Django Model() vs Model.objects.create()

Question

What it the difference between running two commands:

foo = FooModel()

and

bar = BarModel.objects.create()

Answer 1

The two syntaxes are not equivalent and it can lead to unexpected errors. Here is a simple example showing the differences. If you have a model:

from django.db import models

class Test(models.Model):

    added = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)

And you create a first object:

foo = Test.objects.create(pk=1)

Then you try to create an object with the same primary key:

foo_duplicate = Test.objects.create(pk=1)
# returns the error:
# django.db.utils.IntegrityError: (1062, "Duplicate entry '1' for key 'PRIMARY'")

foo_duplicate = Test(pk=1).save()
# returns the error:
# django.db.utils.IntegrityError: (1048, "Column 'added' cannot be null")