Django, creating multiple identical fields in the same model

Question

I am completely new to Django, so forgive me if this is the wrong approach. While I'm trying to learn Django, I like to do my own little practice problems to solidify my understanding.

Working with models I created the example model objects:

from django.db import models


class Food(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(
        max_length=50,
        help_text="Name of Fruit or Vegetable"
    )
    food_group = models.CharField(
        max_length=9,


class Vitamins(models.Model):
    name = models.ForeignKey(
        Food,
        on_delete=models.CASCADE
    )
    vitamin_A = models.CharField(
        max_length=20,
    )
    .
    .
    .
    folate = models.CharField(
        max_length=20,
        help_text="Folic Acid"
    )

In my object, I have 5 identical fields that store text i.e. (Trace amounts, 5mg, No Information). However it seems tedious to type out every field. Is there a more efficient way to do this?

Why don't you create a new record for each entry of Vitamin? I mean a Vitamin model with food (FK), name and folate? And while creating a entry you just create a new record. — Sadan A.
– Sadan A., Commented Jun 8, 2021 at 14:47

Sadan A. · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-08 14:55:06Z

2

I think you should take advantage of the relational database and create a model for Vitamin, with name and folate, something like this

from django.db import models


class Food(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(
        max_length=50,
        help_text="Name of Fruit or Vegetable"
    )


class Vitamin(models.Model):
    food = models.ForeignKey(
        Food,
        on_delete=models.CASCADE
    )
    name = models.CharField(
        max_length=20,
    )
    folate = models.CharField(
        max_length=20,
        help_text="Folic Acid"
    )

And then for every Vitamin in the Food you create a record. It can be 1, 2 or N. This is very flexible and scaleable.

answered Jun 8, 2021 at 14:55

Sadan A.

1,1171 gold badge13 silver badges32 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

TylerSingleton Over a year ago

Thank you! I accepted the answer. I realize that I am stuck in a mindset where I am trying to force a spreadsheet into my models. I think every column in a spreadsheet needs it own field within an object. Instead of just thinking about creating a record of what I need and relating it to my object, which is much more flexible.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Django, creating multiple identical fields in the same model

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related