django convert model instance to dict

Question

I am a beginner in Django. And I need to convert Model instance in to dictionary similar as Model.objects.values do, with relation fields. So I write a little function to do this:

def _get_proper(instance, field):
    if field.__contains__("__"):
        inst_name = field.split("__")[0]
        new_inst = getattr(instance, inst_name)
        next_field = "__".join(field.split("__")[1:])
        value = _get_proper(new_inst, next_field)
    else:
        value = getattr(instance, field)

    return value

def instance_to_dict(instance, fields):
    return {key: _get_proper(instance, key) for key in fields}

So, i can use it in such way:

user_obj = User.objects.select_related(...).get(...)
print instance_to_dict(user_obj, ["name", "city__name", "city_id"])

May you propose the better solution? Thanks! P.S. Sorry for my English.

Possible duplicate of [Convert Django Model object to dict with all of the fields intact](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21925671/convert-django-model-object-to-dict-with-all-of-the-fields-intact) — Zags, Oct 18 '16 at 20:44

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 14 '18 at 14:29

27

This actually already exists in Django, but its not widely documented.

from django.forms import model_to_dict
my_obj = User.objects.first()
model_to_dict(my_obj,
    fields = [...], # fields to include
    exclude =  [...], # fields to exclude
)

edited Mar 14 '18 at 14:29

Sachin Kolige

363
2
7

answered Feb 27 '15 at 04:39

4

I know about it, but this function doesn't work with related fields like `city__name` – Taras Protsenko Feb 27 '15 at 05:54
The link didn't work. This is the updated link: http://timsaylor.com/convert-django-model-instances-to-dictionaries – jackbravo Oct 09 '17 at 23:39
And the link in the link (to source code) is https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/forms/models.py#L70 – Dimitrios Mistriotis Jul 09 '18 at 14:54

django convert model instance to dict

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