Django date format 'dd-mm-yyyy'

Question

Is there any way I can get django to store my data in postgresql as 'dd-mm-yyyy' (if required) and have the django forms validate for 'dd-mm-yyyy'?

(I have tried without much success things like:

DATE_INPUT_FORMATS = ('%d-%m-%Y')
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True

And done a lot of googling but no success :(

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Answer 1

The problem turned out to be that I needed both the ISO and UK date formats in the settings.py file like so:

DATE_INPUT_FORMATS = ('%d-%m-%Y','%Y-%m-%d')

and then the forms.py adjusted to the following:

class ClientDetailsForm(ModelForm):
    date_of_birth = DateField(input_formats=settings.DATE_INPUT_FORMATS)
    class Meta:
        model = ClientDetails

Why USE_L10N = True can't just do this I don't know!

[Thanks to this and this]

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You don't have the US format as you said, you've got the UK and ISO formats. – Traitor

working fine and date saving to database. but Now date is not rendering to template – Alcina

docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/templates/builtins/#date – Subscribe

Answer 2

DATE_INPUT_FORMATS in settings.py has no effect with USE_I18N = True. This is because django will load specific format for active locale. Django ships with format definitions for many different locales.

You can override django default format definitions:

mysite/
    formats/
        __init__.py
        en/
            __init__.py
            formats.py

As described in django documentation: Creating custom formats file

Bethanie

does USE_L10N = True have any effect on DATE_INPUT_FORMATS – Subscribe

If USE_L10N = False then django will not use any formats from your settings. USE_L10N = True enables you to set formats in your settings.py. And USE_I18N = True goes even further and enables locale specific formats. – Bethanie

Your first sentence (DATE_INPUT_FORMATS in settings.py has no effect with USE_I18N = True.) is the crux of the matter. Just like mentioned in docs, you have to add your DATE_INPUT_FORMATS etc into that formats.py file. – Albertype

Answer 3

In Sevenearths answer there's the comment

Why USE_L10N = True can't just do this I don't know!

The documentation says that USE_L10N = True is the default setting, but to get UK dates to work the LANGUAGE_CODE must also be changed from its default setting of en-us to en-GB.

Once changed, date fields automatically accept the formats "dd/mm/yyyy" and "yyyy-mm-dd" (and possibly others, I've not tested them all) without needing to set input_formats = settings.DATE_INPUT_FORMATS in every form date field.

Railroad

Answer 4

I used below code that worked on Both Add and Edit Form Case.

in settings.py

DATE_INPUT_FORMATS = ('%d/%m/%Y','%d-%m-%Y','%Y-%m-%d')

in forms.py

class MyModelForm(forms.ModelForm):
    issue_date = forms.DateField(widget=forms.DateInput(format = '%d/%m/%Y'), input_formats=settings.DATE_INPUT_FORMATS)

Alcina

Answer 5

This might not be the answer to the exact question, but since I got here... I would suggest using a date widget, and let Django save the date the way it understands it. Define the field in your form like so:

import datetime
from django import forms

def last_years():
    first_year = datetime.datetime.now().year - 6
    return list(range(first_year + 7, first_year, -1))

class MyForm(forms.Form):
    # This is it... it's user friendly, and can't go wrong parsing it
    date = forms.DateField(widget=forms.SelectDateWidget(years = last_years()))

If you got it into a date field of the Django Model, then the only problem left would be format the output representation. Am I right?

Squinty

A lot has changed since I asked this question. I think your answer would be perfect for 1.10+ – Subscribe

:D indeed... I just bumped on this question and thought I would throw some updated suggestion (6 years later) – Squinty

Answer 6

This works for me

date_of_birth = forms.DateField(
    localize=True,
    widget=forms.DateInput(format = '%Y-%m-%d',attrs={'type': 'date'}),
)

Lifeordeath

Answer 7

You need to set USE_L10N False as shown below to make DATE_INPUT_FORMATS work to change the date format of DateTimeField() and DateField(). *USE_L10N is prior to DATE_INPUT_FORMATS so you need to set USE_L10N False:

DATE_INPUT_FORMATS = ('%d-%m-%Y')
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = False # Here

The doc says below in DATE_INPUT_FORMATS:

When USE_L10N is True, the locale-dictated format has higher precedence and will be applied instead.

Spellman

Answer 8

I would overwrite the DateTimeField put my our logic. It doesn't matter how postgresql is storing it, you can format it how ever you want.

Docs: http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/models/instances/

Tzong

so django wont do this for me? I have to do it myself? – Subscribe

this might help: docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.1/ref/forms/fields/#datefield to keep it simple – Tzong