Django how to use multiple lines with return HttpResponse

Question

I just picked up Django a couple days ago and I don't have much experience with any languages other than java, so Python is a bit of a learning curve. I manages to create a web page that generates a random number each time you refresh it and tells you whether or not it is the number one.

The problem lies in using multiple lines on a single page. Instead of having the page look like that, I want it to be formatted vertically, like this:

n = random.randint(1, 2)  # returns a random integer
if n == 1:
    query = "The number is One."
else:
    query = "The number Is'nt One."
return HttpResponse(str('Randomly generated number: ') + str(n) + str("   ") + str(query))

One thing I noticed is that all the code after "return HttpResponse" is unused, for example if I had moved the "if" and "else" statements to after the HttpResponse, it would be marked as unused code and would not appear on the final product.

Answer 1

Learn about Python and Django a little more. HttpResponse is a quick and dirty way that output is done in views. You can learn about how use Templates for this, you can read about this in:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/intro/tutorial03/

and use Templates for your process.

Answer 2

Just use <br/> where you want the break line. When browser finds the <br/> changes line.

n = random.randint(1, 2)  # returns a random integer
if n == 1:
    query = "The number is one."
else:
    query = "The number isn't one."
return HttpResponse('Random Number Generator <br/> The random number is: ') + str(n) + "<br/>" + query)

Answer 3

I think the best solution would be to set content_type="text/plain" :

n = random.randint(1, 2)  # returns a random integer
if n == 1:
    query = "The number is One."
else:
    query = "The number Isn't One."
output_string = "Randomly generated number: \n The random number is: " + str(n) + "\n" + query
return HttpResponse(output_string, content_type="text/plain")

The default content type of HttpResponse is text/html ( docs ), so using <br> would work. However, this essentially creates a non-valid HTML page. Thus, for such simple output, I think text/plain is the best choice.