Storing Measurement Objects

Suppose you were trying to cut back on drinking, and needed to store a log of how much beer you drink day-to-day; you might (naively) create a model like such:

from django_measurement.models import MeasurementField
from measurement.measures import Volume
from django.db import models

class BeerConsumptionLogEntry(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)
    volume = MeasurementField(measurement=Volume)

    def __str__(self):
        return '%s of %s' % (self.name, self.volume)

and assume you had a pint of Ninkasi’s Total Domination; you’d add it to your log like so:

from measurement.measures import Volume

beer = BeerConsumptionLogEntry()
beer.name = 'Total Domination'
beer.volume = Volume(us_pint=1)
beer.save()

print beer # '1 us_pint of Total Domination'

Perhaps you next recklessly dove into your stash of terrible, but nostalgia-inducing Russian beer and had a half-liter of Baltika’s #9; you’d add it to your log like so:

another_beer = BeerConsumptionLogEntry()
another_beer.name = '#9'
another_beer.volume = Volume(l=0.5)
another_beer.save()

print beer # '0.5 l of #9'

Note that although the original unit specified is stored for display, that the unit is abstracted to the measure’s standard unit for storage and comparison:

print beer.volume                       # '1 us_pint'
print another_beer.volume               # '0.5 l'
print beer.volume > another_beer.volume # False

How is this data stored?

Since django-measurement v2.0 there value will be stored in a single float field.