Format an SQL query in Python without executing it

Question

Python has all sort of libraries to interface with databases, which provide a nice way to build SQL queries without worrying about SQL injections. For instance, with sqlite3:

for t in [('2006-03-28', 'BUY', 'IBM', 1000, 45.00),
          ('2006-04-05', 'BUY', 'MSOFT', 1000, 72.00),
          ('2006-04-06', 'SELL', 'IBM', 500, 53.00),
         ]:
    c.execute('insert into stocks values (?,?,?,?,?)', t)

The trouble is, I don't want to execute the query, I just want to format it and get the query as a string. I guess I could escape things myself, but it's not a very elegant solution. There has to be a way to get the formatted queries without actually connecting to a database and running them.

(The context is that I'm writing a filter which prepares a series of SQL statements from the input, but I don't want to run them on a specific database, just save them for later.)

I don't believe that's something Python is doing... isn't the ability to use parameters handled at the driver level? i.e., I would use the exact same SQL code in ASP.Net or Java to talk to the database. — mellamokb
– mellamokb, Commented Sep 27, 2011 at 22:40

S.Lott · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-27 22:41:35Z

5

There has to be a way to get the formatted queries without actually connecting to a database and running them

Not really.

The RDBMS handles this internally with "prepared queries" and "bind variables". The "formatted" doesn't actually exist. Anywhere.

answered Sep 27, 2011 at 22:41

S.Lott

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a3nm Over a year ago

Woops, I didn't knew about this at all, I though this was only a convenient way to take care of escaping. As it turns out, this question is irrelevant; I learnt something new today. :-) If someone else was confused by this, see: secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Prepared_statement

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