Django request GET parameter value list

Question

I want to do some sorting and what I have mind is doing a GET request with a parameter named ordering like this and the value will be the model atttribute that I will use to sort like this:

?order=['-age', 'height']

the problem is when I try to receive the order parameter.. The value is a list.

I tried using the ast like this:

if 'order' in request.GET:
        import ast
        order = ast.literal_eval(request.GET.get('order'))
        queryset = queryset.order_by(*order)

It worked. However, I would like to avoid using the ast library, is there any other way around?

UPDATE

I did my parameter like this:

?order=-age,height

And just used split in python like this:

if 'order' in request.GET:
    order = request.GET.get('order').split(',')
    queryset = queryset.order_by(*order)

Possible duplicate of [Handling Django request.GET and multiple variables for the same parameter name](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3910165/handling-django-request-get-and-multiple-variables-for-the-same-parameter-name) — Sayse, Jan 24 '17 at 08:32
@Sayse, This is the output when I use getlist.. [u'[-bet_amount,settlement_amount['] — Dean Christian Armada, Jan 24 '17 at 08:34
The syntax you're using for your query parameters are incorect - `?order=-age&order=height` — Sayse, Jan 24 '17 at 08:36
@Sayse, I have an update on the question.. Please check if it is a good idea — Dean Christian Armada, Jan 24 '17 at 08:38
Thats a bit of an opinion based question, it is a way of doing it, just like the multiple query parameters approach is also — Sayse, Jan 24 '17 at 08:43

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 24 '17 at 09:47

Django allows for multiple GET parameters to be sent in a request, but the way you're sending them is wrong (and not only for Django)
You request should be in the form ?order=-age&order=height
Then in the view you can do order_list = request.GET.getlist('order')

You don't need to check if the key 'order' is in the GET parameters as .getlist() returns an empty list if the key is not found...

If you want only the first item from the list, you could use request.GET.get('order') which returns None if the key is not present.

Final code:

order_list = request.GET.getlist('order')
queryset = queryset.order_by(*order_list)

P.S While django allows GET parameters to be named anything, PHP (and I think other web languages) require GET lists parameters to be named as param[] (example order[]) and therefore libraries like JQuery name your AJAX request params as such. In this case you will have to use the correct name in your view i.e request.GET.getlist('order[]')

Thanks for the explanation! Very much appreciated it! – Dean Christian Armada Jan 24 '17 at 10:00 — Dean Christian Armada, Jan 24 '17 at 10:00

Django request GET parameter value list

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