DurationField is a field for storing periods of time – modeled in Python by timedelta. When used on PostgreSQL, the data type used is an interval and on Oracle the data type is INTERVAL DAY(9) TO SECOND(6). Otherwise, a bigint of microseconds is used. DurationField basically stores a duration, the difference between two dates or times.
Syntax
field_name = models.DurationField(**options)
Django Model DurationField Explanation
Illustration of DurationField using an Example. Consider a project named neveropen having an app named Lazyroar.
Refer to the following articles to check how to create a project and an app in Django.
Enter the following code into models.py file of Lazyroar app.
Python3
from django.db import modelsfrom django.db.models import Model# Create your models here.class GeeksModel(Model): Lazyroar_field = models.DurationField() |
Add the Lazyroar app to INSTALLED_APPS
Python3
# Application definitionINSTALLED_APPS = [ 'django.contrib.admin', 'django.contrib.auth', 'django.contrib.contenttypes', 'django.contrib.sessions', 'django.contrib.messages', 'django.contrib.staticfiles', 'Lazyroar',] |
Now when we run makemigrations command from the terminal,
Python manage.py makemigrations
A new folder named migrations would be created in Lazyroar directory with a file named 0001_initial.py
Python3
# Generated by Django 2.2.5 on 2019-09-25 06:00from django.db import migrations, modelsclass Migration(migrations.Migration): initial = True dependencies = [ ] operations = [ migrations.CreateModel( name ='GeeksModel', fields =[ ('id', models.AutoField( auto_created = True, primary_key = True, serialize = False, verbose_name ='ID' )), ('Lazyroar_field', models.DurationField()), ], ), ] |
Now run,
Python manage.py migrate
Thus, an Lazyroar_field DurationField is created when you run migrations on the project. It is a field to store datetime.timedelta python object.
How to use DurationField ?
DurationField is used for storing python datetime.timedelta instance in the database. One can store any type of duration based on time or date in the database. To know more about datetime.timedelta, check out Python | datetime.timedelta() function. Let’s try storing a timedelta instance in model created above.
Python3
# importing the model# from Lazyroar appfrom Lazyroar.models import GeeksModel# importing datetime moduleimport datetime# creating an instance of# datetime.timedeltad = datetime.timedelta(days =-1, seconds = 68400)# creating an instance of# GeeksModelgeek_object = GeeksModel.objects.create(Lazyroar_field = d)geek_object.save() |
Now let’s check it in admin server. We have created an instance of GeeksModel.
Field Options
Field Options are the arguments given to each field for applying some constraint or imparting a particular characteristic to a particular Field. For example, adding an argument null = True to DurationField will enable it to store empty values for that table in relational database.
Here are the field options and attributes that a DurationField can use.
| Field Options | Description |
|---|---|
| Null | If True, Django will store empty values as NULL in the database. Default is False. |
| Blank | If True, the field is allowed to be blank. Default is False. |
| 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. |
| Default | The default value for the field. This can be a value or a callable object. If callable it will be called every time a new object is created. |
| help_text | Extra “help” text to be displayed with the form widget. It’s useful for documentation even if your field isn’t used on a form. |
| primary_key | If True, this field is the primary key for the model. |
| editable | If False, the field will not be displayed in the admin or any other ModelForm. They are also skipped during model validation. Default is True. |
| error_messages | The error_messages argument lets you override the default messages that the field will raise. Pass in a dictionary with keys matching the error messages you want to override. |
| help_text | Extra “help” text to be displayed with the form widget. It’s useful for documentation even if your field isn’t used on a form. |
| verbose_name | A human-readable name for the field. If the verbose name isn’t given, Django will automatically create it using the field’s attribute name, converting underscores to spaces. |
| validators | A list of validators to run for this field. See the validators documentation for more information. |
| Unique | If True, this field must be unique throughout the table. |
