ChoiceField - Django Forms

ChoiceField in Django Forms is a field used to select a single value from a predefined list of choices. It is ideal for fields like State, Country, or any scenario where the user must pick one option from a set of known values.

• Data type: Normalizes input to a string.
• Default widget: Select (renders as a dropdown).
• Required argument: choices, an iterable of 2-tuples representing the available options.

Syntax

field_name = forms.ChoiceField(choices=CHOICES, **options)

Here, choices is either:

• An iterable of 2-tuples (e.g., [('1', 'One'), ('2', 'Two')]), or
• A callable that returns such an iterable.

Example: Using ChoiceField in a Django Form

Suppose you have a Django project named geeksforgeeks with an app named geeks.

Step 1: Define choices and form in geeks/forms.py

from django import forms

GEEKS_CHOICES = (
    ("1", "One"),
    ("2", "Two"),
    ("3", "Three"),
    ("4", "Four"),
    ("5", "Five"),
)

class GeeksForm(forms.Form):
    geeks_field = forms.ChoiceField(choices=GEEKS_CHOICES)

Step 2: Add your app to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'geeks', # Add your app here
]

Step 3: Create a view to render the form in geeks/views.py

from django.shortcuts import render
from .forms import GeeksForm

def home_view(request):
    form = GeeksForm()
    context = {'form': form}
    return render(request, "home.html", context)

Here we are importing that particular form from forms.py and creating an object of it in the view so that it can be rendered in a template.

Step 4: Create the template templates/home.html

Now, to initiate a Django form you need to create home.html where one would be designing the stuff as they like. Let's create a form in home.html.

<form method="GET">
    {{ form }}
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Step 5: Map the view to a URL in geeks/urls.py

from django.urls import path
from .views import home_view

urlpatterns = [
    path('', home_view),
]

Step 6: Run the server

python manage.py runserver

How to Use ChoiceField Data in Views

When the form is submitted, the selected choice value can be accessed from the request data:

def home_view(request):
    form = GeeksForm()
    context = {'form': form}
    
    if request.GET:
        selected_choice = request.GET.get('geeks_field')
        print(selected_choice)  # For debugging or further processing
    
    return render(request, "home.html", context)

Now let's try entering data into the field.

• For GET method, use request.GET
• For POST method, use request.POST

Core Field Arguments for ChoiceField

You can customize your ChoiceField with these common arguments: