[5.2.x] Fixed #31506 -- Clarified that ExpressionWrapper does not perform database casts.

Added warning in DateField documentation about type differences when using
timedelta on PostgreSQL and MySQL. Mentioned Cast() and integer arithmetic
solutions.

Backport of 55af4749b9 from main.
This commit is contained in:
Cha Hwa Young 2025-10-13 02:29:15 +09:00 committed by Jacob Walls
parent 93fd01d641
commit 31bc5c2d11
2 changed files with 45 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -37,6 +37,12 @@ determine the result's field type, such as complex expressions that mix field
types. For example, adding a ``DecimalField()`` and a ``FloatField()`` requires
an output field, like ``output_field=FloatField()``.
``output_field`` also allows using custom fields that perform type conversions
outside a specific model field context. For example, if you frequently need to
perform date arithmetic with ``timedelta``, you can create a custom field that
handles the conversion, ensuring consistent results across databases. See
:doc:`/howto/custom-model-fields`.
Some examples
=============
@ -559,6 +565,12 @@ available on other expressions. ``ExpressionWrapper`` is necessary when using
arithmetic on ``F()`` expressions with different types as described in
:ref:`using-f-with-annotations`.
.. admonition:: Database casting not performed
``ExpressionWrapper`` only sets the output field for the ORM and does not
perform any database-level casting. To ensure a specific type is returned
from the database, use :class:`~django.db.models.functions.Cast` instead.
Conditional expressions
-----------------------

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@ -841,6 +841,39 @@ Any combination of these options will result in an error.
instance, removing its time component. This is true for both storage and
comparison.
.. warning::
On PostgreSQL and MySQL, arithmetic operations on a ``DateField`` with a
:class:`~datetime.timedelta` return a ``datetime`` instead of a ``date``.
This occurs because Python's ``timedelta`` is converted to SQL
``INTERVAL``, and the SQL operation ``date +/- interval`` returns a
``timestamp`` on these databases.
To ensure a ``date`` result, use one of the following approaches. Either
explicitly cast the result to a date::
import datetime
from django.db.models import DateField, F
from django.db.models.functions import Cast
qs = MyModel.objects.annotate(
previous_day=Cast(
F("date_field") - datetime.timedelta(days=1),
output_field=DateField(),
)
)
Or on PostgreSQL only, use integer arithmetic to represent days::
from django.db.models import DateField, ExpressionWrapper, F
qs = MyModel.objects.annotate(
previous_day=ExpressionWrapper(
F("date_field") - 1, # Subtract 1 day as integer
output_field=DateField(),
)
)
``DateTimeField``
-----------------