Fields

API Documentation

pydantic.fields.Field

In this section, we will go through the available mechanisms to customize Pydantic model fields: default values, JSON Schema metadata, constraints, etc.

To do so, the Field() function is used a lot, and behaves the same way as the standard library field() function for dataclasses – by assigning to the annotated attribute:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(frozen=True)

Note

Even though name is assigned a value, it is still required and has no default value. If you want to emphasize on the fact that a value must be provided, you can use the ellipsis:

class Model(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(..., frozen=True)

However, its usage is discouraged as it doesn't play well with static type checkers.

The annotated pattern

To apply constraints or attach Field() functions to a model field, Pydantic also supports the Annotated typing construct to attach metadata to an annotation:

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, WithJsonSchema


class Model(BaseModel):
    name: Annotated[str, Field(strict=True), WithJsonSchema({'extra': 'data'})]

As far as static type checkers are concerned, name is still typed as str, but Pydantic leverages the available metadata to add validation logic, type constraints, etc.

Using this pattern has some advantages:

• Using the f: <type> = Field(...) form can be confusing and might trick users into thinking f has a default value, while in reality it is still required.
• You can provide an arbitrary amount of metadata elements for a field. As shown in the example above, the Field() function only supports a limited set of constraints/metadata, and you may have to use different Pydantic utilities such as WithJsonSchema in some cases.
• Types can be made reusable (see the documentation on custom types using this pattern).

However, note that certain arguments to the Field() function (namely, default, default_factory, and alias) are taken into account by static type checkers to synthesize a correct __init__() method. The annotated pattern is not understood by them, so you should use the normal assignment form instead.

Tip

The annotated pattern can also be used to add metadata to specific parts of the type. For instance, validation constraints can be added this way:

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    int_list: list[Annotated[int, Field(gt=0)]]
    # Valid: [1, 3]
    # Invalid: [-1, 2]

Be careful not mixing field and type metadata:

class Model(BaseModel):
    field_bad: Annotated[int, Field(deprecated=True)] | None = None  # (1)!
    field_ok: Annotated[int | None, Field(deprecated=True)] = None  # (2)!

1. The Field() function is applied to int type, hence the deprecated flag won't have any effect. While this may be confusing given that the name of the Field() function would imply it should apply to the field, the API was designed when this function was the only way to provide metadata. You can alternatively make use of the annotated_types library which is now supported by Pydantic.

2. The Field() function is applied to the "top-level" union type, hence the deprecated flag will be applied to the field.

Inspecting model fields

The fields of a model can be inspected using the model_fields class attribute (or the __pydantic_fields__ attribute for Pydantic dataclasses). It is a mapping of field names to their definition (represented as FieldInfo instances).

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, WithJsonSchema


class Model(BaseModel):
    a: Annotated[
        int, Field(gt=1), WithJsonSchema({'extra': 'data'}), Field(alias='b')
    ] = 1


field_info = Model.model_fields['a']
print(field_info.annotation)
#> <class 'int'>
print(field_info.alias)
#> b
print(field_info.metadata)
#> [Gt(gt=1), WithJsonSchema(json_schema={'extra': 'data'}, mode=None)]

Default values

Default values for fields can be provided using the normal assignment syntax or by providing a value to the default argument:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    # Both fields aren't required:
    name: str = 'John Doe'
    age: int = Field(default=20)

Warning

In Pydantic V1, a type annotated as Any or wrapped by Optional would be given an implicit default of None even if no default was explicitly specified. This is no longer the case in Pydantic V2.

You can also pass a callable to the default_factory argument that will be called to generate a default value:

from uuid import uuid4

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    id: str = Field(default_factory=lambda: uuid4().hex)

The default factory can also take a single required argument, in which case the already validated data will be passed as a dictionary.

from pydantic import BaseModel, EmailStr, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    email: EmailStr
    username: str = Field(default_factory=lambda data: data['email'])


user = User(email='[email protected]')
print(user.username)
#> [email protected]

The data argument will only contain the already validated data, based on the order of model fields (the above example would fail if username were to be defined before email).

Validate default values

By default, Pydantic will not validate default values. The validate_default field parameter (or the validate_default configuration value) can be used to enable this behavior:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, ValidationError


class User(BaseModel):
    age: int = Field(default='twelve', validate_default=True)


try:
    user = User()
except ValidationError as e:
    print(e)
    """
    1 validation error for User
    age
      Input should be a valid integer, unable to parse string as an integer [type=int_parsing, input_value='twelve', input_type=str]
    """

Mutable default values

A common source of bugs in Python is to use a mutable object as a default value for a function or method argument, as the same instance ends up being reused in each call.

The dataclasses module actually raises an error in this case, indicating that you should use a default factory instead.

While the same thing can be done in Pydantic, it is not required. In the event that the default value is not hashable, Pydantic will create a deep copy of the default value when creating each instance of the model:

from pydantic import BaseModel


class Model(BaseModel):
    item_counts: list[dict[str, int]] = [{}]


m1 = Model()
m1.item_counts[0]['a'] = 1
print(m1.item_counts)
#> [{'a': 1}]

m2 = Model()
print(m2.item_counts)
#> [{}]

Field aliases

Tip

Read more about aliases in the dedicated section.

For validation and serialization, you can define an alias for a field.

There are three ways to define an alias:

• Field(alias='foo')
• Field(validation_alias='foo')
• Field(serialization_alias='foo')

The alias parameter is used for both validation and serialization. If you want to use different aliases for validation and serialization respectively, you can use the validation_alias and serialization_alias parameters, which will apply only in their respective use cases.

Here is an example of using the alias parameter:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(alias='username')


user = User(username='johndoe')  # (1)!
print(user)
#> name='johndoe'
print(user.model_dump(by_alias=True))  # (2)!
#> {'username': 'johndoe'}

1. The alias 'username' is used for instance creation and validation.

2. We are using model_dump() to convert the model into a serializable format.

   Note that the by_alias keyword argument defaults to False, and must be specified explicitly to dump models using the field (serialization) aliases.

   You can also use ConfigDict.serialize_by_alias to configure this behavior at the model level.

   When by_alias=True, the alias 'username' used during serialization.

If you want to use an alias only for validation, you can use the validation_alias parameter:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(validation_alias='username')


user = User(username='johndoe')  # (1)!
print(user)
#> name='johndoe'
print(user.model_dump(by_alias=True))  # (2)!
#> {'name': 'johndoe'}

1. The validation alias 'username' is used during validation.
2. The field name 'name' is used during serialization.

If you only want to define an alias for serialization, you can use the serialization_alias parameter:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(serialization_alias='username')


user = User(name='johndoe')  # (1)!
print(user)
#> name='johndoe'
print(user.model_dump(by_alias=True))  # (2)!
#> {'username': 'johndoe'}

1. The field name 'name' is used for validation.
2. The serialization alias 'username' is used for serialization.

Alias precedence and priority

In case you use alias together with validation_alias or serialization_alias at the same time, the validation_alias will have priority over alias for validation, and serialization_alias will have priority over alias for serialization.

If you provide a value for the alias_generator model setting, you can control the order of precedence for field alias and generated aliases via the alias_priority field parameter. You can read more about alias precedence here.

Static type checking/IDE support

If you provide a value for the alias field parameter, static type checkers will use this alias instead of the actual field name to synthesize the __init__ method:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(alias='username')


user = User(username='johndoe')  # (1)!

1. Accepted by type checkers.

This means that when using the validate_by_name model setting (which allows both the field name and alias to be used during model validation), type checkers will error when the actual field name is used:

from pydantic import BaseModel, ConfigDict, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    model_config = ConfigDict(validate_by_name=True)

    name: str = Field(alias='username')


user = User(name='johndoe')  # (1)!

1. Not accepted by type checkers.

If you still want type checkers to use the field name and not the alias, the annotated pattern can be used (which is only understood by Pydantic):

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, ConfigDict, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    model_config = ConfigDict(validate_by_name=True, validate_by_alias=True)

    name: Annotated[str, Field(alias='username')]


user = User(name='johndoe')  # (1)!
user = User(username='johndoe')  # (2)!

1. Accepted by type checkers.
2. Not accepted by type checkers.

Validation Alias

Even though Pydantic treats alias and validation_alias the same when creating model instances, type checkers only understand the alias field parameter. As a workaround, you can instead specify both an alias and serialization_alias (identical to the field name), as the serialization_alias will override the alias during serialization:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class MyModel(BaseModel):
    my_field: int = Field(validation_alias='myValidationAlias')

with:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class MyModel(BaseModel):
    my_field: int = Field(
        alias='myValidationAlias',
        serialization_alias='my_field',
    )


m = MyModel(myValidationAlias=1)
print(m.model_dump(by_alias=True))
#> {'my_field': 1}

Field constraints

The Field() function can also be used to add constraints to specific types:

from decimal import Decimal

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    positive: int = Field(gt=0)
    short_str: str = Field(max_length=3)
    precise_decimal: Decimal = Field(max_digits=5, decimal_places=2)

The available constraints for each type (and the way they affect the JSON Schema) are described in the standard library types documentation.

Strict fields

The strict parameter of the Field() function specifies whether the field should be validated in strict mode.

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(strict=True)
    age: int = Field(strict=False)  # (1)!


user = User(name='John', age='42')  # (2)!
print(user)
#> name='John' age=42

1. This is the default value.
2. The age field is validated in lax mode. Therefore, it can be assigned a string.

The standard library types documentation describes the strict behavior for each type.

Dataclass fields

Some parameters of the Field() function can be used on dataclasses:

• init: Whether the field should be included in the synthesized __init__() method of the dataclass.
• init_var: Whether the field should be init-only in the dataclass.
• kw_only: Whether the field should be a keyword-only argument in the constructor of the dataclass.

Here is an example:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
from pydantic.dataclasses import dataclass


@dataclass
class Foo:
    bar: str
    baz: str = Field(init_var=True)
    qux: str = Field(kw_only=True)


class Model(BaseModel):
    foo: Foo


model = Model(foo=Foo('bar', baz='baz', qux='qux'))
print(model.model_dump())  # (1)!
#> {'foo': {'bar': 'bar', 'qux': 'qux'}}

1. The baz field is not included in the serialized output, since it is an init-only field.

Field Representation

The parameter repr can be used to control whether the field should be included in the string representation of the model.

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(repr=True)  # (1)!
    age: int = Field(repr=False)


user = User(name='John', age=42)
print(user)
#> name='John'

1. This is the default value.

Discriminator

The parameter discriminator can be used to control the field that will be used to discriminate between different models in a union. It takes either the name of a field or a Discriminator instance. The Discriminator approach can be useful when the discriminator fields aren't the same for all the models in the Union.

The following example shows how to use discriminator with a field name:

Python 3.9 and abovePython 3.10 and above

from typing import Literal, Union

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Cat(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['cat']
    age: int


class Dog(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['dog']
    age: int


class Model(BaseModel):
    pet: Union[Cat, Dog] = Field(discriminator='pet_type')


print(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_type': 'cat', 'age': 12}}))  # (1)!
#> pet=Cat(pet_type='cat', age=12)

1. See more about Validating data in the Models page.

from typing import Literal

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Cat(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['cat']
    age: int


class Dog(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['dog']
    age: int


class Model(BaseModel):
    pet: Cat | Dog = Field(discriminator='pet_type')


print(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_type': 'cat', 'age': 12}}))  # (1)!
#> pet=Cat(pet_type='cat', age=12)

1. See more about Validating data in the Models page.

The following example shows how to use the discriminator keyword argument with a Discriminator instance:

Python 3.9 and abovePython 3.10 and above

from typing import Annotated, Literal, Union

from pydantic import BaseModel, Discriminator, Field, Tag


class Cat(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['cat']
    age: int


class Dog(BaseModel):
    pet_kind: Literal['dog']
    age: int


def pet_discriminator(v):
    if isinstance(v, dict):
        return v.get('pet_type', v.get('pet_kind'))
    return getattr(v, 'pet_type', getattr(v, 'pet_kind', None))


class Model(BaseModel):
    pet: Union[Annotated[Cat, Tag('cat')], Annotated[Dog, Tag('dog')]] = Field(
        discriminator=Discriminator(pet_discriminator)
    )


print(repr(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_type': 'cat', 'age': 12}})))
#> Model(pet=Cat(pet_type='cat', age=12))

print(repr(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_kind': 'dog', 'age': 12}})))
#> Model(pet=Dog(pet_kind='dog', age=12))

from typing import Annotated, Literal

from pydantic import BaseModel, Discriminator, Field, Tag


class Cat(BaseModel):
    pet_type: Literal['cat']
    age: int


class Dog(BaseModel):
    pet_kind: Literal['dog']
    age: int


def pet_discriminator(v):
    if isinstance(v, dict):
        return v.get('pet_type', v.get('pet_kind'))
    return getattr(v, 'pet_type', getattr(v, 'pet_kind', None))


class Model(BaseModel):
    pet: Annotated[Cat, Tag('cat')] | Annotated[Dog, Tag('dog')] = Field(
        discriminator=Discriminator(pet_discriminator)
    )


print(repr(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_type': 'cat', 'age': 12}})))
#> Model(pet=Cat(pet_type='cat', age=12))

print(repr(Model.model_validate({'pet': {'pet_kind': 'dog', 'age': 12}})))
#> Model(pet=Dog(pet_kind='dog', age=12))

You can also take advantage of Annotated to define your discriminated unions. See the Discriminated Unions docs for more details.

Immutability

The parameter frozen is used to emulate the frozen dataclass behaviour. It is used to prevent the field from being assigned a new value after the model is created (immutability).

See the frozen dataclass documentation for more details.

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, ValidationError


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str = Field(frozen=True)
    age: int


user = User(name='John', age=42)

try:
    user.name = 'Jane'  # (1)!
except ValidationError as e:
    print(e)
    """
    1 validation error for User
    name
      Field is frozen [type=frozen_field, input_value='Jane', input_type=str]
    """

1. Since name field is frozen, the assignment is not allowed.

Excluding fields

The exclude and exclude_if parameters can be used to control which fields should be excluded from the model when exporting the model.

See the following example:

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class User(BaseModel):
    name: str
    age: int = Field(exclude=True)


user = User(name='John', age=42)
print(user.model_dump())  # (1)!
#> {'name': 'John'}

1. The age field is not included in the model_dump() output, since it is excluded.

See the dedicated serialization section for more details.

Deprecated fields

The deprecated parameter can be used to mark a field as being deprecated. Doing so will result in:

• a runtime deprecation warning emitted when accessing the field.
• The deprecated keyword being set in the generated JSON schema.

This parameter accepts different types, described below.

deprecated as a string

The value will be used as the deprecation message.

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    deprecated_field: Annotated[int, Field(deprecated='This is deprecated')]


print(Model.model_json_schema()['properties']['deprecated_field'])
#> {'deprecated': True, 'title': 'Deprecated Field', 'type': 'integer'}

deprecated via the @warnings.deprecated decorator

The @warnings.deprecated decorator (or the typing_extensions backport on Python 3.12 and lower) can be used as an instance.

Python 3.9 and abovePython 3.13 and above

from typing import Annotated

from typing_extensions import deprecated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    deprecated_field: Annotated[int, deprecated('This is deprecated')]

    # Or explicitly using `Field`:
    alt_form: Annotated[int, Field(deprecated=deprecated('This is deprecated'))]

from typing import Annotated
from warnings import deprecated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    deprecated_field: Annotated[int, deprecated('This is deprecated')]

    # Or explicitly using `Field`:
    alt_form: Annotated[int, Field(deprecated=deprecated('This is deprecated'))]

Support for category and stacklevel

The current implementation of this feature does not take into account the category and stacklevel arguments to the deprecated decorator. This might land in a future version of Pydantic.

deprecated as a boolean

from typing import Annotated

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field


class Model(BaseModel):
    deprecated_field: Annotated[int, Field(deprecated=True)]


print(Model.model_json_schema()['properties']['deprecated_field'])
#> {'deprecated': True, 'title': 'Deprecated Field', 'type': 'integer'}

Accessing a deprecated field in validators

When accessing a deprecated field inside a validator, the deprecation warning will be emitted. You can use catch_warnings to explicitly ignore it:

import warnings

from typing_extensions import Self

from pydantic import BaseModel, Field, model_validator


class Model(BaseModel):
    deprecated_field: int = Field(deprecated='This is deprecated')

    @model_validator(mode='after')
    def validate_model(self) -> Self:
        with warnings.catch_warnings():
            warnings.simplefilter('ignore', DeprecationWarning)
            self.deprecated_field = self.deprecated_field * 2

Customizing JSON Schema

Some field parameters are used exclusively to customize the generated JSON schema. The parameters in question are:

• title
• description
• examples
• json_schema_extra

Read more about JSON schema customization / modification with fields in the Customizing JSON Schema section of the JSON schema docs.

The computed_field decorator

API Documentation

computed_field

The computed_field decorator can be used to include property or cached_property attributes when serializing a model or dataclass. The property will also be taken into account in the JSON Schema (in serialization mode).

Note

Properties can be useful for fields that are computed from other fields, or for fields that are expensive to be computed (and thus, are cached if using cached_property).

However, note that Pydantic will not perform any additional logic on the wrapped property (validation, cache invalidation, etc.).

Here's an example of the JSON schema (in serialization mode) generated for a model with a computed field:

from pydantic import BaseModel, computed_field


class Box(BaseModel):
    width: float
    height: float
    depth: float

    @computed_field
    @property  # (1)!
    def volume(self) -> float:
        return self.width * self.height * self.depth


print(Box.model_json_schema(mode='serialization'))
"""
{
    'properties': {
        'width': {'title': 'Width', 'type': 'number'},
        'height': {'title': 'Height', 'type': 'number'},
        'depth': {'title': 'Depth', 'type': 'number'},
        'volume': {'readOnly': True, 'title': 'Volume', 'type': 'number'},
    },
    'required': ['width', 'height', 'depth', 'volume'],
    'title': 'Box',
    'type': 'object',
}
"""

1. If not specified, computed_field will implicitly convert the method to a property. However, it is preferable to explicitly use the @property decorator for type checking purposes.

Here's an example using the model_dump method with a computed field:

from pydantic import BaseModel, computed_field


class Box(BaseModel):
    width: float
    height: float
    depth: float

    @computed_field
    @property
    def volume(self) -> float:
        return self.width * self.height * self.depth


b = Box(width=1, height=2, depth=3)
print(b.model_dump())
#> {'width': 1.0, 'height': 2.0, 'depth': 3.0, 'volume': 6.0}

As with regular fields, computed fields can be marked as being deprecated:

from typing_extensions import deprecated

from pydantic import BaseModel, computed_field


class Box(BaseModel):
    width: float
    height: float
    depth: float

    @computed_field
    @property
    @deprecated("'volume' is deprecated")
    def volume(self) -> float:
        return self.width * self.height * self.depth