python pass arguments to function separated by character

Question

For the Q object in Django, I'd like to be able to parse AND, OR queries. Here is an example of a query to be parsed:

from django.db.models import Q

Poll.objects.filter(
    Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2)) | Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6))
)

This query is identical:

a = Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2))
b = Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6))

Poll.objects.filter(
    a | b
)

Is it possible to parse a query like the one below? It will obviously fail because join returns a string concatenated with the character |. But that is the Django ORM syntax needed, and we'd like to dynamically be able to parse these queries without hard coding the Q arguments.

a = Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 2))
b = Q(pub_date=date(2005, 5, 6))

Poll.objects.filter(
    " | ".join([a,b])
)

Answer 1

You should be able to compose that programatically by repeating the or operator:

q = Q()
for some_date in collection_of_dates:
    q |= Q(pub_date=some_date)
Poll.objects.filter(q)