[Django]-Django DateField default options

This is why you should always import the base datetime module: import datetime, rather than the datetime class within that module: from datetime import datetime.

The other mistake you have made is to actually call the function in the default, with the (). This means that all models will get the date at the time the class is first defined – so if your server stays up for days or weeks without restarting Apache, all elements will get same the initial date.

So the field should be:

import datetime
date = models.DateField(_("Date"), default=datetime.date.today)

date = models.DateTimeField(default=datetime.now, blank=True)

I think a better way to solve this would be to use the datetime callable:

from datetime import datetime

date = models.DateField(default=datetime.now)

Note that no parenthesis were used. If you used parenthesis you would invoke the now() function just once (when the model is created). Instead, you pass the callable as an argument, thus being invoked everytime an instance of the model is created.

Credit to Django Musings. I’ve used it and works fine.

DateField/DateTimeField.auto_now_add

Automatically set the field to now when the object is first created. Useful for creation of timestamps. Note that the current date is always used; it’s not just a default value that you can override. So even if you set a value for this field when creating the object, it will be ignored.
Source: Django
doc

This should do the trick:

models.DateTimeField(_("Date"), auto_now_add = True)

You could also use lambda. Useful if you’re using django.utils.timezone.now

date = models.DateField(_("Date"), default=lambda: now().date())

django hint:

HINT: It seems you set a fixed date / time / datetime value as default for this field. This may not be what you want. If you want to have the current date as default, use django.utils.timezone.now

I tried the below on Django version 4.1.7 and worked perfectly!

from datetime import datetime, date

class Example(models.Model):
    purchase_date = models.DateField(auto_now_add=False, auto_now=False, blank=True)

    def __str__(self):
        return f"{self.str(purchase_date)}"

Returning this is entirely optional.
Working perfectly either you return the string or not.