The .values() method in Django provides the functionality to select and return specific fields when executing a QuerySet. By using this method, the results are returned in the form of a list of dictionaries, allowing you to fetch only the specified fields instead of all model fields.

📌 Key Features:

  • A standard QuerySet (Model.objects.all()) returns a list of objects (Model instances), while
  • using .values() returns a list of dictionaries (dict list).

🛠 1. Basic Usage

from myapp.models import Post

# Existing QuerySet (returns model instances including all fields)
posts = Post.objects.all()  
print(posts)  
# , ]>

# Using .values() (fetches only title and author fields)
posts = Post.objects.values('title', 'author')  
print(posts)  
#

📌 Differences:

  • Post.objects.all() → returns a list of Post model instances
  • Post.objects.values('title', 'author') → returns a list of dictionaries (dict list)

🛠 2. Performance Optimization of .values()

Using .values() can prevent unnecessary field loading and enhance query performance. In other words, fetching only the necessary fields reduces the database load.

# Fetching entire model objects (inefficient)
Post.objects.all()

# Fetching only necessary fields (efficient)
Post.objects.values('title', 'author')

🛠 3. Differences Between .values() and .values_list()

✅ .values() → returns a list of dictionaries (dict list)

Post.objects.values('id', 'title')
# <QuerySet [{'id': 1, 'title': 'First Post'}, {'id': 2, 'title': 'Second Post'}]>

✅ .values_list() → returns a list of tuples (tuple list)

Post.objects.values_list('id', 'title')
# <QuerySet [(1, 'First Post'), (2, 'Second Post')]>

🛠 4. Using .values() with annotate()

Using annotate() with .values() lets you retrieve aggregated data in dictionary form.

from django.db.models import Count
from myapp.models import Post, Comment

# Fetching comment counts for each post
Post.objects.values('title').annotate(comment_count=Count('comments'))

🛠 5. Filtering with .values() (used with distinct())

Example: To fetch the titles of all posts written by a specific author, while removing duplicates:

Post.objects.values('title').filter(author=1).distinct()

📌 Conclusion

  • ✅ .values() converts the QuerySet to a list of dictionaries (dict list), fetching only specific fields.
  • ✅ Allows for query performance optimization by excluding unnecessary fields.
  • ✅ Compared to .values_list(), .values() returns dictionaries, while .values_list() returns tuples.
  • ✅ Can be used with .annotate() to bring aggregated data in dictionary form.
  • ✅ Can be used with .distinct() to remove duplicates.

💡 .values() is a powerful feature that optimizes performance by reducing unnecessary fields during data retrieval! 🚀 It is very useful for fetching data as dictionaries instead of model objects based on usage. 😊

Django QuerySet .values() method concept

Ah! You might have already noticed from the example results above, but the lists of dictionaries returned by .value() and .value_list() are still QuerySets. (Since they are lazily evaluated, those who need immediate evaluation should wrap them with list()!)