how to return mysql query result using python

1. The indentation in your code is off; as written, your code won't compile (you might just have to correct the formatting in your question submission).

2. @aws_apprentice is correct. You should include fetchall in your code. I would write it like this:

   import MySQLdb
   
   conn = MySQLdb.connect("localhost","root","root","vkp")
   curs = conn.cursor()
   print ("Opened database successfully");
   
   def select():
       #database_conn()
       print ("inside select")
       curs.execute("""
           SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP 
           FROM TEMP_DATA 
           WHERE air_temp != 9999 
           AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') 
           GROUP BY year(dt); 
           SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP 
           FROM MAX_TEMP9293 
           WHERE air_temp != 9999 
           AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') 
           GROUP BY year(dt)
           """
           )
   
       result = curs.fetchall()
   
       return result
   
   a = select()
   conn.close()
   print(a)
   

3. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think that MySQLdb will pretty-print the output as you indicated that you expect it, as this code is written. There may be some method in the library that does this; might be worth some more research. The code above will output a list of tuples (I think; untested) containing your data.

You're missing fetchall

All you're doing is returning the number of results as opposed to the actual results themselves.

Change this:

a = cursor.execute("SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from TEMP_DATA WHERE air_temp != 9999 AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') GROUP BY year(dt); SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from MAX_TEMP9293 WHERE air_temp != 9999 AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') GROUP BY year(dt)")

To this:

cursor.execute("SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from TEMP_DATA WHERE air_temp != 9999 AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') GROUP BY year(dt); SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from MAX_TEMP9293 WHERE air_temp != 9999 AND (quality_at = '0' || quality_at = '1' || quality_at = '4' || quality_at = '5' || quality_at = '9') GROUP BY year(dt)")

a = cursor.fetchall()

Also there's no point of having commit there. You're not modifying any data within the actual table in this function, which is what it is intended for.

I managed to get the output, this is the code is used.

databasename = 'vkp'
host = 'localhost'
user = 'root'
password = 'root'

#mysql connection
conn = MySQLdb.connect(host,user,password,databasename)
cursor = conn.cursor()

#defining sql select statements
print ("Opened database successfully");
sql = "SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from TEMP_DATA WHERE air_temp != 9999 GROUP BY year(dt)"
sql1 = "SELECT year(dt) AS YEAR, max(air_temp) AS MAX_TEMP from MAX_TEMP9293 WHERE air_temp != 9999 GROUP BY year(dt)"
#list for storing sql queries
list = [sql,sql1]

#function for executing select statements 
def select():
    #iterating for loop
    for l in list:
        #executing query
        cursor.execute(l)
        max = cursor.fetchall()
        #printing max temp for years
        print(max[0])
        print(max[1])