instances.txt

.. _ref-models-instances:

========================
Model instance reference
========================

.. currentmodule:: django.db.models

This document describes the details of the ``Model`` API. It builds on the
material presented in the :ref:`model <topics-db-models>` and :ref:`database
query <topics-db-queries>` guides, so you'll probably want to read and
understand those documents before reading this one.

Throughout this reference we'll use the :ref:`example weblog models
<queryset-model-example>` presented in the :ref:`database query guide
<topics-db-queries>`.

Creating objects
================

To create a new instance of a model, just instantiate it like any other Python class:

.. class:: Model(**kwargs)

The keyword arguments to are simply the names of the fields you've defined on
your model. Note that instantiating a model in no way touches your database; for
that, you need to ``save()``.

Saving objects
==============

To save an object back to the database, call ``save()``:

.. method:: Model.save([force_insert=False, force_update=False])

Of course, there are some subtleties; see the sections below.

.. versionadded:: 1.0

The signature of the ``save()`` method has changed from earlier versions
(``force_insert`` and ``force_update`` have been added). If you are overriding
these methods, be sure to use the correct signature.

Auto-incrementing primary keys
------------------------------

If a model has an ``AutoField`` -- an auto-incrementing primary key -- then
that auto-incremented value will be calculated and saved as an attribute on
your object the first time you call ``save()``::

    >>> b2 = Blog(name='Cheddar Talk', tagline='Thoughts on cheese.')
    >>> b2.id     # Returns None, because b doesn't have an ID yet.
    >>> b2.save()
    >>> b2.id     # Returns the ID of your new object.

There's no way to tell what the value of an ID will be before you call
``save()``, because that value is calculated by your database, not by Django.

(For convenience, each model has an ``AutoField`` named ``id`` by default
unless you explicitly specify ``primary_key=True`` on a field. See the
documentation for ``AutoField`` for more details.

The ``pk`` property
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. versionadded:: 1.0

.. attribute:: Model.pk

Regardless of whether you define a primary key field yourself, or let Django
supply one for you, each model will have a property called ``pk``. It behaves
like a normal attribute on the model, but is actually an alias for whichever
attribute is the primary key field for the model. You can read and set this
value, just as you would for any other attribute, and it will update the
correct field in the model.

Explicitly specifying auto-primary-key values
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If a model has an ``AutoField`` but you want to define a new object's ID
explicitly when saving, just define it explicitly before saving, rather than
relying on the auto-assignment of the ID::

    >>> b3 = Blog(id=3, name='Cheddar Talk', tagline='Thoughts on cheese.')
    >>> b3.id     # Returns 3.
    >>> b3.save()
    >>> b3.id     # Returns 3.

If you assign auto-primary-key values manually, make sure not to use an
already-existing primary-key value! If you create a new object with an explicit
primary-key value that already exists in the database, Django will assume you're
changing the existing record rather than creating a new one.

Given the above ``'Cheddar Talk'`` blog example, this example would override the
previous record in the database::

    b4 = Blog(id=3, name='Not Cheddar', tagline='Anything but cheese.')
    b4.save()  # Overrides the previous blog with ID=3!

See `How Django knows to UPDATE vs. INSERT`_, below, for the reason this
happens.

Explicitly specifying auto-primary-key values is mostly useful for bulk-saving
objects, when you're confident you won't have primary-key collision.

What happens when you save?
---------------------------

When you save an object, Django performs the following steps:

    1. **Emit a pre-save signal.** The :ref:`signal <ref-signals>`
       :attr:`django.db.models.signals.pre_save` is sent, allowing any
       functions listening for that signal to take some customized
       action.

    2. **Pre-process the data.** Each field on the object is asked to
       perform any automated data modification that the field may need
       to perform.

       Most fields do *no* pre-processing -- the field data is kept as-is.
       Pre-processing is only used on fields that have special behavior.
       For example, if your model has a ``DateField`` with ``auto_now=True``,
       the pre-save phase will alter the data in the object to ensure that
       the date field contains the current date stamp. (Our documentation
       doesn't yet include a list of all the fields with this "special
       behavior.")

    3. **Prepare the data for the database.** Each field is asked to provide
       its current value in a data type that can be written to the database.

       Most fields require *no* data preparation. Simple data types, such as
       integers and strings, are 'ready to write' as a Python object. However,
       more complex data types often require some modification.

       For example, ``DateFields`` use a Python ``datetime`` object to store
       data. Databases don't store ``datetime`` objects, so the field value
       must be converted into an ISO-compliant date string for insertion
       into the database.

    4. **Insert the data into the database.** The pre-processed, prepared
       data is then composed into an SQL statement for insertion into the
       database.

    5. **Emit a post-save signal.** The signal
       :attr:`django.db.models.signals.post_save` is sent, allowing
       any functions listening for that signal to take some customized
       action.

How Django knows to UPDATE vs. INSERT
-------------------------------------

You may have noticed Django database objects use the same ``save()`` method
for creating and changing objects. Django abstracts the need to use ``INSERT``
or ``UPDATE`` SQL statements. Specifically, when you call ``save()``, Django
follows this algorithm:

    * If the object's primary key attribute is set to a value that evaluates to
      ``True`` (i.e., a value other than ``None`` or the empty string), Django
      executes a ``SELECT`` query to determine whether a record with the given
      primary key already exists.
    * If the record with the given primary key does already exist, Django
      executes an ``UPDATE`` query.
    * If the object's primary key attribute is *not* set, or if it's set but a
      record doesn't exist, Django executes an ``INSERT``.

The one gotcha here is that you should be careful not to specify a primary-key
value explicitly when saving new objects, if you cannot guarantee the
primary-key value is unused. For more on this nuance, see `Explicitly specifying
auto-primary-key values`_ above and `Forcing an INSERT or UPDATE`_ below.

.. _ref-models-force-insert:

Forcing an INSERT or UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.. versionadded:: 1.0

In some rare circumstances, it's necessary to be able to force the ``save()``
method to perform an SQL ``INSERT`` and not fall back to doing an ``UPDATE``.
Or vice-versa: update, if possible, but not insert a new row. In these cases
you can pass the ``force_insert=True`` or ``force_update=True`` parameters to
the ``save()`` method. Passing both parameters is an error, since you cannot
both insert *and* update at the same time.

It should be very rare that you'll need to use these parameters. Django will
almost always do the right thing and trying to override that will lead to
errors that are difficult to track down. This feature is for advanced use
only.

.. _model-instance-methods:

Other model instance methods
============================

A few object methods have special purposes.

``__str__``
-----------

.. method:: Model.__str__()

``__str__()`` is a Python "magic method" that defines what should be returned
if you call ``str()`` on the object. Django uses ``str(obj)`` (or the related
function, ``unicode(obj)`` -- see below) in a number of places, most notably
as the value displayed to render an object in the Django admin site and as the
value inserted into a template when it displays an object. Thus, you should
always return a nice, human-readable string for the object's ``__str__``.
Although this isn't required, it's strongly encouraged (see the description of
``__unicode__``, below, before putting ``__str__`` methods everywhere).

For example::

    class Person(models.Model):
        first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
        last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)

        def __str__(self):
            # Note use of django.utils.encoding.smart_str() here because
            # first_name and last_name will be unicode strings.
            return smart_str('%s %s' % (self.first_name, self.last_name))

``__unicode__``
---------------

.. method:: Model.__unicode__()

The ``__unicode__()`` method is called whenever you call ``unicode()`` on an
object. Since Django's database backends will return Unicode strings in your
model's attributes, you would normally want to write a ``__unicode__()``
method for your model. The example in the previous section could be written
more simply as::

    class Person(models.Model):
        first_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
        last_name = models.CharField(max_length=50)

        def __unicode__(self):
            return u'%s %s' % (self.first_name, self.last_name)

If you define a ``__unicode__()`` method on your model and not a ``__str__()``
method, Django will automatically provide you with a ``__str__()`` that calls
``__unicode__()`` and then converts the result correctly to a UTF-8 encoded
string object. This is recommended development practice: define only
``__unicode__()`` and let Django take care of the conversion to string objects
when required.

``get_absolute_url``
--------------------

.. method:: Model.get_absolute_url()

Define a ``get_absolute_url()`` method to tell Django how to calculate the
URL for an object. For example::

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return "/people/%i/" % self.id

Django uses this in its admin interface. If an object defines
``get_absolute_url()``, the object-editing page will have a "View on site"
link that will jump you directly to the object's public view, according to
``get_absolute_url()``.

Also, a couple of other bits of Django, such as the :ref:`syndication feed
framework <ref-contrib-syndication>`, use ``get_absolute_url()`` as a
convenience to reward people who've defined the method.

It's good practice to use ``get_absolute_url()`` in templates, instead of
hard-coding your objects' URLs. For example, this template code is bad::

    <a href="/people/{{ object.id }}/">{{ object.name }}</a>

But this template code is good::

    <a href="{{ object.get_absolute_url }}">{{ object.name }}</a>

.. note::
    The string you return from ``get_absolute_url()`` must contain only ASCII
    characters (required by the URI spec, `RFC 2396`_) that have been
    URL-encoded, if necessary. Code and templates using ``get_absolute_url()``
    should be able to use the result directly without needing to do any
    further processing. You may wish to use the
    ``django.utils.encoding.iri_to_uri()`` function to help with this if you
    are using unicode strings a lot.

.. _RFC 2396: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt

The ``permalink`` decorator
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The problem with the way we wrote ``get_absolute_url()`` above is that it
slightly violates the DRY principle: the URL for this object is defined both
in the URLConf file and in the model.

You can further decouple your models from the URLconf using the ``permalink``
decorator:

.. function:: permalink()

This decorator is passed the view function, a list of positional parameters and
(optionally) a dictionary of named parameters. Django then works out the correct
full URL path using the URLconf, substituting the parameters you have given into
the URL. For example, if your URLconf contained a line such as::

    (r'^people/(\d+)/$', 'people.views.details'),

...your model could have a ``get_absolute_url`` method that looked like this::

    from django.db import models

    @models.permalink
    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return ('people.views.details', [str(self.id)])

Similarly, if you had a URLconf entry that looked like::

    (r'/archive/(?P<year>\d{4})/(?P<month>\d{1,2})/(?P<day>\d{1,2})/$', archive_view)

...you could reference this using ``permalink()`` as follows::

    @models.permalink
    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return ('archive_view', (), {
            'year': self.created.year,
            'month': self.created.month,
            'day': self.created.day})

Notice that we specify an empty sequence for the second parameter in this case,
because we only want to pass keyword parameters, not positional ones.

In this way, you're tying the model's absolute URL to the view that is used
to display it, without repeating the URL information anywhere. You can still
use the ``get_absolute_url`` method in templates, as before.

In some cases, such as the use of generic views or the re-use of
custom views for multiple models, specifying the view function may
confuse the reverse URL matcher (because multiple patterns point to
the same view).

For that problem, Django has **named URL patterns**. Using a named
URL pattern, it's possible to give a name to a pattern, and then
reference the name rather than the view function. A named URL
pattern is defined by replacing the pattern tuple by a call to
the ``url`` function)::

    from django.conf.urls.defaults import *

    url(r'^people/(\d+)/$',
        'django.views.generic.list_detail.object_detail',
        name='people_view'),

...and then using that name to perform the reverse URL resolution instead
of the view name::

    from django.db.models import permalink

    def get_absolute_url(self):
        return ('people_view', [str(self.id)])
    get_absolute_url = permalink(get_absolute_url)

More details on named URL patterns are in the :ref:`URL dispatch documentation
<topics-http-urls>`.

Extra instance methods
======================

In addition to ``save()``, ``delete()``, a model object might get any or all
of the following methods:

.. method:: Model.get_FOO_display()

For every field that has ``choices`` set, the object will have a
``get_FOO_display()`` method, where ``FOO`` is the name of the field. This
method returns the "human-readable" value of the field. For example, in the
following model::

    GENDER_CHOICES = (
        ('M', 'Male'),
        ('F', 'Female'),
    )
    class Person(models.Model):
        name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
        gender = models.CharField(max_length=1, choices=GENDER_CHOICES)

...each ``Person`` instance will have a ``get_gender_display()`` method. Example::

    >>> p = Person(name='John', gender='M')
    >>> p.save()
    >>> p.gender
    'M'
    >>> p.get_gender_display()
    'Male'

.. method:: Model.get_next_by_FOO(\**kwargs)
.. method:: Model.get_previous_by_FOO(\**kwargs)

For every ``DateField`` and ``DateTimeField`` that does not have ``null=True``,
the object will have ``get_next_by_FOO()`` and ``get_previous_by_FOO()``
methods, where ``FOO`` is the name of the field. This returns the next and
previous object with respect to the date field, raising the appropriate
``DoesNotExist`` exception when appropriate.

Both methods accept optional keyword arguments, which should be in the format
described in :ref:`Field lookups <field-lookups>`.

Note that in the case of identical date values, these methods will use the ID
as a fallback check. This guarantees that no records are skipped or duplicated.