CharField default is a str and not unicode

[bjourne]

In [7]: from django.db.models import CharField

In [8]: CharField().get_default()
Out[8]: ''

So the default value for CharField and most other model fields are strings and not unicode objects. It seems inconsistent with django's "unicode everywhere" policy. But if it actually is supposed to be that way, and default return value is not an oversight, then I think it should be documented somewhere why strings are returned and not unicodes. I can't find it discussed anywhere so I assume it must be a bug.

[kgrandis]

patch and tests

[kgrandis]

The CharField to_python() had two logical exit nodes; one was returning unicode and the other could return either a string or unicode. Additionally, the Field-level default was defined as a str.

The attached patch standardizes the method's output to only return unicode and sets the Field-level default. I've also included a test to ensure the output type is unicode as well as a series of basic CharField tests that seemed to be missing.

[Russell Keith-Magee]

Not critical for 1.2

[Claude Paroz]

The fact that CharField to_python doesn't force a bytestring to unicode is explained by some edge cases with MySQL where the collation for the field is set to utf8_bin. I wouldn't touch this part of the code.

See ​http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/ref/databases/#collation-settings

[kgrandis]

Replying to claudep:

The fact that CharField to_python doesn't force a bytestring to unicode is explained by some edge cases with MySQL where the collation for the field is set to utf8_bin. I wouldn't touch this part of the code.

See ​http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.2/ref/databases/#collation-settings

It would be helpful if you could include a test that demonstrates this failure. The included patch passed with MySQL when it was created.

[Jacob]

Milestone 1.3 deleted

[Aymeric Augustin]

Change UI/UX from NULL to False.

[Aymeric Augustin]

Change Easy pickings from NULL to False.

[Claude Paroz]

After generalization of unicode_literals in Django (#18269), I think this is not a problem any more.