In django, how do I sort a model on a field and then get the last item?

Question

Specifically, I have a model that has a field like this

pub_date = models.DateField("date published") 

I want to be able to easily grab the object with the most recent pub_date. What is the easiest/best way to do this?

Would something like the following do what I want?

Edition.objects.order_by('pub_date')[:-1] 

Answer 1

obj = Edition.objects.latest('pub_date') 

You can also simplify things by putting get_latest_by in the model's Meta, then you'll be able to do

obj = Edition.objects.latest() 

See the docs for more info. You'll probably also want to set the ordering Meta option.

Answer 2

Harley's answer is the way to go for the case where you want the latest according to some ordering criteria for particular Models, as you do, but the general solution is to reverse the ordering and retrieve the first item:

Edition.objects.order_by('-pub_date')[0]