see what I have:
> bar = [(u'code__regex', u'^[^J]'), (u'active__exact', u'0'), (u'type__id__exact', u'E01')]
There are the fields/values that I want to use to filter the model Foo.
> #want to have this equivalent:
> Foo.objects.filter(bar)
Thanks!
Foo.objects.filter(**dict(bar))
This isn't a django issue, this is a python issue. You want to pass the keyword pairs as keyword arguments (kwargs) to the filter. Your bar is perfect as a kwarg set, so the dict(bar) converts it to the dictionary, and the ** prefix informs the python parser that the dictionary is to be interpreted as keyword arguments by the receiver.
Stack overflow entry Understanding kwargs in Python covers this in more detail.
You didn't say if you want it in AND or OR. If AND is ok then you can simply convert that list into a dictionary and pass it to filter:
Foo.objects.filter(**dict(bar))
Foo.objects.filter(reduce(operator.__or__, [Q(**dict([i])) for i in bar])) is the shortest way I know to achieve this. You have to import both django.db.models.Q and operator.