DoesNotExist

DoesNotExist is a common exception naming convention used in Django and some other object-relational mapping (ORM) frameworks to indicate that a requested database object cannot be found. It is not a Python built-in and does not have a universal meaning outside its framework; its exact behavior is defined by the ORM in use.

In Django, each model class automatically gains a corresponding DoesNotExist exception, typically accessed as ModelName.DoesNotExist. This class inherits from a shared base, ObjectDoesNotExist, which groups missing-object errors for the framework. The primary use is with the get() method: MyModel.objects.get(id=123) will raise MyModel.DoesNotExist if no record with that identifier exists. If more than one matching record is found, Django raises a different exception, MultipleObjectsReturned.

Handling and alternatives. If you anticipate that a queried object might be missing, you can catch the specific exception (Model.DoesNotExist) and handle it gracefully. Alternatively, use filter(...) to obtain a QuerySet and call first() or exists(), which returns None or a boolean rather than raising an exception. Django also offers helpers such as get_object_or_404 to return an HTTP 404 response when an object is not found, and get_or_create to fetch an object or create it if it does not exist.

Related concepts. For one-to-one relationships, attempting to access a non-existent related object may raise RelatedObjectDoesNotExist. The DoesNotExist pattern emphasizes the difference between a missing object and other error conditions. While Django uses DoesNotExist prominently, other ORMs may implement their own similar exceptions with their own naming conventions.