International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)

ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426

Python – Using Database and SQL

Shweta J. Patil
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Engineering College, Aurangabad, M.S, India

Abstract: Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python
claims to combine "remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive. Python is a programming
language that lets you work more quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. In this paper we reviews available resources and basic
information about database modules that are known to be used with Python and also how to make the connection between python and
database. This paper features about different database systems with their standard commands implemented with python also result best
suitable to implement database engine using python.

Keywords: Python, Database, SQL

1. Introduction Five steps must be taken to make Python work in a database

system:
The database is a collection of organized information that can 1) Import the database module (MySQLdb, phpmyAdmin,
be easily be used,managed,update and they are classified sqlite, etc)
according to their organizational approach. Most database are 2) Use module.connect() to create a connection.
organized like a dictionary in the sense that they map from 3) Use connection.cursor() to get a cursor. Cursors do all the
keys to values. Like a dictionary, database software is work.
designed to keep the inserting and accessing of data very 4) Use cursor.execute(sql_query) to run something.
fast,even for large amounts of data.Database software 5) Use cursor.fetchall() to get results.
maintains its performance by building indexes as data is added
to the database to allow the computer to jump quickly to a 1.1 Gadfly
particular entry.
First database module we review is Gadfly. We adopted most
There are many different database systems which are used for relevant information about Gadfly from resource [1] as
a wide variety of purposes including:Oracle, MySQL, follows. Gadfly is a collection of python modules that
Microsoft SQL server,PostgreSQL and SQLite. provides relational database functionality entirely
implemented in Python. It supports a subset of the
In python file, you have to first establish a connection between intergalactic standard RDBMS Structured Query Language
your file and the database. After that, you can add, search, SQL. One of the most compelling aspects of Gadfly is that it
delete or update your database. Moreover, you can retrieve the runs where ever Python runs and supports client/server on any
data from the database, make any operation on it then re-add it platform that supports the standard Python socket interface.
to the database. The database operations are performed using Even the file formats used by Gadfly for storage are cross-
SQL statements[1]. In this paper, we first reviews available platform -- a gadfly database directory can be moved from
resources and basic information about database modules that Win95 to Linux using a binary copying mechanism and gadfly
are known to be used with Python. Each review is will read and run the database. It supports persistent databases
accompanied by a demonstrative Python code that can help consisting of a collection of structured tables with indices, and
users to start using the modules in Python. In the second a large subset of SQL for accessing and modifying those
section, a description of how to make the connection between tables. It supports a log based recovery protocol which allows
python and database is provided. In the third section, a quick committed operations of a database to be recovered even if the
review of the basic SQL statements is presented. In the forth database was not shut down in a proper manner (ie, in the
section, the main database operations are performed using event of a CPU or software crash, [but not in the event of a
python. disk crash]). It also supports a TCP/IP Client/Server mode
where remote clients can access a Gadfly database over a
Python has support for working with databases via a simple TCP/IP network (such as the Internet) subject to configurable
API. Modules included with Python include modules for security mechanisms[3].
SQLite and Berkeley DB. Modules for MySQL , PostgreSQL ,
FirebirdSQL and others are available as third-party modules. 1.2 MySQL
The latter have to be downloaded and installed before use. The
package MySQLdb can be installed, for example, using the MySQL is a leading open source database management
debian package "pythonmysqldb".Some supported databases: system. It is a multi user, multithreaded database management
 GadFly system. MySQL is especially popular on the web. It is one of
 MySQL the parts of the very popular LAMP platform. Linux, Apache,
 PostgreSQL MySQL, PHP. Currently MySQL is owned by Oracle.
MySQL database is available on most important OS platforms.
 SQLite
It runs under BSD Unix, Linux, Windows or Mac. Wikipedia
 Oracle
and YouTube use MySQL. These sites manage millions of

Volume 8 Issue 2, February 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194929 10.21275/ART20194929 83
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426
queries each day. MySQL comes in two versions. MySQL 2. Connecting Python With Thedatabase
server system and MySQL embedded system[4].
A table resides within a database. This is particularly true for
1.3 PostgreSQL MySQL.

Another reviewed module is PostgreSQL and the most To create a table, a database must be created first, or at least a
relevant information is reviewed from [5] as follows. database must be present. So to retrieve data from a 10 table, a
PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational connection to the database must be established. This is done
database system. It has more than 15 years of active by using the connect() method. In other words, connect is the
development and a proven architecture that has earned it a constructor of the phpMyAdmin. The parameters are as
strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness. follows:
It runs on all major operating systems, including Linux, UNIX  host is the name of the system where the MySQL server is
(AIX, BSD, HP-UX, SGI IRIX, Mac OS X, Solaris, Tru64), running. It can be a name or an IP address. If no value is
and Windows. It is fully ACID compliant, has full support for passed, then the default value used is localhost.
foreign keys, joins, views, triggers, and stored procedures (in  user is the user id, which must be authenticated. In other
multiple languages). It includes most SQL:2008 data types, words, this is the authentic id for using the services of the
including INTEGER, NUMERIC, BOOLEAN, CHAR, Server. The default value is the current effective user. Most
VARCHAR, DATE, INTERVAL, and TIMESTAMP. It also of the time it is either „nobody‟ or „root‟.
supports storage of binary large objects, including pictures,  passwd -- It is by using a combination of the user id and a
sounds, or video. PostgreSQL runs stored procedures in more password that MySQL server (or for that matter any server)
authenticates a user. The default value is no passwords. That
than a dozen programming languages, including Java, Perl,
means a null string for this parameter.
Python, Ruby, Tcl, C/C++, and its own PL/pgSQL, which is
 db is the database that must be used once the connection has
similar to Oracle's PL/SQL. Included with its standard
been established with the server. However, if the database to
function library are hundreds of built-in functions that range be used is not selected, the connection established is of no
from basic math and string operations to cryptography and use. There is no default value for this parameter.
Oracle compatibility. Triggers and stored procedures can be
written in C and loaded into the database as a library, allowing 2.1 Creation of the Cursor
great flexibility in extending its capabilities. Similarly,
PostgreSQL includes a framework that allows developers to In the terminology of databases, cursor is that area in the
define and create their own custom data types along with memory where the data fetched from the data tables are kept
supporting functions and operators that define their once the query is executed. In essence it is the scratch area for
behavior[7]. the database. MySQL does not support cursors. But it is easy
to emulate the functionality of cursors. That‟s what the
1.4 Oracle phpMyAdmin does. To get a cursor, the cursor() method of
connection object has to be used. There is only one parameter
The Oracle Database (commonly referred to as Oracle to this method -- the class that implements cursor behavior.
RDBMS or simply as Oracle) is an object-relational database This parameter is optional. If no value is given, then it defaults
management system(ORDBMS) produced and marketed by to the standard Cursor class. If more control is required, then
Oracle Corporation. The Oracle RDBMS stores data logically custom Cursor class can be provided. To obtain a cursor object
in the form of table spaces and physically in the form of data the statement would be:
files ("datafiles"). Tablespaces can contain various types of cursor= db.cursor()
memory segments, such as Data Segments, Index Segments,
2.3 Execution of the SQL statement
etc. Segments in turn comprise one or more extents. Extents
comprise groups of contiguous data blocks. Data blocks form The steps enumerated until now have done the job of
the basic units of data storage[5][6]. connecting the application with the database and providing an
object that simulates the functionality of cursors. The stage
1.5 SQLite has been set for execution of SQL statements. Any SQL
statement supported by MySQL can be executed using the
SQLite is an in-process library that implements a self- execute() method of the Cursor class. The SQL statement is
contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL passed as a string to it. Once the statement is executed
database engine. The code for SQLite is in the public successfully, the Cursor object will contain the result set of the
domain and is thus free for use for any purpose, commercial or retrieved values. For example, to retrieve all the rows of a
private. SQLite is the most widely deployed database in the table named USER_MASTER the statement would be:
world with more applications than we can count, including cursor.execute(“select * from USER_MASTER”) Once the
several high-profile projects. above statement is executed, the cursor object would contain
all the retrieved. This brings us to the fourth step, fetching of
SQLite is an embedded SQL database engine. Unlike most the resultset. Before moving on to the next step, there is one
other SQL databases, SQLite does not have a separate server point you must understand. The execute() function accepts and
process. SQLite reads and writes directly to ordinary disk executes any valid SQL statement, including DDL statements
files. A complete SQL database with multiple tables, indices, such as delete table, alter table, and so on. In the case of DDL
statements, there is no fifth step (i.e. iteration over the results
triggers, and views, is contained in a single disk file.
fetched).

Volume 8 Issue 2, February 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194929 10.21275/ART20194929 84
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
Impact Factor (2018): 7.426
2.4 Modification in table

Connection.commit() is a necessary statement after any

modification to the table by adding, updating or deleting.
However, if you only want to view the data at the table by
select statement, you don‟t need to commit.

2.5 Fetching the result set

The flexibility of Python comes to the fore in this step also. In

the real world, fetching all the rows at once may not be
feasible. MySQLdb answers this situation by providing
different versions of the fetch() function of Cursor class. The
two most commonly used versions are:
 fetchone(): This fetches one row in the form of a Python
tuple. All the data types are mapped to the Python data types
except one -- unsigned integer. To avoid any overflow
problem, it is mapped to the long.
 fetchall(): This fetches all the rows as tuple of tuples. While
fetchone() increments the cursor position by one, fetchall()
does nothing of that kind. Everything else is similar.

That covers all the steps required to access MySQL. What we

have discussed up to now is "the approach of tackling a
problem of the type database connectivity." However, in real
life, reusability plays a more important role than it has in what
you have seen so far.

3. Conclusions
During the work on project, tried to analyze all the database
servers in order to find the most suitable one. After a careful
consideration MySQL Server is chosen since it has many 14
appropriate characteristics to be implemented in Python.
Python is one of the most known advanced programming
languages, which owns mainly to its own natural
expressiveness as well as to the bunch of support modules that
helps extend its advantages, that‟s why Python fits perfectly
well when it comes to developing a stable connection between
the program and the database.

References

[1] Ahmed Othman Eltahawey. Database Using Python: A

Tutorial, ResearchGate publication, December, 2016
[2] Ainur Duisenbayeva Zhuldyz Assylova. Study of Python
programming language for database systems, May, 2012
[3] http://gadfly.sourceforge.net/gadfly.html
[4] http://zetcode.com/databases/mysqlpythontutorial/
[5] http://www.itsabacus.com/oracle.html
[6] http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Python
[7] http://www.postgresql.org/
[8] http://informix-zone.com/informix-script-dbapi

Volume 8 Issue 2, February 2019

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: ART20194929 10.21275/ART20194929 85