Fixed #22897 -- Made QueryDict query_string argument optional.

Now QueryDict() is equivalent to QueryDict('') or QueryDict(None).

2 files changed, 14 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
index bc2eee5a3f..2bd246e6b6 100644
--- a/docs/ref/request-response.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -355,13 +355,16 @@ Methods
 :class:`QueryDict` implements all the standard dictionary methods because it's
 a subclass of dictionary. Exceptions are outlined here:
 
-.. method:: QueryDict.__init__(query_string, mutable=False, encoding=None)
+.. method:: QueryDict.__init__(query_string=None, mutable=False, encoding=None)
 
    Instantiates a ``QueryDict`` object based on ``query_string``.
 
           >>> QueryDict('a=1&a=2&c=3')
           <QueryDict: {u'a': [u'1', u'2'], u'b': [u'1']}>
 
+   If ``query_string`` is not passed in, the resulting ``QueryDict`` will be
+   empty (it will have no keys or values).
+
    Most ``QueryDict``\ s you encounter, and in particular those at
    ``request.POST`` and ``request.GET``, will be immutable. If you are
    instantiating one yourself, you can make it mutable by passing
@@ -370,6 +373,10 @@ a subclass of dictionary. Exceptions are outlined here:
    Strings for setting both keys and values will be converted from ``encoding``
    to unicode. If encoding is not set, it defaults to :setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET`.
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 1.8
+
+        In previous versions, ``query_string`` was a required positional argument.
+
 .. method:: QueryDict.__getitem__(key)
 
     Returns the value for the given key. If the key has more than one value,
@@ -523,7 +530,7 @@ In addition, ``QueryDict`` has the following methods:
     Optionally, urlencode can be passed characters which
     do not require encoding. For example::
 
-        >>> q = QueryDict('', mutable=True)
+        >>> q = QueryDict(mutable=True)
         >>> q['next'] = '/a&b/'
         >>> q.urlencode(safe='/')
         'next=/a%26b/'
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.8.txt b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
index 3fd8b64e93..11b051fc70 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.8.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
@@ -215,6 +215,11 @@ Requests and Responses
   :exc:`~django.core.exceptions.SuspiciousOperation`, the response will be
   rendered with a detailed error page.
 
+* The ``query_string`` argument of :class:`~django.http.QueryDict` is now
+  optional, defaulting to ``None``, so a blank ``QueryDict`` can now be
+  instantiated with ``QueryDict()`` instead of ``QueryDict(None)`` or
+  ``QueryDict('')``.
+
 Tests
 ^^^^^