# Understanding and Creating Models in Django

In this section, we will learn what are Models in Django and how to use `models.py` to create a database table in Django.

So in our previous  [section](https://blog.teachmebro.com/creating-an-app-in-django), we have successfully configured our `account app`. Let's see what are `Models` in Django.

## Model 
A `Model` is a class that represents table or collection in our DB, and where every attribute of the class is a field of the table or collection. Models are defined in the `app/models.py` (in our example: social/models.py)

## Creating a Model
Let’s write the first model. Open the file `account/models.py` and put the following Python code in it:

```
from django.contrib import auth
from django.db import models


class User(auth.models.User, auth.models.PermissionsMixin):

    def __str__(self):

        return "@{}".format(self.username)
```
So in our case, we will have a `User` table inside the `account/models.py` file.

Every model inherits from `django.db.models.Model`. That small bit of model (User in our case) code gives Django a lot of information. With it, Django is able to:

- Create a database schema (CREATE TABLE statements) for this app.

- Create a Python database-access API for accessing User objects.

Now, run the following command:

```
python manage.py makemigrations account
```

You should see something similar to the following:
```
altaf@kali:~/Desktop/Tutorial/social$ python manage.py makemigrations account
Migrations for 'account':
  account/migrations/0001_initial.py
    - Create model User
```

By running `makemigrations`, you’re telling Django that you’ve made some changes to your models (in this case, you’ve made new ones) and that you’d like the changes to be stored as a migration.

Migrations are how Django stores changes to your models (and thus your database schema) - they’re files on disk. You can read the migration for your new model if you like; it’s the file `account /migrations/0001_initial.py`. 

and then run:
```
python manage.py migrate
```

```
altaf@kali:~/Desktop/Tutorial/social$ python manage.py migrate
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: account, admin, auth, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying contenttypes.0002_remove_content_type_name... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0002_alter_permission_name_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0003_alter_user_email_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0004_alter_user_username_opts... OK
  Applying auth.0005_alter_user_last_login_null... OK
  Applying auth.0006_require_contenttypes_0002... OK
  Applying auth.0007_alter_validators_add_error_messages... OK
  Applying auth.0008_alter_user_username_max_length... OK
  Applying auth.0009_alter_user_last_name_max_length... OK
  Applying account.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0001_initial... OK
  Applying admin.0002_logentry_remove_auto_add... OK
  Applying admin.0003_logentry_add_action_flag_choices... OK
  Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK
```

The [migrate](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/django-admin/#django-admin-migrate) command takes all the migrations that haven't been applied (Django tracks which ones are applied using a special table in your database called `django_migrations`) and runs them against your database - essentially, synchronizing the changes you made to your models with the schema in the database.

`Migrations` are very powerful and let you change your models over time, as you develop your project, without the need to delete your database or tables and make new ones - it specializes in upgrading your database live, without losing data. To make changes in the model remember the three-step guide :

-   Change your models (in **`models.py`**).

-   Run **`python manage.py makemigrations`** to create migrations for those changes

-   Run **`python manage.py migrate`** to apply those changes to the database.

Hurray! We have successfully created our first **model** in Django. Now, Next we will move on to the forms (forms.py) in Django.