Book Image

MySQL for Python

By : Albert Lukaszewski
Book Image

MySQL for Python

By: Albert Lukaszewski

Overview of this book

Python is a dynamic programming language, which is completely enterprise ready, owing largely to the variety of support modules that are available to extend its capabilities. In order to build productive and feature-rich Python applications, we need to use MySQL for Python, a module that provides database support to our applications. Although you might be familiar with accessing data in MySQL, here you will learn how to access data through MySQL for Python efficiently and effectively.This book demonstrates how to boost the productivity of your Python applications by integrating them with the MySQL database server, the world's most powerful open source database. It will teach you to access the data on your MySQL database server easily with Python's library for MySQL using a practical, hands-on approach. Leaving theory to the classroom, this book uses real-world code to solve real-world problems with real-world solutions.The book starts by exploring the various means of installing MySQL for Python on different platforms and how to use simple database querying techniques to improve your programs. It then takes you through data insertion, data retrieval, and error-handling techniques to create robust programs. The book also covers automation of both database and user creation, and administration of access controls. As the book progresses, you will learn to use many more advanced features of Python for MySQL that facilitate effective administration of your database through Python. Every chapter is illustrated with a project that you can deploy in your own situation.By the end of this book, you will know several techniques for interfacing your Python applications with MySQL effectively so that powerful database management through Python becomes easy to achieve and easy to maintain.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
MySQL for Python
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Project: A command-line insertion utility


We can now put together the elements of database programming that we have covered in this chapter to form a robust command-line insertion utility. For this project we want to create a program with the following functionality:

  • Runs from the command-line

  • Uses a flag system allowing for the -h flag for help

  • Allows the user to define the database being used

  • Allows the user to designate which user and password combination to use

  • Allows the user to ask for the tables available in a given database

  • Provides the user with the column structure of the table on demand

  • Validates user input for the given table of the selected database

  • Builds the database INSERT statement on-the-fly

  • Inserts the user input into the chosen table of the selected database

The necessary modules

Before we jump into coding, let us first assess which modules we need to import. The modules we need are listed next to our required functionality as follows. The need for MySQLdb is understood.

  • Flag system...