Find Out A Datetime is Between Two Datetimes in Django

Question

I'm making a blog-like platform which includes an event page. I have a model as below:

class Event(models.Model):
    dtime_start = models.DateTimeField(null=False, blank=False)
    dtime_end = models.DateTimeField(null=False, blank=False)

Assuming I have a view called event_main which projects all events. However, I want to project currently active events at the top of page, highlighted. So what I need is:

to get exact request datetime of client
to filter Event instances having the request datetime between dtime_start and dtime_end

I thought of solutions including for loops and put the results in the list, however I don't really want to put model instances to a list, since there are QuerySets. Is there a built-in way to do this in Django?

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# Environment #
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python 3.2.5
pypy 2.4.0
django 1.8.7

Antoine Pinsard · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-19T15:26:52.190

4

To get the request datetime of the client, you may :

Rely on the "Date" header (request.META.get('HTTP_DATE')),
Rely on the current date of the server and the client timezone
Fallback to the current date of the server

Then you can filter with common lookups as you would to for an integer:

Event.objects.filter(dtime_start__lte=request_datetime,
                     dtime_end__gte=request_datetime)

Note: Unless you have some specific reasons to rely on the client's date, you should probably avoid it and simply use datetime.now() or timezone.now() (both would work the same, as Django handles timezone conversion when dealing with the database). If you rely on the client's date, beware that they could temper with the Date header to access past or future events.

edited Sep 19 '22 at 15:26

answered Mar 13 '16 at 13:14

Antoine Pinsard

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things to note: if dtime_start and dtime_end are DATETIME in the database, you need to set the start time and end time of the `request_datetime` object you pass in, otherwise you could miss Events on the `lte` and `gte` (equal) date ends. – warath-coder Mar 13 '16 at 13:31
Another note, I think it should be `__lte` and `__gte` right? – Eray Erdin Mar 13 '16 at 13:37
@ErayErdin, yes of course, fixed. – Antoine Pinsard Mar 13 '16 at 13:45
@warath-coder, what do you mean "the start time and end time of the `request_datetime`"? It's a datetime, not a datetime range. – Antoine Pinsard Mar 13 '16 at 13:47
I was thinking if you were trying to get full days; I miss read what the OP was asking. – warath-coder Mar 13 '16 at 21:16

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 13 '16 at 13:37

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The dtime_start <= input AND dtime_end >= output:

Event.objects.filter(dtime_start__lte=datetime.date(y, m, d), dtime_start__gte=datetime.date(y, m, d))

For more information, refer to the documentation.

edited Mar 13 '16 at 13:37

jhoepken

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answered Mar 13 '16 at 13:08

nlgn

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Find Out A Datetime is Between Two Datetimes in Django

2 Answers2