField, but only allows values under a certain(database-dependent) point. Values from-32768 to32767 are safe in alldatabases supported by Django.
TextField¶
A large text field. The default form widget for this field is aTextarea.
If you specify amax_length attribute, it will be reflected in theTextarea widget of the auto-generated form field.However it is not enforced at the model or database level. Use aCharField for that.
TimeField¶
A time, represented in Python by adatetime.time instance. Accepts the sameauto-population options asDateField.
The default form widget for this field is aTextInput.The admin adds some JavaScript shortcuts.
URLField¶
ACharField for a URL, validated byURLValidator.
The default form widget for this field is aTextInput.
Like allCharField subclasses,URLField takes the optionalmax_length argument. If you don’t specifymax_length, a default of 200 is used.
UUIDField¶
A field for storing universally unique identifiers. Uses Python’sUUID class. When used on PostgreSQL, this stores in auuid datatype, otherwise in achar(32).
Universally unique identifiers are a good alternative toAutoField forprimary_key. The database will not generate the UUID for you, soit is recommended to usedefault:
importuuidfromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassMyUUIDModel(models.Model):id=models.UUIDField(primary_key=True,default=uuid.uuid4,editable=False)# other fields
Note that a callable (with the parentheses omitted) is passed todefault,not an instance ofUUID.
Relationship fields¶
Django also defines a set of fields that represent relations.
ForeignKey¶
A many-to-one relationship. Requires two positional arguments: the class towhich the model is related and theon_delete option.
To create a recursive relationship – an object that has a many-to-onerelationship with itself – usemodels.ForeignKey('self',on_delete=models.CASCADE).
If you need to create a relationship on a model that has not yet been defined,you can use the name of the model, rather than the model object itself:
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassCar(models.Model):manufacturer=models.ForeignKey('Manufacturer',on_delete=models.CASCADE,)# ...classManufacturer(models.Model):# ...pass
Relationships defined this way onabstract models are resolved when the model is subclassed as aconcrete model and are not relative to the abstract model’sapp_label:
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassAbstractCar(models.Model):manufacturer=models.ForeignKey('Manufacturer',on_delete=models.CASCADE)classMeta:abstract=True
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsfromproducts.modelsimportAbstractCarclassManufacturer(models.Model):passclassCar(AbstractCar):pass# Car.manufacturer will point to `production.Manufacturer` here.
To refer to models defined in another application, you can explicitly specifya model with the full application label. For example, if theManufacturermodel above is defined in another application calledproduction, you’dneed to use:
classCar(models.Model):manufacturer=models.ForeignKey('production.Manufacturer',on_delete=models.CASCADE,)
This sort of reference, called a lazy relationship, can be useful whenresolving circular import dependencies between two applications.
A database index is automatically created on theForeignKey. You candisable this by settingdb_index toFalse. You may want toavoid the overhead of an index if you are creating a foreign key forconsistency rather than joins, or if you will be creating an alternative indexlike a partial or multiple column index.
Database Representation¶
Behind the scenes, Django appends"_id" to the field name to create itsdatabase column name. In the above example, the database table for theCarmodel will have amanufacturer_id column. (You can change this explicitly byspecifyingdb_column) However, your code should never have todeal with the database column name, unless you write custom SQL. You’ll alwaysdeal with the field names of your model object.
Arguments¶
ForeignKey accepts other arguments that define the details of how therelation works.
ForeignKey.on_delete¶When an object referenced by a
ForeignKeyis deleted, Django willemulate the behavior of the SQL constraint specified by theon_deleteargument. For example, if you have a nullableForeignKeyand you want it to be set null when the referencedobject is deleted:user=models.ForeignKey(User,models.SET_NULL,blank=True,null=True,)
on_deletedoesn’t create a SQL constraint in the database. Support fordatabase-level cascade optionsmay be implemented later.
The possible values foron_delete are found indjango.db.models:
CASCADE[source]¶Cascade deletes. Django emulates the behavior of the SQL constraint ONDELETE CASCADE and also deletes the object containing the ForeignKey.
Model.delete()isn’t called on related models, but thepre_deleteandpost_deletesignals are sent for alldeleted objects.
PROTECT[source]¶Prevent deletion of the referenced object by raising
ProtectedError, a subclass ofdjango.db.IntegrityError.
SET_NULL[source]¶Set the
ForeignKeynull; this is only possible ifnullisTrue.
SET_DEFAULT[source]¶Set the
ForeignKeyto its default value; a default for theForeignKeymust be set.
SET()[source]¶Set the
ForeignKeyto the value passed toSET(), or if a callable is passed in,the result of calling it. In most cases, passing a callable will benecessary to avoid executing queries at the time your models.py isimported:fromdjango.confimportsettingsfromdjango.contrib.authimportget_user_modelfromdjango.dbimportmodelsdefget_sentinel_user():returnget_user_model().objects.get_or_create(username='deleted')[0]classMyModel(models.Model):user=models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,on_delete=models.SET(get_sentinel_user),)
DO_NOTHING[source]¶Take no action. If your database backend enforces referentialintegrity, this will cause an
IntegrityErrorunlessyou manually add an SQLONDELETEconstraint to the database field.
ForeignKey.limit_choices_to¶Sets a limit to the available choices for this field when this field isrendered using a
ModelFormor the admin (by default, all objectsin the queryset are available to choose). Either a dictionary, aQobject, or a callable returning adictionary orQobject can be used.For example:
staff_member=models.ForeignKey(User,on_delete=models.CASCADE,limit_choices_to={'is_staff':True},)
causes the corresponding field on the
ModelFormto list onlyUsersthat haveis_staff=True. This may be helpful in the Django admin.The callable form can be helpful, for instance, when used in conjunctionwith the Python
datetimemodule to limit selections by date range. Forexample:deflimit_pub_date_choices():return{'pub_date__lte':datetime.date.utcnow()}limit_choices_to=limit_pub_date_choices
If
limit_choices_tois or returns aQobject, which is useful forcomplex queries, then it will only have an effect on the choicesavailable in the admin when the field is not listed inraw_id_fieldsin theModelAdminfor the model.Note
If a callable is used for
limit_choices_to, it will be invokedevery time a new form is instantiated. It may also be invoked when amodel is validated, for example by management commands or the admin.The admin constructs querysets to validate its form inputs in variousedge cases multiple times, so there is a possibility your callable maybe invoked several times.
ForeignKey.related_name¶The name to use for the relation from the related object back to this one.It’s also the default value for
related_query_name(the name to usefor the reverse filter name from the target model). See therelatedobjects documentation for a full explanationand example. Note that you must set this value when defining relations onabstract models; and when you do sosome special syntax is available.If you’d prefer Django not to create a backwards relation, set
related_nameto'+'or end it with'+'. For example, this willensure that theUsermodel won’t have a backwards relation to thismodel:user=models.ForeignKey(User,on_delete=models.CASCADE,related_name='+',)
ForeignKey.related_query_name¶The name to use for the reverse filter name from the target model. Itdefaults to the value of
related_nameordefault_related_nameif set, otherwise itdefaults to the name of the model:# Declare the ForeignKey with related_query_nameclassTag(models.Model):article=models.ForeignKey(Article,on_delete=models.CASCADE,related_name="tags",related_query_name="tag",)name=models.CharField(max_length=255)# That's now the name of the reverse filterArticle.objects.filter(tag__name="important")
Like
related_name,related_query_namesupports app label andclass interpolation viasome special syntax.
ForeignKey.to_field¶The field on the related object that the relation is to. By default, Djangouses the primary key of the related object. If you reference a differentfield, that field must have
unique=True.
ForeignKey.db_constraint¶Controls whether or not a constraint should be created in the database forthis foreign key. The default is
True, and that’s almost certainly whatyou want; setting this toFalsecan be very bad for data integrity.That said, here are some scenarios where you might want to do this:- You have legacy data that is not valid.
- You’re sharding your database.
If this is set to
False, accessing a related object that doesn’t existwill raise itsDoesNotExistexception.
ForeignKey.swappable¶Controls the migration framework’s reaction if this
ForeignKeyis pointing at a swappable model. If it isTrue- the default -then if theForeignKeyis pointing at a model which matchesthe current value ofsettings.AUTH_USER_MODEL(or another swappablemodel setting) the relationship will be stored in the migration usinga reference to the setting, not to the model directly.You only want to override this to be
Falseif you are sure yourmodel should always point towards the swapped-in model - for example,if it is a profile model designed specifically for your custom user model.Setting it to
Falsedoes not mean you can reference a swappable modeleven if it is swapped out -Falsejust means that the migrations madewith this ForeignKey will always reference the exact model you specify(so it will fail hard if the user tries to run with a User model you don’tsupport, for example).If in doubt, leave it to its default of
True.
ManyToManyField¶
A many-to-many relationship. Requires a positional argument: the class towhich the model is related, which works exactly the same as it does forForeignKey, includingrecursive andlazy relationships.
Related objects can be added, removed, or created with the field’sRelatedManager.
Database Representation¶
Behind the scenes, Django creates an intermediary join table to represent themany-to-many relationship. By default, this table name is generated using thename of the many-to-many field and the name of the table for the model thatcontains it. Since some databases don’t support table names above a certainlength, these table names will be automatically truncated and a uniqueness hashwill be used, e.g.author_books_9cdf. You can manually provide the name ofthe join table using thedb_table option.
Arguments¶
ManyToManyField accepts an extra set of arguments – all optional –that control how the relationship functions.
ManyToManyField.related_name¶Same as
ForeignKey.related_name.
ManyToManyField.related_query_name¶Same as
ForeignKey.related_query_name.
ManyToManyField.limit_choices_to¶Same as
ForeignKey.limit_choices_to.limit_choices_tohas no effect when used on aManyToManyFieldwith acustom intermediate table specified using thethroughparameter.
ManyToManyField.symmetrical¶Only used in the definition of ManyToManyFields on self. Consider thefollowing model:
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassPerson(models.Model):friends=models.ManyToManyField("self")
When Django processes this model, it identifies that it has a
ManyToManyFieldon itself, and as a result, it doesn’t add aperson_setattribute to thePersonclass. Instead, theManyToManyFieldis assumed to be symmetrical – that is, if I amyour friend, then you are my friend.If you do not want symmetry in many-to-many relationships with
self, setsymmetricaltoFalse. This will force Django toadd the descriptor for the reverse relationship, allowingManyToManyFieldrelationships to be non-symmetrical.
ManyToManyField.through¶Django will automatically generate a table to manage many-to-manyrelationships. However, if you want to manually specify the intermediarytable, you can use the
throughoption to specifythe Django model that represents the intermediate table that you want touse.The most common use for this option is when you want to associateextra data with a many-to-many relationship.
If you don’t specify an explicit
throughmodel, there is still animplicitthroughmodel class you can use to directly access the tablecreated to hold the association. It has three fields to link the models.If the source and target models differ, the following fields aregenerated:
id: the primary key of the relation.<containing_model>_id: theidof the model that declares theManyToManyField.<other_model>_id: theidof the model that theManyToManyFieldpoints to.
If the
ManyToManyFieldpoints from and to the same model, the followingfields are generated:id: the primary key of the relation.from_<model>_id: theidof the instance which points at themodel (i.e. the source instance).to_<model>_id: theidof the instance to which the relationshippoints (i.e. the target model instance).
This class can be used to query associated records for a given modelinstance like a normal model.
ManyToManyField.through_fields¶Only used when a custom intermediary model is specified. Django willnormally determine which fields of the intermediary model to use in orderto establish a many-to-many relationship automatically. However,consider the following models:
fromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassPerson(models.Model):name=models.CharField(max_length=50)classGroup(models.Model):name=models.CharField(max_length=128)members=models.ManyToManyField(Person,through='Membership',through_fields=('group','person'),)classMembership(models.Model):group=models.ForeignKey(Group,on_delete=models.CASCADE)person=models.ForeignKey(Person,on_delete=models.CASCADE)inviter=models.ForeignKey(Person,on_delete=models.CASCADE,related_name="membership_invites",)invite_reason=models.CharField(max_length=64)
Membershiphastwo foreign keys toPerson(personandinviter), which makes the relationship ambiguous and Django can’t knowwhich one to use. In this case, you must explicitly specify whichforeign keys Django should use usingthrough_fields, as in the exampleabove.through_fieldsaccepts a 2-tuple('field1','field2'), wherefield1is the name of the foreign key to the model theManyToManyFieldis defined on (groupin this case), andfield2the name of the foreign key to the target model (personin this case).When you have more than one foreign key on an intermediary model to any(or even both) of the models participating in a many-to-many relationship,youmust specify
through_fields. This also applies torecursive relationshipswhen an intermediary model is used and there are more than twoforeign keys to the model, or you want to explicitly specify which twoDjango should use.Recursive relationships using an intermediary model are always defined asnon-symmetrical – that is, with
symmetrical=False– therefore, there is the concept of a “source” and a “target”. In thatcase'field1'will be treated as the “source” of the relationship and'field2'as the “target”.
ManyToManyField.db_table¶The name of the table to create for storing the many-to-many data. If thisis not provided, Django will assume a default name based upon the names of:the table for the model defining the relationship and the name of the fielditself.
ManyToManyField.db_constraint¶Controls whether or not constraints should be created in the database forthe foreign keys in the intermediary table. The default is
True, andthat’s almost certainly what you want; setting this toFalsecan bevery bad for data integrity. That said, here are some scenarios where youmight want to do this:- You have legacy data that is not valid.
- You’re sharding your database.
It is an error to pass both
db_constraintandthrough.
ManyToManyField.swappable¶Controls the migration framework’s reaction if this
ManyToManyFieldis pointing at a swappable model. If it isTrue- the default -then if theManyToManyFieldis pointing at a model which matchesthe current value ofsettings.AUTH_USER_MODEL(or another swappablemodel setting) the relationship will be stored in the migration usinga reference to the setting, not to the model directly.You only want to override this to be
Falseif you are sure yourmodel should always point towards the swapped-in model - for example,if it is a profile model designed specifically for your custom user model.If in doubt, leave it to its default of
True.
ManyToManyField does not supportvalidators.
null has no effect since there is no way to require arelationship at the database level.
OneToOneField¶
A one-to-one relationship. Conceptually, this is similar to aForeignKey withunique=True, but the“reverse” side of the relation will directly return a single object.
This is most useful as the primary key of a model which “extends”another model in some way;Multi-table inheritance isimplemented by adding an implicit one-to-one relation from the childmodel to the parent model, for example.
One positional argument is required: the class to which the model will berelated. This works exactly the same as it does forForeignKey,including all the options regardingrecursiveandlazy relationships.
If you do not specify therelated_name argument fortheOneToOneField, Django will use the lower-case name of the current modelas default value.
With the following example:
fromdjango.confimportsettingsfromdjango.dbimportmodelsclassMySpecialUser(models.Model):user=models.OneToOneField(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,on_delete=models.CASCADE,)supervisor=models.OneToOneField(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL,on_delete=models.CASCADE,related_name='supervisor_of',)
your resultingUser model will have the following attributes:
>>>user=User.objects.get(pk=1)>>>hasattr(user,'myspecialuser')True>>>hasattr(user,'supervisor_of')True
ADoesNotExist exception is raised when accessing the reverse relationshipif an entry in the related table doesn’t exist. For example, if a user doesn’thave a supervisor designated byMySpecialUser:
>>>user.supervisor_ofTraceback (most recent call last):...DoesNotExist:User matching query does not exist.
Additionally,OneToOneField accepts all of the extra argumentsaccepted byForeignKey, plus one extra argument:
OneToOneField.parent_link¶When
Trueand used in a model which inherits from anotherconcrete model, indicates that this field should be used as thelink back to the parent class, rather than the extraOneToOneFieldwhich would normally be implicitly created bysubclassing.
SeeOne-to-one relationships for usageexamples ofOneToOneField.
Field API reference¶
- class
Field[source]¶ Fieldis an abstract class that represents a database table column.Django uses fields to create the database table (db_type()), to mapPython types to database (get_prep_value()) and vice-versa(from_db_value()).A field is thus a fundamental piece in different Django APIs, notably,
modelsandquerysets.In models, a field is instantiated as a class attribute and represents aparticular table column, seeModels. It has attributessuch as
nullandunique, and methods that Django uses tomap the field value to database-specific values.A
Fieldis a subclass ofRegisterLookupMixinand thus bothTransformandLookupcan be registered on it to be usedinQuerySets (e.g.field_name__exact="foo"). Allbuilt-inlookups are registered by default.All of Django’s built-in fields, such as
CharField, are particularimplementations ofField. If you need a custom field, you can eithersubclass any of the built-in fields or write aFieldfrom scratch. Ineither case, seeWriting custom model fields.description¶A verbose description of the field, e.g. for the
django.contrib.admindocsapplication.The description can be of the form:
description=_("String (up to%(max_length)s)")
where the arguments are interpolated from the field’s
__dict__.
To map a
Fieldto a database-specific type, Django exposes severalmethods:get_internal_type()[source]¶Returns a string naming this field for backend specific purposes.By default, it returns the class name.
SeeEmulating built-in field types for usage in custom fields.
db_type(connection)[source]¶Returns the database column data type for the
Field, takinginto account theconnection.SeeCustom database types for usage in custom fields.
rel_db_type(connection)[source]¶Returns the database column data type for fields such as
ForeignKeyandOneToOneFieldthat point to theField, takinginto account theconnection.SeeCustom database types for usage in custom fields.
There are three main situations where Django needs to interact with thedatabase backend and fields:
- when it queries the database (Python value -> database backend value)
- when it loads data from the database (database backend value -> Pythonvalue)
- when it saves to the database (Python value -> database backend value)
When querying,
get_db_prep_value()andget_prep_value()are used:get_prep_value(value)[source]¶valueis the current value of the model’s attribute, and the methodshould return data in a format that has been prepared for use as aparameter in a query.SeeConverting Python objects to query values for usage.
get_db_prep_value(value,connection,prepared=False)[source]¶Converts
valueto a backend-specific value. By default it returnsvalueifprepared=Trueandget_prep_value()if isFalse.SeeConverting query values to database values for usage.
When loading data,
from_db_value()is used:from_db_value(value,expression,connection)¶Converts a value as returned by the database to a Python object. It isthe reverse of
get_prep_value().This method is not used for most built-in fields as the databasebackend already returns the correct Python type, or the backend itselfdoes the conversion.
SeeConverting values to Python objects for usage.
Note
For performance reasons,
from_db_valueis not implemented as ano-op on fields which do not require it (all Django fields).Consequently you may not callsuperin your definition.
When saving,
pre_save()andget_db_prep_save()are used:get_db_prep_save(value,connection)[source]¶Same as the
get_db_prep_value(), but called when the field valuemust besaved to the database. By default returnsget_db_prep_value().
pre_save(model_instance,add)[source]¶Method called prior to
get_db_prep_save()to prepare the valuebefore being saved (e.g. forDateField.auto_now).model_instanceis the instance this field belongs to andaddis whether the instance is being saved to the database for the firsttime.It should return the value of the appropriate attribute from
model_instancefor this field. The attribute name is inself.attname(this is set up byField).SeePreprocessing values before saving for usage.
Fields often receive their values as a different type, either fromserialization or from forms.
to_python(value)[source]¶Converts the value into the correct Python object. It acts as thereverse of
value_to_string(), and is also called inclean().SeeConverting values to Python objects for usage.
Besides saving to the database, the field also needs to know how toserialize its value:
value_from_object(obj)[source]¶Returns the field’s value for the given model instance.
This method is often used by
value_to_string().
value_to_string(obj)[source]¶Converts
objto a string. Used to serialize the value of the field.SeeConverting field data for serialization for usage.
When using
modelforms, theFieldneeds to know which form field it should be represented by:formfield(form_class=None,choices_form_class=None,**kwargs)[source]¶Returns the default
django.forms.Fieldof this field forModelForm.By default, if both
form_classandchoices_form_classareNone, it usesCharField. If the field haschoicesandchoices_form_classisn’t specified, it usesTypedChoiceField.SeeSpecifying the form field for a model field for usage.
deconstruct()[source]¶Returns a 4-tuple with enough information to recreate the field:
- The name of the field on the model.
- The import path of the field (e.g.
"django.db.models.IntegerField").This should be the most portable version, so less specific may be better. - A list of positional arguments.
- A dict of keyword arguments.
This method must be added to fields prior to 1.7 to migrate its datausingMigrations.
Field attribute reference¶
EveryField instance contains several attributes that allowintrospecting its behavior. Use these attributes instead ofisinstancechecks when you need to write code that depends on a field’s functionality.These attributes can be used together with theModel._meta API to narrow down a search for specific field types.Custom model fields should implement these flags.
Attributes for fields¶
Field.auto_created¶Boolean flag that indicates if the field was automatically created, suchas the
OneToOneFieldused by model inheritance.
Field.concrete¶Boolean flag that indicates if the field has a database column associatedwith it.
Field.hidden¶Boolean flag that indicates if a field is used to back another non-hiddenfield’s functionality (e.g. the
content_typeandobject_idfieldsthat make up aGenericForeignKey). Thehiddenflag is used todistinguish what constitutes the public subset of fields on the model fromall the fields on the model.Note
Options.get_fields()excludes hidden fields by default. Pass ininclude_hidden=Truetoreturn hidden fields in the results.
Field.is_relation¶Boolean flag that indicates if a field contains references to one ormore other models for its functionality (e.g.
ForeignKey,ManyToManyField,OneToOneField, etc.).
Field.model¶Returns the model on which the field is defined. If a field is defined ona superclass of a model,
modelwill refer to the superclass, not theclass of the instance.
Attributes for fields with relations¶
These attributes are used to query for the cardinality and other details of arelation. These attribute are present on all fields; however, they will onlyhave boolean values (rather thanNone) if the field is a relation type(Field.is_relation=True).
Field.many_to_many¶Boolean flag that is
Trueif the field has a many-to-many relation;Falseotherwise. The only field included with Django where this isTrueisManyToManyField.
Field.many_to_one¶Boolean flag that is
Trueif the field has a many-to-one relation, suchas aForeignKey;Falseotherwise.
Field.one_to_many¶Boolean flag that is
Trueif the field has a one-to-many relation, suchas aGenericRelationor the reverse of aForeignKey;Falseotherwise.
Field.one_to_one¶Boolean flag that is
Trueif the field has a one-to-one relation, suchas aOneToOneField;Falseotherwise.
Field.related_model¶Points to the model the field relates to. For example,
AuthorinForeignKey(Author,on_delete=models.CASCADE). Therelated_modelforaGenericForeignKeyis alwaysNone.

