""" 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.db import models class Article(models.Model): headline = models.CharField(maxlength=100) pub_date = models.DateTimeField() class Meta: ordering = ('-pub_date', 'headline') def __str__(self): return self.headline __test__ = {'API_TESTS':""" # Create a couple of Articles. >>> from datetime import datetime >>> a1 = Article(headline='Article 1', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 26)) >>> a1.save() >>> a2 = Article(headline='Article 2', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 27)) >>> a2.save() >>> a3 = Article(headline='Article 3', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 27)) >>> a3.save() >>> a4 = Article(headline='Article 4', pub_date=datetime(2005, 7, 28)) >>> a4.save() # By default, Article.objects.all() orders by pub_date descending, then # headline ascending. >>> Article.objects.all() [, , , ] # Override ordering with order_by, which is in the same format as the ordering # attribute in models. >>> Article.objects.order_by('headline') [, , , ] >>> Article.objects.order_by('pub_date', '-headline') [, , , ] # Use the 'stop' part of slicing notation to limit the results. >>> Article.objects.order_by('headline')[:2] [, ] # Use the 'stop' and 'start' parts of slicing notation to offset the result list. >>> Article.objects.order_by('headline')[1:3] [, ] # Getting a single item should work too: >>> Article.objects.all()[0] # Use '?' to order randomly. (We're using [...] in the output to indicate we # don't know what order the output will be in. >>> Article.objects.order_by('?') [...] """}