🔁 Django For Loop – Loop Through Lists and Querysets in Templates (2025 Guide)

🧲 Introduction – What Is the For Loop in Django Templates?

The {% for %} tag in Django templates lets you iterate over a list, queryset, or any iterable and dynamically generate HTML content. It’s one of the most used tags for displaying collections like blog posts, comments, or navigation menus.

🎯 In this guide, you’ll learn:

• How to loop through data using {% for %}
• How to use forloop variables like forloop.counter
• How to handle empty lists with {% empty %}
• Best practices for clean, readable loop output

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🔁 Basic Syntax

{% for item in items %}
  <p>{{ item }}</p>
{% endfor %}

✅ Loops through each item and renders it.

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🧱 Real Example with QuerySet

views.py

def post_list(request):
    posts = Post.objects.all()
    return render(request, 'blog/post_list.html', {'posts': posts})

post_list.html

<ul>
  {% for post in posts %}
    <li>{{ post.title }}</li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

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➕ Using {% empty %} for No Results

<ul>
  {% for post in posts %}
    <li>{{ post.title }}</li>
  {% empty %}
    <li>No posts found.</li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>

✅ Shows a fallback message when the list is empty.

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🧮 Useful forloop Variables

Variable	Description
forloop.counter	1-based index (starts at 1)
forloop.counter0	0-based index
forloop.revcounter	Reverse index (1-based)
forloop.revcounter0	Reverse index (0-based)
forloop.first	True on first iteration
forloop.last	True on last iteration
forloop.parentloop	Access parent loop (for nested)

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🌐 Example with Index and Highlight

<ol>
  {% for item in items %}
    <li {% if forloop.first %}class="highlight"{% endif %}>
      {{ forloop.counter }}. {{ item }}
    </li>
  {% empty %}
    <li>No items available.</li>
  {% endfor %}
</ol>

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🧩 Nested Loops

{% for category in categories %}
  <h2>{{ category.name }}</h2>
  <ul>
    {% for post in category.posts.all %}
      <li>{{ post.title }}</li>
    {% endfor %}
  </ul>
{% endfor %}

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✅ Best Practices

• ✅ Use {% empty %} for user-friendly empty states
• ✅ Limit logic inside loops—prepare data in views
• ✅ Use forloop.first and forloop.last to add special styles
• ✅ Paginate large querysets instead of looping all at once

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📌 Summary – Recap & Next Steps

🔍 Key Takeaways:

• {% for %} loops over iterable data in templates
• Supports index tracking, first/last checks, and nested loops
• Use {% empty %} to handle blank lists gracefully

⚙️ Real-World Relevance:
Use the Django for loop to power blog feeds, product grids, notifications, dropdowns, and much more in dynamic web apps.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

❓ Can I loop through dictionaries?

🟡 Not directly. Convert it to a list of items:

context = {'mydict': mydict.items()}

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❓ What if the list is very large?

✅ Use pagination with Django’s Paginator to load data in chunks.

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❓ Can I use continue or break in the loop?

🚫 No. Django templates don’t support Python-style loop control.

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❓ How do I access the index inside the loop?

✅ Use forloop.counter (starts at 1) or forloop.counter0 (starts at 0).

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❓ How do I loop through model relationships?

✅ Use dot notation:

{% for comment in post.comments.all %}
  {{ comment.body }}
{% endfor %}

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