How to convert Django Model object to dict with its fields and values?
There are many ways to convert an instance to a dictionary, with varying degrees of corner case handling and closeness to the desired result.
1. instance.__dict__
instance.__dict__
which returns
{'_foreign_key_cache': <OtherModel: OtherModel object>,
'_state': <django.db.models.base.ModelState at 0x7ff0993f6908>,
'auto_now_add': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 20, 21, 34, 29, 494827, tzinfo=<UTC>),
'foreign_key_id': 2,
'id': 1,
'normal_value': 1,
'readonly_value': 2}
This is by far the simplest, but is missing many_to_many, foreign_key is misnamed, and it has two unwanted extra things in it.
2. model_to_dict
from django.forms.models import model_to_dict
model_to_dict(instance)
which returns
{'foreign_key': 2,
'id': 1,
'many_to_many': [<OtherModel: OtherModel object>],
'normal_value': 1}
This is the only one with many_to_many, but is missing the uneditable fields.
3. model_to_dict(..., fields=...)
from django.forms.models import model_to_dict
model_to_dict(instance, fields=[field.name for field in instance._meta.fields])
which returns
{'foreign_key': 2, 'id': 1, 'normal_value': 1}
This is strictly worse than the standard model_to_dict invocation.
4. query_set.values()
SomeModel.objects.filter(id=instance.id).values()[0]
which returns
{'auto_now_add': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 20, 21, 34, 29, 494827, tzinfo=<UTC>),
'foreign_key_id': 2,
'id': 1,
'normal_value': 1,
'readonly_value': 2}
This is the same output as instance.__dict__ but without the extra fields.
foreign_key_id is still wrong and many_to_many is still missing.
5. Custom Function
The code for django's model_to_dict had most of the answer. It explicitly removed non-editable fields, so removing that check and getting the ids of foreign keys for many to many fields results in the following code which behaves as desired:
from itertools import chain
def to_dict(instance):
opts = instance._meta
data = {}
for f in chain(opts.concrete_fields, opts.private_fields):
data[f.name] = f.value_from_object(instance)
for f in opts.many_to_many:
data[f.name] = [i.id for i in f.value_from_object(instance)]
return data
While this is the most complicated option, calling to_dict(instance) gives us exactly the desired result:
{'auto_now_add': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 20, 21, 34, 29, 494827, tzinfo=<UTC>),
'foreign_key': 2,
'id': 1,
'many_to_many': [2],
'normal_value': 1,
'readonly_value': 2}
6. Use Serializers
Django Rest Framework's ModelSerialzer allows you to build a serializer automatically from a model.
from rest_framework import serializers
class SomeModelSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
class Meta:
model = SomeModel
fields = "__all__"
SomeModelSerializer(instance).data
returns
{'auto_now_add': '2018-12-20T21:34:29.494827Z',
'foreign_key': 2,
'id': 1,
'many_to_many': [2],
'normal_value': 1,
'readonly_value': 2}
This is almost as good as the custom function, but auto_now_add is a string instead of a datetime object.
Bonus Round: better model printing
If you want a django model that has a better python command-line display, have your models child-class the following:
from django.db import models
from itertools import chain
class PrintableModel(models.Model):
def __repr__(self):
return str(self.to_dict())
def to_dict(instance):
opts = instance._meta
data = {}
for f in chain(opts.concrete_fields, opts.private_fields):
data[f.name] = f.value_from_object(instance)
for f in opts.many_to_many:
data[f.name] = [i.id for i in f.value_from_object(instance)]
return data
class Meta:
abstract = True
So, for example, if we define our models as such:
class OtherModel(PrintableModel): pass
class SomeModel(PrintableModel):
normal_value = models.IntegerField()
readonly_value = models.IntegerField(editable=False)
auto_now_add = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
foreign_key = models.ForeignKey(OtherModel, related_name="ref1")
many_to_many = models.ManyToManyField(OtherModel, related_name="ref2")
Calling SomeModel.objects.first() now gives output like this:
{'auto_now_add': datetime.datetime(2018, 12, 20, 21, 34, 29, 494827, tzinfo=<UTC>),
'foreign_key': 2,
'id': 1,
'many_to_many': [2],
'normal_value': 1,
'readonly_value': 2}
I found a neat solution to get to result:
Suppose you have an model object o:
Just call:
type(o).objects.filter(pk=o.pk).values().first()
@Zags solution was gorgeous!
I would add, though, a condition for datefields in order to make it JSON friendly.
Bonus Round
If you want a django model that has a better python command-line display, have your models child class the following:
from django.db import models
from django.db.models.fields.related import ManyToManyField
class PrintableModel(models.Model):
def __repr__(self):
return str(self.to_dict())
def to_dict(self):
opts = self._meta
data = {}
for f in opts.concrete_fields + opts.many_to_many:
if isinstance(f, ManyToManyField):
if self.pk is None:
data[f.name] = []
else:
data[f.name] = list(f.value_from_object(self).values_list('pk', flat=True))
elif isinstance(f, DateTimeField):
if f.value_from_object(self) is not None:
data[f.name] = f.value_from_object(self).timestamp()
else:
data[f.name] = None
else:
data[f.name] = f.value_from_object(self)
return data
class Meta:
abstract = True
So, for example, if we define our models as such:
class OtherModel(PrintableModel): pass
class SomeModel(PrintableModel):
value = models.IntegerField()
value2 = models.IntegerField(editable=False)
created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
reference1 = models.ForeignKey(OtherModel, related_name="ref1")
reference2 = models.ManyToManyField(OtherModel, related_name="ref2")
Calling SomeModel.objects.first() now gives output like this:
{'created': 1426552454.926738,
'value': 1, 'value2': 2, 'reference1': 1, u'id': 1, 'reference2': [1]}