python = storing multiple sql queries

Question

I've got a python file which has a bunch of sql queries in it depending on the arguments that are being passed example would be like this:

if args.monitor == 'Argument One':
    sql_query = """select a, b, c from tableA where a = 123"""
elif args.monitor == 'Argument Two':
    sql_query = """select d, e, f from TableA where d = 456"""
elif ....

This continues on for about 10 different queries with different complexities.

Obviously this makes a mess of code, and to update and/or add SQL queries involves touching a lot of code. What I'd like to do is part the queries/arguments into some sort of dict. Is it possible to use a config file for this purpose where I could do something like the following?

[query]
Argument A = select a, b, c from tableA where a = 123
Argument B = select d, e, f from TableA where d = 456

And then call via ConfigParser. My concern is that some of the queries are quite long (10 lines max) so how would I represent that in a config file?

Or do I go the route of saving each query as ArgumentA.sql and then list the directory and if the argument matches then use that sql?

Has anyone approached a scenario like this before?

Is it important that the queries stay human-readable (i.e. with line breaks)? — lucasnadalutti
– lucasnadalutti, Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 21:06
The intention is that they would have to be maintained so yeah, need to maintain human readability. — whoisearth
– whoisearth, Commented Mar 14, 2016 at 21:08

lucasnadalutti · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-14 21:14:25Z

A dict which associates each argument with the respective query does seem the best idea. Considering this, I see several approaches for this

1) Having a constant at the top of the file which contains this dict. E.g.:

ARGUMENTS_DICT = {
    'Argument One': (
        'select *'
        'from table'
        'where etc'
    ),
    ...
}

2) Having the same constant from 1 in another file (Python module) and importing it to the current module. E.g.:

from .arguments_dict import ARGUMENTS_DICT

3) Having this dict as a JSON object in a JSON file and using Python's json module to load it as a dict. The downside here is that, to maintain the query's readability, each query would need to be split in elements of a list and joined when loaded in Python. E.g.:

// arguments_dict.json
{
    'Argument One': [
        'select *',
        'from table',
        'where etc'
    ],
    ...
}

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