Django documentation

2. Adding __str__() to models

This example describes Django version 0.96. For the current example, go here.

Although it’s not a strict requirement, each model should have a __str__() method to return a “human-readable” representation of the object. Do this not only for your own sanity when dealing with the interactive prompt, but also because objects’ representations are used throughout Django’s automatically-generated admin.

Model source code

from django.db import models

class Article(models.Model):
    headline = models.CharField(maxlength=100)
    pub_date = models.DateTimeField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.headline

Sample API usage

This sample code assumes the above model has been saved in a file mysite/models.py. 

>>> from mysite.models import Article

# Create an Article.
>>> from datetime import datetime
>>> a = Article(headline='Area man programs in Python', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 28))
>>> a.save()

>>> str(a)
'Area man programs in Python'

>>> a
<Article: Area man programs in Python>

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