How can I programmatically obtain the max_length of a Django model field?

Question

Say I have a Django class something like this:

class Person(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
    # ...

How can I p

Answer 1

Person._meta.get_field('name').max_length will give you this value. But having to use _meta suggests this is something you shouldn't do in normal usage.

Edit: as Carl pointed out, this naming is misleading and it does seem quite acceptable to use it: http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/nov/04/working-models/