A minor enhancement to "for" tag description in the reference

[wodny]

I would like to propose a minor enhancement to a ​paragraph which gives an example on using the "for" tag with dictionaries:

{% for key, value in data.items %}
    {{ key }}: {{ value }}
{% endfor %}

Currently it doesn't recall the reader that the lookup order would cause different output if the "dict" dictionary contains the "items" key than when it doesn't.

On the other hand a paragraph about defaultdict on ​another page suggests using dict instead of defaultdict. But while it solves the problem of creating an entry by making a lookup it doesn't solve the problem of "items" key within a dictionary.

I thought that maybe one or both pages could contain a reminder that the view author should remember not to pass a dictionary with the "items" key if the template author wants to use that "for key, value" construct.

[Jacek Bzdak]

If this is OK (I don't really know what is the protocol) I'll do this issue.

[Jacek Bzdak]

Here is the PR link: ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/5450.

Here is full wording (maybe a bit verbose):

  Keep in mind that ``items`` key in a dictionary will shadow ``items()``
  function. This lookup order can cause some unexpected behavior.

  In normal situations Django template expression ``{{ data.items }}`` will
  return result of following python code: ``data.items()``, however if
  ``data`` dictionary will contain ``items`` key, the same django expression
  will return: ``data['items']``, which is most probably *not what you want*.

  You should avoid adding dictionary entries whose keys are named like methods
  of dictionary instance for example: ``items``, ``values``, ``keys``, to
  dictionaries that will be passed to Django templates.

  For additional information see
  :ref:`documentation of template variables <template-variables>`.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 32cd706:

Fixed #25574 -- Documented {{ dict.items }} shadowing in for template tag docs.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 5a9e93e0:

[1.9.x] Fixed #25574 -- Documented {{ dict.items }} shadowing in for template tag docs.

Backport of 32cd7069711d2e02fcd20c005c59c175d542c62e from master

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 3e8234b:

[1.8.x] Fixed #25574 -- Documented {{ dict.items }} shadowing in for template tag docs.

Backport of 32cd7069711d2e02fcd20c005c59c175d542c62e from master