Allow QuerySet.get() and filter() to accept a positional argument for implicit primary key filtering

[Antoine]

I'm creating this ticket to see if there is interest to implement positional arguments in queryset filtering.

Current situation ¶

Currently the only way to use positional arguments to filter can be either:

• Passing a single or multiple Q objects:

  MyClass.objects.filter(Q(key=value))
  MyClass.objects.filter(Q(key=value), Q(other_key=value))
  

• Passing a couple is also working (not sure if this is a happy accident)

  MyClass.objects.filter((key, value))
  

• Combination of both is also proven to work

  MyClass.objects.filter((key, value), Q(other_key=value))
  

Suggestion ¶

My feature suggestion is to leverage the case when a non-Q / non couple object is passed, so it implicitly interpreted as the value for the model's pk.

This could ease/simplify code by omitting pk when this is the only filter used:

MyClass.objects.get(value)
# Translates into: MyClass.objects.get(pk=value)

or

MyClass.objects.filter(value)
# Translates into: MyClass.objects.filter(pk=value)

or

MyClass.objects.filter(Q(value))
# Translates into: MyClass.objects.filter(Q(pk=value))

Do you think it's worth it? It could be leveraged to simplify many situations.

[Tim Graham]

From ​The Zen of Python, "Explicit is better than implicit." Proposals for design decisions like this are better made on the DevelopersMailingList but I doubt there would be consensus to do this.

[Simon Charette]

Hey there, I've personally wished get(pk) was supported in the past but as Tim said this should be brought to the mailing list to try to get a consensus.

[Tim Graham]

​django-developers thread