Date month and year only

Using Django Using the ORM
1

I’m working on an app for which I want to store education data. Instead of having fields start_date and end_date with a date picker in the form, I would like the user to enter a start_month and start_year and end_month and end_year.

I wonder whether this feature is already available in Django or whether I should for example have fields start_date, start_month and start_year and end_date, end_month and end_year and after form submission compute the start_date and end_date

I hope someone can point me in the right direction

Kind regards,

Johanna

2

You also have the option of using one of the available “datepicker” widgets that allow for month/year selection. (e.g. The bootstrap datepicker lets you limit entry to month / year.)

Beyond that, there is no data type within Django for just Month / Year.

Depending upon what all your requirements are for this date, you have a couple of different options:

  • Store it as a date field where the date is always ‘1’
  • Store it as two separate fields like you describe.
  • Store it in an integer field as “N” number of months from some starting date. (e.g. If your base date is 01/2001, then this month would be month 256 if I figured it correctly)

This last option makes it easiest to calculate durations but requires conversion for display.

3

Hi Ken,

Thanks for your helpful reply.

I’ll explore all three options and than decide which best suites my needs.

Kind regards,

Johanna