How do I get the object if it exists, or None if it does not exist?

python django django-queryset
TIMEX picture TIMEX · Jun 22, 2010 · Viewed 208.4k times · Source

When I ask the model manager to get an object, it raises DoesNotExist when there is no matching object.

go = Content.objects.get(name="baby")

Instead of DoesNotExist, how can I have go be None instead?

Answer

Arthur Debert picture Arthur Debert · Jun 22, 2010

There is no 'built in' way to do this. Django will raise the DoesNotExist exception every time. The idiomatic way to handle this in python is to wrap it in a try catch:

try:
    go = SomeModel.objects.get(foo='bar')
except SomeModel.DoesNotExist:
    go = None

What I did do, is to subclass models.Manager, create a safe_get like the code above and use that manager for my models. That way you can write: SomeModel.objects.safe_get(foo='bar').

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