QuerySet Methods

Django · Methods reference

📋 Overview

Chainable QuerySet API — lazy until evaluated.

Method	Description
`filter(**kwargs)`	Narrow rows (AND lookups)
`exclude(**kwargs)`	Negated filter
`get(**kwargs)`	Exactly one row or exception
`all()`	Copy of entire queryset
`none()`	Empty queryset
`distinct(*fields)`	SQL DISTINCT
`order_by(*fields)`	Sort; prefix - for DESC
`reverse()`	Reverse ordering
`values(*fields)` / `values_list`	Dicts or tuples instead of models
`only` / `defer`	Limit columns fetched
`select_related(*fields)`	SQL JOIN for FK/O2O
`prefetch_related(*lookups)`	Separate query for M2M/reverse FK
`annotate(**kwargs)`	Add aggregate per row
`aggregate(**kwargs)`	Whole-set aggregates
`exists()`	True if any row matches
`count()`	Number of rows
`first()` / `last()`	First/last row or None
`earliest` / `latest`	By date field
`update(**kwargs)`	Bulk SQL UPDATE — no save() signals
`delete()`	Bulk delete with cascade counts
`create(**kwargs)`	INSERT one row
`get_or_create` / `update_or_create`	Atomic get/create patterns
`bulk_create` / `bulk_update`	Batch writes
`iterator(chunk_size=…)`	Stream large results
`explain()`	SQL plan (debug)

See parent topic notes for runnable snippets; this page is the complete method index.

Mutating methods return None in Python — do not chain sort() / reverse() expecting a new list.
Default JS sort() compares strings — pass (a,b) => a-b for numbers.
SQL function names differ by dialect — verify Postgres vs MySQL docs.
Django QuerySet.update() skips save() signals and auto auto_now fields on models.