Question

Is there a way to automatically set field values for models in Django when defining the model? This could be used for storing something like a timestamp (for example), but also for creating a field which is constructed as some function of the others.

In other words, I’m looking for something like this:

class Foo(models.Model):

spam = models.CharField(max_length=2000)
my_other_field = ###?

def generate_my_other_field():
    #Some algorithm to determine the value of my_other_field

Answer 1

Yes, there is a way. From Django docs:

Field.default

The default value for
the field. This can be a value or a
callable object. If callable it will
be called every time a new object is
created.