--- title: How to use a list/tuple/array in Django with a raw SQL... description: When using Django's raw SQL cursor with psycopg v3, the old pattern of passing a tuple with the IN operator no longer works and throws a ProgrammingError. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-a-list-tuple-array-in-django-with-a-raw-sql-cursor-vkedwliuu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How to use a list/tuple/array in Django with a raw SQL cursor | daily.dev og:description: When using Django's raw SQL cursor with psycopg v3, the old pattern of passing a tuple with the IN operator no longer works and throws a ProgrammingError. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-a-list-tuple-array-in-django-with-a-raw-sql-cursor-vkedwliuu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/vKEDWliuU.png og:image:alt: How to use a list/tuple/array in Django with a raw SQL cursor og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How to use a list/tuple/array in Django with a raw SQL cursor **[Planet Python](https://daily.dev/sources/planetpython)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary When using Django's raw SQL cursor with psycopg v3, the old pattern of passing a tuple with the IN operator no longer works and throws a ProgrammingError. The fix is to use the ANY(%s) operator with a list instead of a tuple. For lists of strings, ANY(%s) also fails with a type error; the workaround is to dynamically build the SQL string with individual %s placeholders joined by OR, passing the list directly as parameters. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does using IN %s with a tuple in a Django raw SQL cursor query now throw a syntax error in Postgres? Psycopg3 no longer supports passing a tuple as a parameter for IN %s, which worked under psycopg2. It now raises django.db.utils.ProgrammingError with a syntax error near the stringified tuple, because psycopg3 adapts tuples differently. The fix is to replace IN %s with the ANY(%s) operator and pass a plain list instead of a tuple as the parameter. _daily.dev surfaces changes like the psycopg2-to-psycopg3 parameter shift so Django upgrades don't break in production._ ### How do I pass a list of strings into a Postgres ANY() clause from Django raw SQL without a type error? Passing a Python list of strings directly to ANY(%s) can raise DataError: invalid input syntax for type integer, since Postgres tries to interpret the array against the column's type. A safe workaround is to dynamically build the SQL with one OR-joined 'column = %s' comparison per value and pass the list as individual parameters to cursor.execute, avoiding array casting issues entirely. _developers debugging raw SQL parameter binding in Django can track these gotchas via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [PostgreSQL: Psycopg 3.3 released](https://daily.dev/posts/postgresql-psycopg-3-3-released-ewfhnirnz) · PostgreSQL · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [PostgreSQL adapter for Python](https://daily.dev/posts/postgresql-adapter-for-python-7mss4n5wr) · Psycopg · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Introducing Apache Arrow Support in mssql-python](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-apache-arrow-support-in-mssql-python-yq9micn57) · Planet Python · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I made PostgreSQL INSERT operations 36 times faster in Python](https://daily.dev/posts/i-made-postgresql-insert-operations-36-times-faster-in-python-mnsasltcx) · ITNEXT · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Write SQL Server Your Way: Dual Parameter Style Benefits- Microsoft for Python Developers Blog](https://daily.dev/posts/write-sql-server-your-way-dual-parameter-style-benefits--microsoft-for-python-developers-blog-nio0f5hxj) · Planet Python · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql), [#django](https://daily.dev/tags/django) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-a-list-tuple-array-in-django-with-a-raw-sql-cursor-vkedwliuu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"How to use a list/tuple/array in Django with a raw SQL cursor","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-a-list-tuple-array-in-django-with-a-raw-sql-cursor-vkedwliuu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-use-a-list-tuple-array-in-django-with-a-raw-sql-cursor-vkedwliuu"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T19:50:11.097Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:25:21.591Z","description":"When using Django's raw SQL cursor with psycopg v3, the old pattern of passing a tuple with the IN operator no longer works and throws a ProgrammingError. 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