title: how to unpack a tuple that MAY contain a list
body: <p>I'm having an issue when trying to pass a sqlite query to another function.</p>
  
  <p>The issue is that the sqlite query MAY contains a list and therefore I cannot use <code>*args</code> as it unpacks the tuple but then ignores the list, example query I'm attempting to pass to the function:</p>
  
  <pre><code>'SELECT postname FROM history WHERE postname = ? COLLATE NOCASE', [u'Test']
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So in this case I could use <code>args</code> as opposed to <code>*args</code> in the destination function, however I may have a sqlite query that doesn't contain a list and therefore I can't always do this e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>'SELECT * FROM history' 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>so I guess my question in a nutshell is how can I successfully pass a sqlite query to another function whether it contains a list or not, using args?</p>