How do I order my objects in a random way?

Question

I'm using Django with Python 3.7 and PostGres 9.5. I use the following to get all my objects and iterate over them ...

article_set = Article.objects.all()
for article in article_set:

Is there a way to modify my existing query or possibly the loop so that the objects are returned in a random order each time? I would prefer not to make a second query if at all possible.

Instead of asking on StackOverflow before doing any work, it's generally a good idea to google your question - `random.shuffle()` is hard to miss. — Grismar, Jul 01 '19 at 01:34
maybe duplicate question?, check this link : [How to pull a random record using Django's ORM?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/962619/how-to-pull-a-random-record-using-djangos-orm) — Ali Akhtari, Jul 01 '19 at 02:05
Possible duplicate of [How to pull a random record using Django's ORM?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/962619/how-to-pull-a-random-record-using-djangos-orm) — shafik, Jul 01 '19 at 03:37

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '19 at 02:07

3

As is explained in the documentation you can use order_by('?') as follows:

article_set = Article.objects.order_by('?')

answered Jul 01 '19 at 02:07

ivissani

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Note that `order_by('?')` queries may be expensive and slow. Try to avoid this if possible in your use case. – shafik Jul 01 '19 at 03:15

Jab · Answer 2 · 2019-07-01T01:54:13.363

I'm not too familiar with Django, and correct me if I'm wrong but I'd assume that:

Article.objects.all()
#Roughly equates to:
"SELECT * from articles"

So I believe you should be able to do:

Article.objects.all().order_by('RANDOM()')
#Thus producing this SQL statement:
"SELECT * from articles ORDER BY RANDOM()"

Which should mix up your output.

Otherwise, I'd say go with the random.shuffle approach.

from random import shuffle

article_set = Article.objects.all()
for article in shuffle(article_set):
    #do work

Let me know if the order_by worked and I can edit accordingly. Like I said I'm not too familiar with Django so this is untested but in theory should work. Thanks!

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '19 at 01:53

0

Make a loop like this

article_set = Article.objects.all()
for article in random.shuffle(article_set):
    print(article)

answered Jul 01 '19 at 01:53

Arun Augustine

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How do I order my objects in a random way?

3 Answers3