Accessing and displaying the Field description attribute #246

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1. clstaudt

   added

   questionFurther information is requestedFurther information is requested

   on Feb 15, 2022
2. byrman commented on Feb 16, 2022

   

   byrman

   on Feb 16, 2022

   Contributor

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   By accessing your model's __fields__ attribute?

   for k, v in Contract.__fields__.items():
       print(f"{k}: {v.field_info.description}")
   

   👍React with 👍2Reacted by Christian Staudt and blerrgh
3. clstaudt commented on Feb 20, 2022

   

   clstaudt

   on Feb 20, 2022

   Author

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   @byrman Using ´Model.fields` works fine, thanks. This feature may be a bit hidden. I'll leave it to others to decide whether there is a bug in here.
4. StLWallace commented on Apr 30, 2024

   

   StLWallace

   on Apr 30, 2024

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   I've been looking for the same thing. Not sure I'd call it a bug but it would sure be cool if the Field description could be more tightly integrated with e.g. Pylance (that's probably a job for their maintainers and I'll drop a comment over there).
5. starryknight64 commented on Oct 12, 2024

   

   starryknight64

   on Oct 12, 2024

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   I had to figure this out recently, so here's what I ended up doing in case it helps anyone:

   from typing import Any, TypeVar
   
   from sqlmodel import Field, SQLModel
   from sqlmodel.main import FieldInfo, SQLModelMetaclass
   
   ColumnInstrumentedAttr = TypeVar("ColumnInstrumentedAttr")
   
   
   class Hero(SQLModel, table=True):
       id: int | None = Field(default=None, primary_key=True, description="The Hero's ID")
       name: str = Field(description="The Hero's name", alias="legal_name")
       secret_name: str = Field(description="Shhh! It's the Hero's secret identity!")
       age: int | None = Field(default=None, description="The Hero's age")
   
   
   def colAttr(columnAttr: ColumnInstrumentedAttr, fieldName: str, defaultValue: Any = None) -> Any:
       if hasattr(columnAttr, fieldName):
           return getattr(columnAttr, fieldName)
       return defaultValue
   
   
   def colAttrFromModelFields(columnAttr: ColumnInstrumentedAttr, fieldName: str, defaultValue: Any = None) -> Any:
       sqlModelMetaClass: SQLModelMetaclass = getattr(columnAttr, "class_")
       modelFields: dict[str, FieldInfo] = sqlModelMetaClass.model_fields
       fieldKey: str = getattr(columnAttr, "key")
       fieldInfo: FieldInfo = modelFields[fieldKey]
       if hasattr(fieldInfo, fieldName):
           return getattr(fieldInfo, fieldName)
   
       return defaultValue
   
   
   def colName(columnAttr: ColumnInstrumentedAttr) -> str:
       return colAttr(columnAttr, "name")
   
   
   def colDesc(columnAttr: ColumnInstrumentedAttr) -> str:
       return colAttrFromModelFields(columnAttr, "description")
   
   
   print(colName(Hero.id))  # prints "id"
   print(colName(Hero.name))  # prints "name"
   
   print(colDesc(Hero.secret_name))  # prints "Shhh! It's the Hero's secret identity!"
   print(colDesc(Hero.age))  # prints "The Hero's age"
   
   print(colAttr(Hero.id, "primary_key"))  # prints "True"
   print(colAttr(Hero.age, "default"))  # prints "None"
   
   print(colAttrFromModelFields(Hero.name, "alias"))  # prints "legal_name"
   print(colAttrFromModelFields(Hero.name, "something_else", "dflt"))  # prints "dflt"

   👍React with 👍1Reacted by Bruno Bernardes da Costa
6. fastapi

   locked and limited conversation to collaborators on Aug 12, 2025
7. YuriiMotov

   converted this issue into a discussion #1494 on Aug 12, 2025