Fastest way to get the first object from a queryset in django?

Question

Often I find myself wanting to get the first object from a queryset in Django, or return None if there aren\'t any. There are lots of ways to do this which all

Answer 1

You can use array slicing:

Entry.objects.all()[:1].get()

Which can be used with .filter():

Entry.objects.filter()[:1].get()

You wouldn't want to first turn it into a list because that would force a full database call of all the records. Just do the above and it will only pull the first. You could even use .order_by() to ensure you get the first you want.

Be sure to add the .get() or else you will get a QuerySet back and not an object.