Different initial data for each form in a Django formset

If you made the same mistake as me, you’ve slightly mistaken the documentation.

When I first saw this example…

formset = ArticleFormSet(initial=[
 {'title': 'Django is now open source',
  'pub_date': datetime.date.today(),}
])

I assumed that each form is given the same set of initial data based on a dictionary.

However, if you look carefully you’ll see that the formset is actually being passed a list of dictionaries.

In order to set different initial values for each form in a formset then, you just need to pass a list of dictionaries containing the different data.

Formset = formset_factory(SomeForm, extra=len(some_objects)
some_formset = FormSet(initial=[{'id': x.id} for x in some_objects])