Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025
In Django REST Framework the very concept of Serializing is to convert DB data to a datatype that can be used by javascript. Every serializer comes with some fields (entries) which are going to be processed. For example if you have a class with name Employee and its fields as Employee_id, Employee_name, date, etc. Then, you would need AutoField, CharField and DateField for storing and manipulating data through Django. Similarly, serializer also works with same principle and has fields that are used to create a serializer.
This article revolves around Date and time Fields in Serializers in Django REST Framework. There are four major fields - DateTimeField, DateField, TimeField and DurationField.
DateTimeField is a serializer field used for date and time representation. It is same as - DateTimeField – Django Models
It has the following arguments -
Syntax -
field_name = serializers.DateTimeField(*args, **kwargs)DateField
DateField is a serializer field used for date representation. Often, one needs to store date such as in a blog model every post's date needs to be stored. This field is same as DateField – Django Models
It has the following arguments -
Syntax -
field_name = serializers.DateField(*args, **kwargs)TimeField
Timefield is a serializer field used for time representation. Often, one needs to store date such as in a blog model every post's time needs to be stored.
It has the following arguments -
Syntax -
field_name = serializers.TimeField(*args, **kwargs)DurationField
DurationField is a serializer field used for duration representation. This field is same as DurationField – Django Models
It has the following arguments -
Syntax -
field_name = serializers.DurationField(*args, **kwargs)How to use Date and Time Fields in Serializers ?
To explain the usage of Date and Time Fields, let's use the same project setup from - How to Create a basic API using Django Rest Framework ?.
Now that you have a file called serializers in your project, let's create a serializer with DatetimeField, DateField, TimeField and DurationField.
# import serializer from rest_framework
from rest_framework import serializers
class Geeks(object):
def __init__(self, date_time, date, time, duration):
self.date_time = date_time
self.date = date
self.time = time
self.duration = duration
# create a serializer
class GeeksSerializer(serializers.Serializer):
# initialize fields
date_time = serializers.DateTimeField()
date = serializers.DateField()
time = serializers.TimeField()
duration = serializers.DurationField()
Now let us create some objects and try serializing them and check if they are actually working, Run, -
Python manage.py shell
Now, run following python commands in the shell
# import everything from datetime
>>> from datetime import *
# import everything from serializers
>>> from apis.serializers import *
# create a object of type Geeks
>>> obj = Geeks(datetime.now(), date.today(), time(), timedelta(days=-1))
# serialize the object
>>> serializer = GeeksSerializer(obj)
# print serialized data
>>> serializer.data
{'date_time': '2020-03-22T13:17:27.853707Z',
'date': '2020-03-22', 'time': '00:00:00',
'duration': '-1 00:00:00'}
Here is the output of all these operations on terminal -
Note that prime motto of these fields is to impart validations, such as DateField validates the data to date only. Let's check if these validations are working or not -
# Create a dictionary and add invalid values
>>> data={}
>>> data['date_time'] = "invalid_date_time"
>>> data['date'] = date.today()
>>> data['time'] = time()
>>> data['duration'] = "invalid_duration"
# dictionary created
>>> data
{'date_time': 'invalid_date_time',
'date': datetime.date(2020, 3, 22),
'time': datetime.time(0, 0),
'duration': 'invalid_duration'}
# deserialize the data
>>> serializer = GeeksSerializer(data=data)
# check if data is valid
>>> serializer.is_valid()
False
# check the errors
>>> serializer.errors
{'date_time': [ErrorDetail(string='Datetime has wrong format. Use one of these formats instead: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss[.uuuuuu]][+HH:MM|-HH:MM|Z].', code='invalid')], 'duration': [ErrorDetail(strin
g='Duration has wrong format. Use one of these formats instead: [DD] [HH:[MM:]]ss[.uuuuuu].', code='invalid')]}
Here is the output of these commands which clearly shows date_time and duration as invalid -
Validations are part of Deserialization and not serialization. As explained earlier, serializing is process of converting already made data into another data type, so there is no requirement of these default validations out there. Deserialization requires validations as data needs to be saved to database or any more operation as specified. So if you serialize data using these fields that would work.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4