Django - How to store emojis in postgres DB properly? - django

Question

I'm running the latest version of Django on postgres. I'm trying to store emojis in my postgres DB in a way that a React Native app can properly render it. Below I have the initial emojis variables setup that'll go into the table. I've copy and pasted the emojis from here. How do I store emojis in my postgres DB so that a React Native app can render it properly?
I tried following this blog, which suggests adding ’OPTIONS’: {’charset’: ’utf8mb4’} to DATABASES under settings.py, but I get this error django.db.utils.ProgrammingError: invalid dsn: invalid connection option "charset". Seems like this only works for MySQL DBs. How can I store emojis in a Django postgres DB?

Answer 1

Like in the comments suggested, you need to put quotes around the emojis since they're just chars. Though, something like flags is actually two chars. So that's something to be careful about. All your computer is doing is converting unicode to a rendered emoji that's platform dependent.
The emojis that you're using should be unicode supported. On your computer, they're definitely supported. For the most part, additional unicode support for new emojis is very quickly implemented once published on client machines. There should be no problem with emojis in strings. This is a nice video kinda explaining emojis by Tom Scott who keeps getting interviews about emojis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzp76JXsoY
I'm not an expert so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Answer 2

In your models you need to use a CharField or a TextField to store emojis, that need to be passed as characters (for example "😄" and not directly 😄). Your database must use utf8 to support emojis, connect to your database with a SQL shell, to check the current encoding run:
SHOW CLIENT_ENCODING;
If the output is not UTF8 run:
SET CLIENT_ENCODING='UTF8';
Now remove ’OPTIONS’: {’charset’: ’utf8mb4’} from your Django settings.