How can I combine two or more querysets in a Django view?

Concatenating the querysets into a list is the simplest approach. If the database will be hit for all querysets anyway (e.g. because the result needs to be sorted), this won't add further cost.

from itertools import chain
result_list = list(chain(page_list, article_list, post_list))

Using itertools.chain is faster than looping each list and appending elements one by one, since itertools is implemented in C. It also consumes less memory than converting each queryset into a list before concatenating.

Now it's possible to sort the resulting list e.g. by date (as requested in hasen j's comment to another answer). The sorted() function conveniently accepts a generator and returns a list:

result_list = sorted(
    chain(page_list, article_list, post_list),
    key=lambda instance: instance.date_created)

If you're using Python 2.4 or later, you can use attrgetter instead of a lambda. I remember reading about it being faster, but I didn't see a noticeable speed difference for a million item list.

from operator import attrgetter
result_list = sorted(
    chain(page_list, article_list, post_list),
    key=attrgetter('date_created'))

Try this:

matches = pages | articles | posts

It retains all the functions of the querysets which is nice if you want to order_by or similar.

Please note: this doesn't work on querysets from two different models.

You can use the QuerySetChain class below. When using it with Django's paginator, it should only hit the database with COUNT(*) queries for all querysets and SELECT() queries only for those querysets whose records are displayed on the current page.

Note that you need to specify template_name= if using a QuerySetChain with generic views, even if the chained querysets all use the same model.

from itertools import islice, chain

class QuerySetChain(object):
    """
    Chains multiple subquerysets (possibly of different models) and behaves as
    one queryset.  Supports minimal methods needed for use with
    django.core.paginator.
    """

    def __init__(self, *subquerysets):
        self.querysets = subquerysets

    def count(self):
        """
        Performs a .count() for all subquerysets and returns the number of
        records as an integer.
        """
        return sum(qs.count() for qs in self.querysets)

    def _clone(self):
        "Returns a clone of this queryset chain"
        return self.__class__(*self.querysets)

    def _all(self):
        "Iterates records in all subquerysets"
        return chain(*self.querysets)

    def __getitem__(self, ndx):
        """
        Retrieves an item or slice from the chained set of results from all
        subquerysets.
        """
        if type(ndx) is slice:
            return list(islice(self._all(), ndx.start, ndx.stop, ndx.step or 1))
        else:
            return islice(self._all(), ndx, ndx+1).next()

In your example, the usage would be:

pages = Page.objects.filter(Q(title__icontains=cleaned_search_term) |
                            Q(body__icontains=cleaned_search_term))
articles = Article.objects.filter(Q(title__icontains=cleaned_search_term) |
                                  Q(body__icontains=cleaned_search_term) |
                                  Q(tags__icontains=cleaned_search_term))
posts = Post.objects.filter(Q(title__icontains=cleaned_search_term) |
                            Q(body__icontains=cleaned_search_term) | 
                            Q(tags__icontains=cleaned_search_term))
matches = QuerySetChain(pages, articles, posts)

Then use matches with the paginator like you used result_list in your example.

The itertools module was introduced in Python 2.3, so it should be available in all Python versions Django runs on.

The big downside of your current approach is its inefficiency with large search result sets, as you have to pull down the entire result set from the database each time, even though you only intend to display one page of results.

In order to only pull down the objects you actually need from the database, you have to use pagination on a QuerySet, not a list. If you do this, Django actually slices the QuerySet before the query is executed, so the SQL query will use OFFSET and LIMIT to only get the records you will actually display. But you can't do this unless you can cram your search into a single query somehow.

Given that all three of your models have title and body fields, why not use model inheritance? Just have all three models inherit from a common ancestor that has title and body, and perform the search as a single query on the ancestor model.

This can be achieved by two ways either.

1st way to do this

Use union operator for queryset | to take union of two queryset. If both queryset belongs to same model / single model than it is possible to combine querysets by using union operator.

For an instance

pagelist1 = Page.objects.filter(
    Q(title__icontains=cleaned_search_term) | 
    Q(body__icontains=cleaned_search_term))
pagelist2 = Page.objects.filter(
    Q(title__icontains=cleaned_search_term) | 
    Q(body__icontains=cleaned_search_term))
combined_list = pagelist1 | pagelist2 # this would take union of two querysets

2nd way to do this

One other way to achieve combine operation between two queryset is to use itertools chain function.

from itertools import chain
combined_results = list(chain(pagelist1, pagelist2))

You can use Union:

qs = qs1.union(qs2, qs3)

But if you want to apply order_by on the foreign models of the combined queryset... then you need to Select them beforehand this way... otherwise it won't work.

Example

qs = qs1.union(qs2.select_related("foreignModel"), qs3.select_related("foreignModel"))
qs.order_by("foreignModel__prop1")

where prop1 is a property in the foreign model.

Here's an idea... just pull down one full page of results from each of the three and then throw out the 20 least useful ones... this eliminates the large querysets and that way you only sacrifice a little performance instead of a lot.

This will do the work without using any other libraries:

result_list = page_list | article_list | post_list

The best option is to use the Django built-in methods:

# Union method
result_list = page_list.union(article_list, post_list)

That will return the union of all the objects in those querysets.

If you want to get just the objects that are in the three querysets, you will love the built-in method of querysets, intersection.

# intersection method
result_list = page_list.intersection(article_list, post_list)

This recursive function concatenates array of querysets into one queryset.

def merge_query(ar):
    if len(ar) ==0:
        return [ar]
    while len(ar)>1:
        tmp=ar[0] | ar[1]
        ar[0]=tmp
        ar.pop(1)
        return ar