Question

I am using Django to build a website with MySQL. Now as I am learning so I need to change the Model very often so I want that all tables get cleared and new table get created.

But syncdb doesn’t touch existing tables. Is there any better way to handle this problem?

Answer 1

If you don’t care about data:

Best way would be to drop the database and run syncdb again. Or you can run:

For Django >= 1.5

python manage.py flush

For Django < 1.5

python manage.py reset appname

(you can add --no-input to the end of the command for it to skip the interactive prompt.)

If you do care about data:

From the docs:

syncdb will only create tables for
models which have not yet been
installed. It will never issue ALTER
TABLE statements to match changes made
to a model class after installation.
Changes to model classes and database
schemas often involve some form of
ambiguity and, in those cases, Django
would have to guess at the correct
changes to make. There is a risk that
critical data would be lost in the
process.

If you have made changes to a model
and wish to alter the database tables
to match, use the sql command to
display the new SQL structure and
compare that to your existing table
schema to work out the changes.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/django-admin/

Reference: FAQ – https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/faq/models/#if-i-make-changes-to-a-model-how-do-i-update-the-database

People also recommend South ( http://south.aeracode.org/docs/about.html#key-features ), but I haven’t tried it.