django: order_by booleanfield in postgresql

Question

I'm seeing weird outputs while trying to order_by booleanfield in postgresql.

I have a boolean field with default=false and I'm using the order_by(-thebooleanfield) and something I see the True value first which is what I expected but something the False values come first.

Do I need to switch to different type? Or there is a correct way to order_by booleanfield in postgresql?

10x

Fiver · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-20 18:05:55Z

1

Django is ordering by the value stored in the underlying database. I've never found any official explanation in the Django documentation, but there was a Django ticket a while back that explains it:

https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/19726

Basically, the devs marked it as wontfix because implementing a consistent behaviour between database backends would make them more fragile.

The best way to ensure consistent behaviour is probably to sort the values client-side.

edited Feb 20, 2015 at 18:05

answered Feb 20, 2015 at 17:58

Fiver

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3 Comments

DjangoPy Over a year ago

sorting in client side is not an option, what about using an small integer field with 0/1?

DjangoPy Over a year ago

as I understand the default=False is taking care of in Django layer and not the DB layer, maybe I should explicitly set the value to False when saving the model to the DB.

Fiver Over a year ago

I suppose that would work, though you would likely want to make sure the form field widget is a checkbox and not a text input. Perhaps you could add some logic in your views to check the first sorted item's boolean value and reverse it if it's not what you want.

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