In Django, what is the most efficient way to check for an empty query set?

user_836049 0
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I've heard suggestions to use the following:

if qs.exists():
    ...

if qs.count():
    ...

try:
    qs[0]
except IndexError:
    ...

Copied from comment below: "I'm looking for a statement like "In MySQL and PostgreSQL count() is faster for short queries, exists() is faster for long queries, and use QuerySet[0] when it's likely that you're going to need the first element and you want to check that it exists. However, when count() is faster it's only marginally faster so it's advisable to always use exists() when choosing between the two."

django-queryset django sql performance
6 Answers

I was also in this trouble. Yes exists() is faster for most cases but it depends a lot on the type of queryset you are trying to do. For example for a simple query like: my_objects = MyObject.objets.all() you would use my_objects.exists(). But if you were to do a query like: MyObject.objects.filter(some_attr='anything').exclude(something='what').distinct('key').values() probably you need to test which one fits better (exists(), count(), len(my_objects)). Remember the DB engine is the one who will perform the query, and to get a good result in performance, it depends a lot on the data structure and how the query is formed. One thing you can do is, audit the queries and test them on your own against the DB engine and compare your results you will be surprised by how naive sometimes django is, try QueryCountMiddleware to see all the queries executed, and you will see what i am talking about.

user_22468890
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