Django tip: How to use get_or_create

What does it do?

First it will check if an objects exist based on a set of parameters (like primary key or slug). It Django can't find the object in the database, it will create the object for you.

An example

def post_detail(request, post_id):
    post, created = Post.objects.get_or_create(pk=post_id)

    print(created)

    return render(request, 'template.html')

You probably noticed that I have to variables in front of the function call. This is because "get_or_create" actually returns a tuple.

The tuple contains the object + a boolean variable telling you if the object was created or not.

If you visit a post for the first time, the object will be created in the database, but the next time you visit the same page, Django will get it from the database instead.