urlpatterns

In the Django web framework, urlpatterns is a list that maps URL patterns to view functions or class-based views. It is typically found in the main urls.py file of a Django project. Each element in the urlpatterns list is an instance of django.urls.path or django.urls.re_path. These objects define how incoming URL requests are processed.

When a request comes into a Django application, the framework iterates through the urlpatterns. It compares the requested URL path against each pattern in the list. The first pattern that matches the URL is then used to determine which view function or class-based view should handle the request. If a match is found, the corresponding view is called with any captured URL parameters.

The django.urls.path function is used for simple URL matching, allowing for the capture of arguments that are passed to the view. For more complex pattern matching, django.urls.re_path can be used, which employs regular expressions. It is common practice to include both project-level and app-level urlpatterns to organize URL routing effectively within a Django project. This separation helps in managing the complexity of larger applications.