Use Django dictionaries on HTML

Question

Imagine you have a dictionary like this in a view

CHOICES = (
             (0, "Numeric"),
             (1, "String"),
             (2, "Boolean"),
             (3, "Date"),
)

Later in the view I pass my dictionary as a context to the template. Like this:

EDIT 1:

# type is a int
type = 2
ctx = {'choices':CHOICES, 'type':dict(type)}

The problem is that I can't parse my dictionary in HTML. In this example, I want to return the string "Boolean" Here's my snippet:

{{ choices[type] }}

How can I solve this?

I think there's a solution using for cycles and then compare the variable with the type, but that's too much code. Or I can pass the string instead of the whole dictionary, but that's not what I want. Later I'll use it with an array of types so the last solution can't be used.

Edit 2:

Ok. To make it simple...

In models.py

class AttributeType(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField("Name", max_length=100)
    description = models.CharField("Description", max_length=100)
    choice = models.IntegerField("Choice")
    def __unicode__(self):
        return self.name

Imagine I already filled the db with some random values.

In views.py:

def list_attribute_types(request):
    attribute_types = AttributeType.objects.all()
    # Here we should add the dict to the ctx (?)
    ctx = {'attribute_types':attribute_types}
    return render_to_response('des/attribute_type/list_attribute_types.html', ctx, context_instance=RequestContext(request))

In my list_attribute_types.html:

{% extends "index.html" %} {% block title %}SGC - Administración de Tipo
de Atributo{% endblock %} {% block content %}

<div class="jumbotron">
    <div class="bs-example">
        <h1>Administración de Tipo de Atributos</h1>
        <a class="btn btn-sm btn-default" href="{% url 'create_attribute_type' %}"><span
            class="glyphicon glyphicon-plus"></span>Crear Tipo de Atributos</a> <br>
        <br> 
        {% if attribute_types %}
        <div class="table-responsive">
            <table class="table table-hover">
                <thead>
                    <tr>
                        <th>ID</th>
                        <th>Nombre de Tipo de Atributos</th>
                        <th></th>
                        <th></th>
                        <th></th>
                    </tr>
                </thead>
                <tbody>
                    {% for attribute_type in attribute_types %}
                    <tr>
                        <td>{{ attribute_type.id }}</td>
                        <td>{{ attribute_type.name }}</td>
                        <!-- Here should be the choice parsed to string name{{ choices[attribute_type.choice] }}-->
                        <td><a class="btn btn-sm btn-default"
                            href="{% url 'modify_attribute_type' id_attribute_type=attribute_type.id %}"><span class="#"></span>
                                Modificar</a></td>
                        <td><a class="btn btn-sm btn-default"
                            href="{% url 'delete_attribute_type' id_attribute_type=attribute_type.id %}"><span
                                class="glyphicon glyphicon-trash"></span> Eliminar</a></td>
                        <td><a class="btn btn-sm btn-default"
                            href="{% url 'visualize_attribute_type' id_attribute_type=attribute_type.id %}"><span
                                class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"></span> Visualizar</a></td>
                    </tr>
                    {% endfor %}
                </tbody>
            </table>
        </div>
        {% else %}
        <h3>No existen Tipo de Atributo</h3>
        {% endif %}
    </div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

The main problem starts when I need to pass a list of a certain model like this one. Any ideas how to convert attribute_type.choice int value to his respective string value?

Answer 1

CHOICES is not a dictionary - just use a dictionary literal:

CHOICES = {
    0: "Numeric",
    1: "String",
    2: "Boolean",
    3: "Date",
}

Then the easiest option is to do the lookup in your code, not at a template level:

ctx = {'choice': CHOICES[type]}

Using a variable as a key in a template isn't supported in django (intentionally). There are ways around this, but the bestway is to do it in your view, not in your template (as above).