What is the best option to replace a loop? I'm using Flask on Python and I'm displaying the username at the top of the site (and it's working) as follows:
@app.route(&quot;/&quot;)
@login_required
def index():
    &quot;&quot;&quot;Queries the user's First Name to display in the title&quot;&quot;&quot;
    names = db.execute(&quot;&quot;&quot;
        SELECT first_name
        FROM users
        WHERE id=:user_id
        &quot;&quot;&quot;,
        user_id = session[&quot;user_id&quot;]
    )
    return render_template(&quot;index.html&quot;, names = names)

&lt;header class=&quot;mainHeader&quot;&gt;
  {% for name in names %}
    &lt;h1&gt;{{ name[&quot;first_name&quot;] }}' Bookshelf&lt;/h1&gt;
  {% else %}
    &lt;h1&gt;Your Bookshelf&lt;/h1&gt;
  {% endfor %}
&lt;/header&gt;

I don't know if it is necessary, but here is my database configuration:

Although it is working, I believe that it is not ideal to use for loop to display just one name. Does anyone have any suggestions?
according to the query, it seems that the row count is either 0 or 1. so the loop would either have no iterations (the else part) or have exactly one iteration.
in terms of performance, I think that any improvement here is not dramatic.
however, in terms of choosing the right coding tools for the job, it seems that a loop is not the right tool.
maybe the following would be better:
@app.route(&quot;/&quot;)
@login_required
def index():
    &quot;&quot;&quot;Queries the user's First Name to display in the title&quot;&quot;&quot;
    names = db.execute(&quot;&quot;&quot;
        SELECT first_name
        FROM users
        WHERE id=:user_id
        &quot;&quot;&quot;,
        user_id = session[&quot;user_id&quot;]    
    )
    first_name = names[0][&quot;first_name&quot;] if names else None
    return render_template(&quot;index.html&quot;, first_name = first_name)

and then:
&lt;header class=&quot;mainHeader&quot;&gt;
  {% if first_name %}
    &lt;h1&gt;{{ first_name }}'s Bookshelf&lt;/h1&gt;
  {% else %}
    &lt;h1&gt;Your Bookshelf&lt;/h1&gt;
  {% endif %}
&lt;/header&gt;

note: I didn't test the code.