Connecting with Python

This guide explains how to establish a connection between a Python application and a MySQL database using the mysql-connector-python package. It walks through the necessary setup, configuration, and execution of a simple SQL query.

Variables

Certain parameters must be provided to establish a successful connection to a MySQL database. Below is a breakdown of each required variable, its purpose, and where to find it. Here’s what each variable represents:

These values can usually be found in the Elestio service overview details as shown in the image below, make sure to take a copy of these details and add it to the code moving ahead.

Prerequisites

• Install Python
  • Check if Python is installed by running: python --version
    
  • If not installed, download it from python.org and install it.

• Install the mysql-connector-python Package
  • The mysql-connector-python package enables Python applications to interact with MySQL. Install it using: pip install mysql-connector-python

Code

Once all prerequisites are set up, create a new file named mysql_connect.py and add the following code:

import mysql.connector

# Database connection configuration
config = {
    "host": "HOST",
    "user": "USER",
    "password": "PASSWORD",
    "database": "DATABASE",
    "port": PORT
}

try:
    # Establish the connection
    connection = mysql.connector.connect(**config)
    print("Connected to MySQL")

    # Create a cursor and execute a test query
    cursor = connection.cursor()
    cursor.execute("SELECT VERSION()")

    # Fetch and print the result
    version = cursor.fetchone()
    print("MySQL Version:", version[0])

except mysql.connector.Error as err:
    print("Connection failed:", err)

finally:
    if 'cursor' in locals():
        cursor.close()
    if 'connection' in locals() and connection.is_connected():
        connection.close()
        print("Connection closed")

To execute the script, open the terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory where mysql_connect.py is located. Once in the correct directory, run the script with the command:

python mysql_connect.py

If the connection is successful, the terminal will display output similar to:

Connected to MySQL
MySQL Version: 8.0.41
Connection closed