Django template: check for empty query set - django

Question

Is there a way to check for an empty query set in the Django template? In the example below, I only want the NOTES header to be displayed if there are notes.
If I put an {% empty %} inside the "for" then it does display whatever is inside the empty tag, so it knows it's empty.
I'm hoping for something that does not involve running the query twice.
{% if notes - want something here that works %}
NOTES:
{% for note in notes %}
{{note.text}}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
Clarification: the above example "if notes" does not work - it still displays the header even with an empty query set.
Here's a simplified version of the view
sql = "select * from app_notes, app_trips where"
notes = trip_notes.objects.raw(sql,(user_id,))
return render_to_response(template, {"notes":notes},context_instance=RequestContext(request))
Edit: the view select selects from multiple tables.

Answer 1

Have a look at the {% empty %} tag.
Example from the documentation
<ul>
{% for athlete in athlete_list %}
<li>{{ athlete.name }}</li>
{% empty %}
<li>Sorry, no athletes in this list.</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
Link: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.8/ref/templates/builtins/#for-empty
If you are interested in a table, or some kind of heading if there are results, add the forloop.first:
{% for athlete in athlete_list %}
{% if forloop.first %}
Athlete Name:
{% endif %}
{{ athlete.name }}
{% empty %}
Sorry, no athletes in this list.
{% endfor %}

Answer 2

Try {% if notes.all %}. It works for me.

Answer 3

In your view check whether notes is empty or not. If it is then you pass None instead:
{"notes": None}
In your template you use {% if notes %} as normal.

Answer 4

It's unfortunate that you're stuck using a raw query set - they're missing a lot of useful behavior.
You could convert the raw query set into a list in the view:
notes_as_list = list(notes)
return render_to_response(template, {"notes":notes_as_list},context_instance=RequestContext(request))
Then check it as a boolean in the template:
{% if notes %}
Header
{% for note in notes %}
{{ note.text }}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
You could also make it happen without conversions using forloop.first:
{% for note in notes %}
{% if forloop.first %}
Header
{% endif %}
{{ note.text }}
{% endfor %}

Answer 5

What about:
{% if notes != None %}
{% if notes %}
NOTES:
{% for note in notes %}
{{ note.text }}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
{% else %}
NO NOTES AT ALL
{% endif %}

Answer 6

Your original solution
{% if notes %}
Header
{% for note in notes %}
{{ note.text }}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
Works now with Django 1.7 and thanks to QuerySet caching, it does not cost and extra query.

Answer 7

Often the right way to do this is to use the {% with ... %} tag. This caches the query so it runs only once and also gives you more flexibility with your markup than using {% empty %}.
{% with notes as my_notes %}
{% if my_notes %}
<ul>
{% for note in my_notes %}
<li>{{ note }}</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% else %}
<p>Sorry, no notes available</p>
{% endif %}
{% endwith %}
With this particular example I'm not sure how useful it is but if you're querying Many-to-Many field, for instance, it's likely what you want to do.

Answer 8

Use {% empty %} in django templates
{% if list_data %}
{% for data in list_data %}
{{ data.field_1 }}
{% endfor %}
{% else %}
<p>No data found!</p>
{% endif %}
We can write above code with {% empty %}.
{% for data in list_data %}
{{ data.field_1 }}
{% empty %}
<p>No data found!</p>
{% endfor %}