""" 6. Specifying ordering Specify default ordering for a model using the ``ordering`` attribute, which should be a list or tuple of field names. This tells Django how to order the results of ``get_list()`` and other similar functions. If a field name in ``ordering`` starts with a hyphen, that field will be ordered in descending order. Otherwise, it'll be ordered in ascending order. The special-case field name ``"?"`` specifies random order. The ordering attribute is not required. If you leave it off, ordering will be undefined -- not random, just undefined. """ from django.core import meta class Article(meta.Model): headline = meta.CharField(maxlength=100) pub_date = meta.DateTimeField() class META: ordering = ('-pub_date', 'headline') def __repr__(self): return self.headline API_TESTS = """ # Create a couple of Articles. >>> from datetime import datetime >>> a1 = articles.Article(headline='Article 1', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 26)) >>> a1.save() >>> a2 = articles.Article(headline='Article 2', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 27)) >>> a2.save() >>> a3 = articles.Article(headline='Article 3', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 27)) >>> a3.save() >>> a4 = articles.Article(headline='Article 4', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 28)) >>> a4.save() # By default, articles.get_list() orders by pub_date descending, then # headline ascending. >>> articles.get_list() [Article 4, Article 2, Article 3, Article 1] # Override ordering with order_by, which is in the same format as the ordering # attribute in models. >>> articles.get_list(order_by=['headline']) [Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4] >>> articles.get_list(order_by=['pub_date', '-headline']) [Article 1, Article 3, Article 2, Article 4] # Use the "limit" parameter to limit the results. >>> articles.get_list(order_by=['headline'], limit=2) [Article 1, Article 2] # Use the "offset" parameter with "limit" to offset the result list. >>> articles.get_list(order_by=['headline'], offset=1, limit=2) [Article 2, Article 3] # Use '?' to order randomly. (We're using [...] in the output to indicate we # don't know what order the output will be in. >>> articles.get_list(order_by=['?']) [...] """