Exercise - Work with data

  • 2 minutes

By creating our models, we created an API that we can use to access the data in our database. This API allows us to create, retrieve, update, and delete objects in our database.

Let's explore the API by working with the models that we created.

Configure the interactive shell

Django includes an interactive shell where you can run Python code in the Django environment.

  1. Return to the terminal in Visual Studio Code by selecting View > Terminal.

  2. Enter the following command to start the shell:

    python manage.py shell

  3. Import the models from models inside dog_shelters:

    from dog_shelters.models import Shelter, Dog

Create and modify objects

Because our models are Python classes, we create new instances by using the same syntax that we'd use to create an object. Because they inherit from Django.models.Model, they inherit the functionality for the Django ORM. That functionality includes save, which we use to save the object to the database.

  1. Create a new shelter by running the following Python command in the shell:

    shelter = Shelter(name="Demo shelter", location="Seattle, WA")
shelter.save()

    The save part will write the object to the database. Because we created this from scratch, it will execute an INSERT statement in the database.

  2. Update the location of the shelter to Redmond, WA, by setting the location field and calling save:

    shelter.location = "Redmond, WA"
shelter.save()

    This command will issue an UPDATE statement to update the value in the database.

  3. Create two new dogs for the shelter by running the following Python commands in the shell:

    Dog(name="Sammy", description="Cute black and white dog", shelter=shelter).save()
Dog(name="Roscoe", description="Lab mix", shelter=shelter).save()

    As before, save inserts the dog. Notice how we set the shelter parameter to the shelter object that we created before. Django will automatically set the relationship in the database.

    Also note that we didn't set up a local variable for each Dog instance. Because we won't reuse the objects, we don't need to set them to a variable.

Retrieving objects

To retrieve objects from a database, Django provides an objects property on all Model classes. The objects property provides multiple functions, including all, filter, and get.

  1. Retrieve all dogs in Demo shelter by running the following command:

    shelter.dog_set.all()

    The dog_set part stores the list of all dogs for a particular shelter. Django will return a QuerySet object with the two dogs that we created.

    <QuerySet [<Dog: Sammy>, <Dog: Roscoe>]>

  2. Retrieve the second dog by using get as shown in the following command:

    Dog.objects.get(pk=1)

    The get function will return only one object. You can pass parameters into get to provide a query string. Here we use pk, which is a special keyword to indicate the primary key. The returned result will be Sammy.

    <Dog: Sammy>

  3. Retrieve all dogs in Demo shelter by using filter as shown in the following command:

    Dog.objects.filter(shelter__name='Demo shelter')

    Like get, filter allows us to pass a query in the parameters. Notice we can use two underscores (__) to go from property to property. Because we want to find all dogs in the shelter named Demo shelter, we use shelter__name to access the name property of shelter. The result returned will be all dogs, because we have only one shelter.

    <QuerySet [<Dog: Sammy>, <Dog: Roscoe>]>

Close the shell

After you're done playing with the objects, you can close the shell by running the exit() command.

Summary

You've now seen how you can programmatically work with data in Django through the Django ORM.