Django Insert Data

Add Records

The Members table created in the previous chapter is empty.

We will use the Python interpreter (Python shell) to add some members to it.

To open a Python shell, type this command:

python manage.py shell

Now we are in the shell, the result should be something like this:

Python 3.13.2 (tags/v3.13.2:4f8bb39, Feb  4 2025, 15:23:48) [MSC v.1942 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)
>>>

At the bottom, after the three >>> write the following:

>>> from members.models import Member

Hit [enter] and write this to look at the empty Member table:

>>> Member.objects.all()

This should give you an empty QuerySet object, like this:

<QuerySet []>

A QuerySet is a collection of data from a database.

Read more about QuerySets in the Django QuerySet chapter.

Add a record to the table, by executing these two lines:

>>> member = Member(firstname='Emil', lastname='Refsnes')
>>> member.save()

Execute this command to see if the Member table got a member:

>>> Member.objects.all().values()

Hopefully, the result will look like this:

<QuerySet [{'id': 1, 'firstname': 'Emil', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'}]>

Add Multiple Records

You can add multiple records by making a list of Member objects, and execute .save() on each entry:

>>> member1 = Member(firstname='Tobias', lastname='Refsnes')
>>> member2 = Member(firstname='Linus', lastname='Refsnes')
>>> member3 = Member(firstname='Lene', lastname='Refsnes')
>>> member4 = Member(firstname='Stale', lastname='Refsnes')
>>> member5 = Member(firstname='Jane', lastname='Doe')
>>> members_list = [member1, member2, member3, member4, member5]
>>> for x in members_list:
...    x.save()
...
>>>

Hit [enter] one more time at the end to exit the for loop.

Now, if you run this command:

>>> Member.objects.all().values()

you will see that there are 6 members in the Member table:

<QuerySet [{'id': 1, 'firstname': 'Emil', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'},
{'id': 2, 'firstname': 'Tobias', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'},
{'id': 3, 'firstname': 'Linus', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'},
{'id': 4, 'firstname': 'Lene', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'},
{'id': 5, 'firstname': 'Stale', 'lastname': 'Refsnes'},
{'id': 6, 'firstname': 'Jane', 'lastname': 'Doe'}]>