Django Cheatsheet — Complete Quick Reference (2026)

from django.db import models

class Post(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    slug = models.SlugField(unique=True)
    body = models.TextField()
    created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    updated = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True)
    author = models.ForeignKey('auth.User', on_delete=models.CASCADE)
    tags = models.ManyToManyField('Tag')
    published = models.BooleanField(default=False)

    class Meta:
        ordering = ['-created']
        indexes = [models.Index(fields=['slug'])]

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

# CRUD
Post.objects.create(title="Hello", slug="hello")
post = Post.objects.get(id=1)
post.title = "Updated"; post.save()
post.delete()

# filtering
Post.objects.filter(published=True)
Post.objects.exclude(author__username='admin')
Post.objects.filter(created__year=2026, tags__name='python')

# chaining (lazy)
qs = Post.objects.filter(published=True).order_by('-created')[:10]

# aggregation
from django.db.models import Count, Avg
Post.objects.aggregate(Count('id'), Avg('author__id'))

# select_related / prefetch_related (N+1 fix)
Post.objects.select_related('author').all()
Post.objects.prefetch_related('tags').all()

# Function-based view
from django.shortcuts import render, get_object_or_404
def post_detail(request, slug):
    post = get_object_or_404(Post, slug=slug)
    return render(request, 'blog/detail.html', {'post': post})

# Class-based view (generic)
from django.views.generic import ListView, DetailView
class PostListView(ListView):
    model = Post
    template_name = 'blog/list.html'
    context_object_name = 'posts'
    paginate_by = 20

from django.urls import path, include
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.PostListView.as_view(), name='post_list'),
    path('post/<slug:slug>/', views.post_detail, name='post_detail'),
    path('api/', include('api.urls')),
]

{% extends "base.html" %}
{% block content %}
  {% for post in posts %}
    <h2><a href="{% url 'post_detail' post.slug %}">{{ post.title }}</a></h2>
    <p>{{ post.body|truncatewords:50 }}</p>
  {% empty %}
    <p>No posts yet.</p>
  {% endfor %}
{% endblock %}

from django import forms
class PostForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Post
        fields = ['title', 'slug', 'body', 'published']
        widgets = {
            'body': forms.Textarea(attrs={'rows': 10}),
        }

# in view
def create_post(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = PostForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
            return redirect('post_list')
    else:
        form = PostForm()
    return render(request, 'blog/form.html', {'form': form})

from django.contrib import admin

@admin.register(Post)
class PostAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
    list_display = ['title', 'author', 'published', 'created']
    list_filter = ['published', 'created']
    search_fields = ['title', 'body']
    prepopulated_fields = {'slug': ('title',)}
    autocomplete_fields = ['author']
    date_hierarchy = 'created'

# settings.py
MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

# custom
class MyMiddleware:
    def __init__(self, get_response):
        self.get_response = get_response
    def __call__(self, request):
        # before view
        response = self.get_response(request)
        # after view
        return response

python manage.py startapp blog
python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py collectstatic
python manage.py shell
python manage.py test