Save vs Update in Django

To prevent updating every field of the model you can use the update_fields parameter. It expects a list of fields that you want to save. The UPDATE that is run against the database then only updates those fields that you have specified.

For example, in case we only want to update the price of a toy, we would run "toy.save(update_fields=["price"])".

• when creating a new record.
• you have a model instance already, and you need to change some field values.
• you've overridden the save() method to include some custom model logic.
• you defined pre_save and post_save signals for that model.

The ".update()" method is available on each queryset object of the ORM. For example, "Toy.objects.filter(price__lt=50).update(price=50)".

This would update the price of all toys that are below a certain price. While this is for a range of records, it could also be used to update a single record: "Toy.objects.filter(name="hippo").update(price=120)".

• you are updating fields of one or many records (note: update cannot be used to create a new record, like save can).
• you don't need to re-use a model instance after updating.
• you don't need your overridden save() method or any pre_save or post_save signals to run.
• you know what your new field values must be without having retrieved the record(s).