Django models API offers two similar options that usually cause confusion on many developers: null and blank. When I first started working with Django I couldn’t tell the difference and always ended up using both. Sometimes even using them improperly.

Both do almost the same thing, as the name suggests, but here is the difference:

• Null: It is database-related. Defines if a given database column will accept null values or not.
• Blank: It is validation-related. It will be used during forms validation, when calling form.is_valid().

That being said, it is perfectly fine to have a field with null=True and blank=False. Meaning on the database level the field can be NULL, but in the application level it is a required field.

Now, where most developers get it wrong: Defining null=True for string-based fields such as CharField and TextField. Avoid doing that. Otherwise, you will end up having two possible values for “no data”, that is: None and an empty string. Having two possible values for “no data” is redundant. The Django convention is to use the empty string, not NULL.

So, if you want a string-based model field to be “nullable”, prefer doing that:

class Person(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=255)  # Mandatory
    bio = models.TextField(max_length=500, blank=True)  # Optional (don't put null=True)
    birth_date = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True) # Optional (here you may add null=True)

The default values of null and blank are False.

Also there is a special case, when you need to accept NULL values for a BooleanField, use NullBooleanField instead.