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

Django 1.6 (released Nov 2013) introduced the convenience methods first() and last() which swallow the resulting exception and return None if the queryset returns no objects.

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.

Now, in Django 1.9 you have first() method for querysets.

YourModel.objects.all().first()

This is a better way than .get() or [0] because it does not throw an exception if queryset is empty, Therafore, you don't need to check using exists()

r = list(qs[:1])
if r:
  return r[0]
return None