differentiate null=True, blank=True in django

Answer 1

If you set null=True, it will allow the value of your database column to be set as NULL. If you only set blank=True, django will set the default new value for the column equal to "".

There's one point where null=True would be necessary even on a CharField or TextField and that is when the database has the unique flag set for the column. In this case you'll need to use this:

a_unique_string = models.CharField(blank=True, null=True, unique=True)

Preferrably skip the null=True for non-unique CharField or TextField. Otherwise some fields will be set as NULL while others as "" , and you'll have to check the field value for NULL everytime.

Answer 2

The meaning of null=True and blank=True in the model also depends on how these fields were defined in the form class.

Suppose you have defined the following class:

class Client (models.Model):
    name = models.CharField (max_length=100, blank=True)
    address = models.CharField (max_length=100, blank=False)

If the form class has been defined like this:

class ClientForm (ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Client
        fields = ['name', 'address']
        widgets = {
            'name': forms.TextInput (attrs = {'class': 'form-control form-control-sm'}),
            'address': forms.TextInput (attrs = {'class': 'form-control form-control-sm'})
        }

Then, the 'name' field will not be mandatory (due to the blank=True in the model) and the 'address' field will be mandatory (due to the blank=False in the model).

However, if the ClientForm class has been defined like this:

class ClientForm (ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Client
        fields = ['name', 'address']

    name = forms.CharField (
        widget = forms.TextInput (attrs = {'class': 'form-control form-control-sm'}),
    )
    address = forms.CharField (
        widget = forms.TextInput (attrs = {'class': 'form-control form-control-sm'}),
    )

Then, both fields ('name' and 'address') will be mandatory, "since fields defined declaratively are left as-is" (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/topics/forms/modelforms/), i.e. the default for the 'required' attribute of the form field is True and this will require that the fields 'name' and 'address' are filled, even if, in the model, the field has been set to blank=True.

Answer 3

You may have your answer however till this day it's difficult to judge whether to put null=True or blank=True or both to a field. I personally think it's pretty useless and confusing to provide so many options to developers. Let the handle the nulls or blanks however they want.

I follow this table, from Two Scoops of Django:

Answer 4

Null is purely database-related, whereas blank is validation-related. If a field has blank=True , validation on Django's admin site will allow entry of an empty value. If a field has blank=False , the field will be required

Answer 5

null is for database and blank is for fields validation that you want to show on user interface like textfield to get the last name of person. If lastname=models.charfield (blank=true) it didnot ask user to enter last name as this is the optional field now. If lastname=models.charfield (null=true) then it means that if this field doesnot get any value from user then it will store in database as an empty string " ".

Answer 6

null = True

Means there is no constraint of database for the field to be filled, so you can have an object with null value for the filled that has this option.

blank = True

Means there is no constraint of validation in django forms. so when you fill a modelForm for this model you can leave field with this option unfilled.