[Django]-Determine variable type within django template

You could also implement a general template filter as an equivalent to the type() builtin:

# app/templatetags/util.py
from django import template

register = template.Library()

@register.filter
def get_type(value):
    return type(value)

# template.html
{% load util %}
{% if extra_column|get_type == 'str' %}
    String
{% elif extra_column|get_type == 'datetime.date' %}
    Date
{% else %}
    Oh no!
{% endif %}

I think Ignacio and Dirk are right, however. Can’t you just have two keys (you say “array”, but I assume you mean “dictionary” from the fact that the items have names) called date and detail?

# views.py
...
actions = [{
    'some_property': 'some_value'
    'date': None,
    'detail': 'details'
},
{
    'some_property': 'some_value'
    'date': datetime.date.today(),
    'detail': None
}]
...

# template.html
{% for action in actions %}
<td>{% if action.date %}{{ action.date|date:"M d" }}{% endif %}{{ action.detail }}</td>
{% endfor %}

# output
<td>details</td>
<td>Aug 19</td>

Late to the party, but I just had this problem. The solution I went for is duck-typing, so:

{% if action.extra_column.year %}
  {{ action.extra_column|date:"M y" }}
{% else %}
  {{ action.extra_column }}
{% endif %}

Could you argue that this is definitely not the right way to do it? Probably. Will it get the job done without writing your own template filter and having even more code to maintain? Absolutely.

I know I’m way behind on this (by three years) but I just got here looking to do something similar and came up with what I think is a decent solution.

Just add a function to your models like get_model_type and have it return something you’d expect from each model like so:

class MyModelOne(models.Model):
  date_created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
  first_name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
  def get_model_type(self):
    return "my_model_one"

class MyModelTwo(models.Model):
  date_created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
  other_field = models.CharField(max_length=255)
  def get_model_type(self):
    return "my_model_two"

Then in your template you can easily just call that function:

{% if model.get_model_type == 'my_model_one' %}
  <p>Model One</p>
{% elif model.get_model_type == 'my_model_two' %}
  <p>Model Two</p>
{% endif %}

That’s my approach:

@register.filter
def get_type(value):
    """ It returns variable type as a pure string name """
    return type(value).__name__

You can try this to recognize String vs List type:

{%if v_1.0.1|length == 0%}
    <!--STR-->
    {{v_1}}
{%else%}     
     <!--List-->                                           
    {{v_1.0}}
{%endif%}