ListView - Class Based Views Django

Last Updated : 19 Nov, 2025

A ListView is a built-in class-based view used to show multiple records from a database. It handles data retrieval automatically, reducing the code required.

Specify the model from which the records will be fetched.
Django automatically retrieves all records of that model.
Define the template that will display the list.
The records are available in the template as object_list or a custom context name.

Example: Consider a project named 'geeksforgeeks' having an app named 'geeks'. After you have a project and an app, let's create a model of which we will be creating instances through our view.

In geeks/models.py:

Python

from django.db import models
 
# declare a new model with a name "GeeksModel"
class GeeksModel(models.Model):

    # fields of the model
    title = models.CharField(max_length = 200)
    description = models.TextField()

    # renames the instances of the model with their title name
    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

After creating this model, we need to run two commands in order to create Database.

Python manage.py makemigrations
Python manage.py migrate

Create instances of this model using the Django shell by running the following command in the terminal:

Python manage.py shell

Enter following commands:

>>> from geeks.models import GeeksModel
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create( title="title1", description="description1")
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title2", description="description2")
>>> GeeksModel.objects.create(title="title3", description="description3")

Now that the backend setup complete, verify that instances have been created by visiting: http://localhost:8000/admin/geeks/geeksmodel/

django-listview-check-models-instances

To create a ListView, it is only necessary to specify the model. Django’s ListView will then look for a template named app_name/modelname_list.html. In this case, expected template path is geeks/templates/geeks/geeksmodel_list.html

In geeks/views.py:

Python

from django.views.generic.list import ListView
from .models import GeeksModel

class GeeksList(ListView):

    # specify the model for list view
    model = GeeksModel

Create a url path to map the view. In geeks/urls.py:

Python

from django.urls import path

# importing views from views..py
from .views import GeeksList
urlpatterns = [
    path('', GeeksList.as_view()),
]

Create a template in templates/geeks/geeksmodel_list.html:

HTML

<ul> 
    <!-- Iterate over object_list -->
    {% for object in object_list %} 
    <!-- Display Objects -->
    <li>{{ object.title }}</li> 
    <li>{{ object.description }}</li> 
  
    <hr/> 
    <!-- If object_list is empty  -->
    {% empty %} 
    <li>No objects yet.</li> 
    {% endfor %} 
</ul>

Visit http://localhost:8000/ to view the list of all model instances displayed through the Class-Based ListView.

django-listview-class-based-views

Manipulate Queryset in ListView

By default, ListView displays all instances of a model in the order they were created. To modify the order or filter the results, get_queryset() method can be overridden.

In geeks/views.py:

Python

from django.views.generic.list import ListView 
from .models import GeeksModel 
  
class GeeksList(ListView): 
  
    # specify the model for list view 
    model = GeeksModel 
  
    def get_queryset(self, *args, **kwargs): 
        qs = super(GeeksList, self).get_queryset(*args, **kwargs) 
        qs = qs.order_by("-id") 
        return qs