# How can I control fields to include or exclude based on model's boolean field? **URL:** \ **Category:** Using Django\ **Created:** [February 18, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658 "2021-02-18T14:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/1 "2021-02-18T14:50:55Z")
I’ve got a model which has nearly ten fields and one of them is Boolean field. class Person(models.Model): first\_name = models.CharField(max\_length=30) last\_name = models.CharField(max\_length=30) nick\_name = models.CharField(max\_length=30) be\_anonymous = models.BooleanField(default=False) character = models.ChoiceField(…) … I’ve got a ViewSet and serializers for this model and there’s an endpoint to get list of all Persons. For some persons, be\_anonymous is set to True and for those persons, I want to hide first\_name and last\_name from API response and instead include nick\_name. How can I hide/show those fields based on that Boolean field? Any advice will be appreciated ---
**Author:** ![KenWhitesell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/kenwhitesell/32/280_2.png) [@KenWhitesell](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/KenWhitesell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 3:07pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/2 "2021-02-18T15:07:32Z")
My initial reaction would be that you could put that logic in your serializer. See [Overriding serialization and deserialization behavior](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/serializers/#overriding-serialization-and-deserialization-behavior) - the `to_representation()` method. ---
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/3 "2021-02-18T16:33:16Z")
Hi, Ken! Thanks for your answer! I think that’s a correct approach, however, I am still curious to know how I can exclude those fields. I can check out if the boolean field is set to True or False on to\_representation method. What is the best practice to exclude fields? Thanks ---
**Author:** ![CodenameTim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/codenametim/32/31507_2.png) [@CodenameTim](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/CodenameTim)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/4 "2021-02-18T17:10:50Z")
I’d entertain the idea of creating a serializer that has all three fields, `first_name`, `last_name`, `nick_name`, then using [`serializers.SerializerMethodField`](https://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/fields/#serializermethodfield) for them to identify whether to return the value or `None`. I like this approach because API has the same shape for all cases. ---
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/5 "2021-02-18T17:12:10Z")
That sounds interesting but the api response will still have those keys with empty values, right? ---
**Author:** ![KenWhitesell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/kenwhitesell/32/280_2.png) [@KenWhitesell](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/KenWhitesell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/6 "2021-02-18T17:12:17Z")
Don’t look to make this more complicated than necessary. The internal representation is probably going to be a Python dict (unless you’re doing something explicitly different) - so I would just check the boolean field and change the dict as desired. I wouldn’t worry about what someone considers “best practices” for this - at this layer of the code, no reasonable approach is going to be significantly different than any other. ---
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/7 "2021-02-18T17:13:13Z")
I will try that Ken, 😃 ---
**Author:** ![KenWhitesell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/kenwhitesell/32/280_2.png) [@KenWhitesell](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/KenWhitesell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/8 "2021-02-18T17:14:14Z")
That is true - and there’s a lot to be said for doing it that way. It really depends upon what the client is going to expect from your response - either the field is missing or is present with a null value. ---
**Author:** ![CodenameTim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/codenametim/32/31507_2.png) [@CodenameTim](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/CodenameTim)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/9 "2021-02-18T17:14:23Z")
Correct. That’s what I meant by “shape”. It depends on your clients’ expectations whether this would even be a viable approach. ---
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/10 "2021-02-18T17:15:02Z")
I got it, thank you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KenWhitesell](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/kenwhitesell/32/280_2.png) [@KenWhitesell](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/KenWhitesell)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/11 "2021-02-18T17:15:26Z")
GMTA! 😀(with padding to make this post 20 characters.) ---
**Author:** ![devspectre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/forum.djangoproject.com/devspectre/32/3559_2.png) [@devspectre](https://forum.djangoproject.com/u/devspectre)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/how-can-i-control-fields-to-include-or-exclude-based-on-models-boolean-field/6658/12 "2021-02-18T17:34:33Z")
It works like a charm. Very nice! 👍