The {% if %} tag evaluates a variable, and if that variable is True (that is, it exists, is not empty, and is not a false Boolean value), the system will display everything between {% if %} and {% endif %}, for example:

{% if today_is_weekend %} 
    <p>Welcome to the weekend!</p> 
{% endif %} 

An {% else %} tag is optional:

{% if today_is_weekend %} 
    <p>Welcome to the weekend!</p> 
{% else %} 
    <p>Get back to work.</p> 
{% endif %} 

The if tag may also take one or several {% elif %} clauses as well:

{% if athlete_list %} 
    Number of athletes: {{ athlete_list|length }} 
{% elif athlete_in_locker_room_list %} 
    <p>Athletes should be out of the locker room soon! </p> 
{% elif ... 
    ... 
{% else %} 
    <p>No athletes. </p> 
{% endif %} 

The {% if %} tag accepts and, or, or not for testing multiple variables, or to negate a given variable. For example:

{% if athlete_list and coach_list %} 
    <p>Both athletes and coaches are available. </p> 
{% endif %} 
 
{% if not athlete_list %} 
    <p>There are no athletes. </p> 
{% endif %} 
 
{% if athlete_list or coach_list %} 
    <p>There are some athletes or some coaches. </p> 
{% endif %} 
 
{% if not athlete_list or coach_list %} 
    <p>There are no athletes or there are some coaches. </p> 
{% endif %} 
 
{% if athlete_list and not coach_list %} 
    <p>There are some athletes and absolutely no coaches. </p> 
{% endif %} 

Use of both and and or clauses within the same tag is allowed, with and having higher precedence than or for example:

{% if athlete_list and coach_list or cheerleader_list %} 

will be interpreted like:

if (athlete_list and coach_list) or cheerleader_list 

If you need parentheses to indicate precedence, you should use nested if tags. The use of parentheses for controlling order of operations is not supported. If you find yourself needing parentheses, consider performing logic outside the template and passing the result of that as a dedicated template variable. Or, just use nested {% if %} tags, like this:

 {% if athlete_list %} 
     {% if coach_list or cheerleader_list %} 
         <p>We have athletes, and either coaches or cheerleaders! </p> 
     {% endif %} 
 {% endif %} 

Multiple uses of the same logical operator are fine, but you can't combine different operators. For example, this is valid:

{% if athlete_list or coach_list or parent_list or teacher_list %} 

Make sure to close each {% if %} with an {% endif %}. Otherwise, Django will throw a TemplateSyntaxError.

The {% for %} tag allows you to loop over each item in a sequence. As in Python's for statement, the syntax is for X in Y, where Y is the sequence to loop over and X is the name of the variable to use for a particular cycle of the loop. Each time through the loop, the template system will render everything between {% for %} and {% endfor %}. For example, you could use the following to display a list of athletes given a variable athlete_list:

<ul> 
{% for athlete in athlete_list %} 
    <li>{{ athlete.name }}</li> 
{% endfor %} 
</ul> 

Add reversed to the tag to loop over the list in reverse:

{% for athlete in athlete_list reversed %} 
... 
{% endfor %} 

It's possible to nest {% for %} tags:

{% for athlete in athlete_list %} 
    <h1>{{ athlete.name }}</h1> 
    <ul> 
    {% for sport in athlete.sports_played %} 
        <li>{{ sport }}</li> 
    {% endfor %} 
    </ul> 
{% endfor %} 

If you need to loop over a list of lists, you can unpack the values in each sub list into individual variables.

For example, if your context contains a list of (x,y) coordinates called points, you could use the following to output the list of points:

{% for x, y in points %} 
    <p>There is a point at {{ x }},{{ y }}</p> 
{% endfor %} 

This can also be useful if you need to access the items in a dictionary. For example, if your context contained a dictionary data, the following would display the keys and values of the dictionary:

{% for key, value in data.items %} 
    {{ key }}: {{ value }} 
{% endfor %} 

A common pattern is to check the size of the list before looping over it, and outputting some special text if the list is empty:

{% if athlete_list %} 
 
  {% for athlete in athlete_list %} 
      <p>{{ athlete.name }}</p> 
  {% endfor %} 
 
{% else %} 
    <p>There are no athletes. Only computer programmers.</p> 
{% endif %} 

Because this pattern is so common, the for tag supports an optional {% empty %} clause that lets you define what to output if the list is empty. This example is equivalent to the previous one:

{% for athlete in athlete_list %} 
    <p>{{ athlete.name }}</p> 
{% empty %} 
    <p>There are no athletes. Only computer programmers.</p> 
{% endfor %} 

There is no support for breaking out of a loop before the loop is finished. If you want to accomplish this, change the variable you're looping over so that it includes only the values you want to loop over.

Similarly, there is no support for a continue statement that would instruct the loop processor to return immediately to the front of the loop. (See the section Philosophies and Limitations later in this chapter for the reasoning behind this design decision.)

Within each {% for %} loop, you get access to a template variable called forloop. This variable has a few attributes that give you information about the progress of the loop:

        {% for item in todo_list %} 
            <p>{{ forloop.counter }}: {{ item }}</p> 
        {% endfor %} 

        {% for object in objects %} 
            {% if forloop.first %}<li class="first">
{% else %}<li>{% endif %} 
            {{ object }} 
            </li> 
        {% endfor %} 

        {% for link in links %} 
            {{ link }}{% if not forloop.last %} | {% endif %} 
        {% endfor %} 

        Link1 | Link2 | Link3 | Link4 

        Favorite places: 
        {% for p in places %}{{ p }}{% if not forloop.last %}, 
          {% endif %} 
        {% endfor %} 

        {% for country in countries %} 
            <table> 
            {% for city in country.city_list %} 
                <tr> 
                <td>Country #{{ forloop.parentloop.counter }}</td> 
                <td>City #{{ forloop.counter }}</td> 
                <td>{{ city }}</td> 
                </tr> 
            {% endfor %} 
            </table> 
        {% endfor %} 

The forloop variable is only available within loops. After the template parser has reached {% endfor %}, forloop disappears.

The Django template system is not a full-fledged programming language and thus does not allow you to execute arbitrary Python statements. (More on this idea in the section Philosophies and Limitations).

However, it's quite a common template requirement to compare two values and display something if they're equal-and Django provides an {% ifequal %} tag for that purpose.

The {% ifequal %} tag compares two values and displays everything between

{% ifequal %} and {% endifequal %} if the values are equal. This example compares the template variables user and currentuser:

{% ifequal user currentuser %} 
    <h1>Welcome!</h1> 
{% endifequal %} 

The arguments can be hard-coded strings, with either single or double quotes, so the following is valid:

{% ifequal section 'sitenews' %} 
    <h1>Site News</h1> 
{% endifequal %} 
 
{% ifequal section "community" %} 
    <h1>Community</h1> 
{% endifequal %} 

Just like {% if %}, the {% ifequal %} tag supports an optional {% else %}:

{% ifequal section 'sitenews' %} 
    <h1>Site News</h1> 
{% else %} 
    <h1>No News Here</h1> 
{% endifequal %} 

Only template variables, strings, integers, and decimal numbers are allowed as arguments to {% ifequal %}. These are valid examples:

{% ifequal variable 1 %} 
{% ifequal variable 1.23 %} 
{% ifequal variable 'foo' %} 
{% ifequal variable "foo" %} 

Any other types of variables, such as Python dictionaries, lists, or Booleans, can't be hard-coded in {% ifequal %}. These are invalid examples:

{% ifequal variable True %} 
{% ifequal variable [1, 2, 3] %} 
{% ifequal variable {'key': 'value'} %} 

If you need to test whether something is true or false, use the {% if %} tags instead of {% ifequal %}.

An alternative to the ifequal tag is to use the if tag and the "==" operator.

The {% ifnotequal %} tag is identical to the ifequal tag, except that it tests whether the two arguments are not equal. An alternative to the ifnotequal tag is to use the if tag and the "!=" operator.

Just as in HTML or Python, the Django template language allows for comments. To designate a comment, use {# #}:

{# This is a comment #} 

The comment will not be output when the template is rendered. Comments using this syntax cannot span multiple lines. This limitation improves template parsing performance.

In the following template, the rendered output will look exactly the same as the template (that is, the comment tag will not be parsed as a comment):

This is a {# this is not 
a comment #} 
test. 

If you want to use multi-line comments, use the {% comment %} template tag, like this:

{% comment %} 
This is a 
multi-line comment. 
{% endcomment %} 

Comment tags cannot be nested.