How to concatenate strings in django templates

Concatenating the querysets into a list is the simplest approach. If the database will be hit for all querysets anyway (e.g. because the result needs to be sorted), this won't add further cost.

from itertools import chain
result_list = list(chain(page_list, article_list, post_list))

Using itertools.chain is faster than looping each list and appending elements one by one, since itertools is implemented in C. It also consumes less memory than converting each queryset into a list before concatenating.

Now it's possible to sort the resulting list e.g. by date (as requested in hasen j's comment to another answer). The sorted() function conveniently accepts a generator and returns a list:

result_list = sorted(
    chain(page_list, article_list, post_list),
    key=lambda instance: instance.date_created)

If you're using Python 2.4 or later, you can use attrgetter instead of a lambda. I remember reading about it being faster, but I didn't see a noticeable speed difference for a million item list.

from operator import attrgetter
result_list = sorted(
    chain(page_list, article_list, post_list),
    key=attrgetter('date_created'))

If it's a value you'd like to have for every request & template, using a context processor is more appropriate.

Here's how:

1. Make a context_processors.py file in your app directory. Let's say I want to have the ADMIN_PREFIX_VALUE value in every context:

   from django.conf import settings # import the settings file
   
   def admin_media(request):
       # return the value you want as a dictionnary. you may add multiple values in there.
       return {'ADMIN_MEDIA_URL': settings.ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX}
   

2. add your context processor to your settings.py file:

   TEMPLATES = [{
       # whatever comes before
       'OPTIONS': {
           'context_processors': [
               # whatever comes before
               "your_app.context_processors.admin_media",
           ],
       }
   }]
   

3. Use RequestContext in your view to add your context processors in your template. The render shortcut does this automatically:

   from django.shortcuts import render
   
   def my_view(request):
       return render(request, "index.html")
   

4. and finally, in your template:

   ...
   <a href="{{ ADMIN_MEDIA_URL }}">path to admin media</a>
   ...