Question

I’m trying to order models in a Django app using a field that has predefined choices. I can sort alphabetically, but since the choices are the days of the week, that doesn’t quite match what I need. Here’s the model:

class Slot( models.Model ):

    DAY_CHOICES = (
        ('SUN', 'Sunday'),
        ('MON', 'Monday'),
        ('TUE', 'Tuesday'),
        ('WED', 'Wednesday'),
        ('THU', 'Thursday'),
        ('FRI', 'Friday'),
        ('SAT', 'Saturday'),
    )

    day = models.CharField( max_length=3, choices=DAY_CHOICES )
    start = models.TimeField()
    end = models.TimeField()
    template = models.ForeignKey( Template )

And here’s the inline that’s pulling the model into an admin view:

class SlotInline( admin.TabularInline ):
    model = Slot
    ordering = ('day','start',)

I know I could probably use an integer as the stored value, but is there a general way to impose a custom sort order on a field with choices?

Answer 1

Quoting from the last paragraph of https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/fields/#field-choices:

But if you find yourself hacking choices to be dynamic, you’re
probably better off using a proper database table with a ForeignKey.
choices is meant for static data that doesn’t change much, if ever.

So I’d say the answer is no and you’d be better of with a separate Day model with a field for ordering

class Day(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=9)
    ordering = models.PositiveIntegerField()

    class Meta:
        ordering = ['ordering']

Even though it feels like overkill for 7 items!