Django get_or_create with icontains

Question

I'm getting an unexpected result using icontains in my get_or_create call.

Take the following example:

>>>team_name = "Bears"
>>>Team.objects.get(name__icontains=team_name) # returns DoesNotExist as expected
>>>team, created = Team.objects.get_or_create(name__icontains=team_name)
>>>print(created) # Prints True as expected
>>>print(team.name) # Prints an empty string!

Why does this create a team with a blank name rather than "Bears"? The reason I'm using get_or_create here is that if a subsequent user posts something like "BearS" I want to get the correct team, not create a duplicate team with incorrect capitalization.

YPCrumble · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-08 17:52:04Z

7

Another option besides wencakisa's answer is to include the defaults parameter in get_or_create, because Django strips lookups containing the __ separator. See answers to this question.

The code would be:

Team.objects.get_or_create(
    name__icontains=team_name,
    defaults = {
        "name": team_name
    }
)

answered Sep 8, 2017 at 17:52

YPCrumble

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wencakisa · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-08 17:06:32Z

5

I think here you should split the get() and create() functionalities instead of using get_or_create(), because the __icontains lookup works for get() only.

Try doing something like this:

>>> team_name = 'Bears'

>>> teams = Team.objects.filter(name__icontains=team_name)
# This will filter the teams with this name

>>> team = teams.first() if teams.exists() else Team.objects.create(name=team_name)
# Now your team is the first element of your previous query (it returns a QuerySet with single element) if it exists
# Otherwise, you create a new Team.

answered Sep 8, 2017 at 17:06

wencakisa

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1 Comment

YPCrumble Over a year ago

good point...didn't realize that get_or_create didn't allow icontains. I also ended up using iexact instead of icontains to avoid mistakes in the case that there's a different team called the "Golden Bears", for instance.

Dpaz · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-04 18:21:38Z

The right way to do it is using Django's function get_or_create(). But instead of "icontains", you should use "iexact" (), unless you want an exact match, in wich case you should use just "exact":

Team.objects.get_or_create(
    name__iexact=team_name,
    defaults = {
        "name": team_name
    }
)

Outside "defaults" you should put your search terms. If the objects doesn't exist, you should write your creation terms inside 'defaults'

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