Inserting variable values into MySQL database; I'm using (%s) but getting syntax error
Question:
table name: ‘tickers_list’ (table has only 1 column)
column name: ‘Ticker’
The following works:
sql = "INSERT INTO tickers_list (Ticker) VALUES ('AAPL')"
mycursor.execute(sql)
mydb.commit()
But when I try to set it up to accept variables, it’s not working:
symbol = 'AAPL'
sql = "INSERT INTO tickers_list (Ticker) VALUES (%s)"
mycursor.execute(sql, symbol)
mydb.commit()
ProgrammingError: 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘%s)’ at line 1
Where am I going wrong?
Answers:
You need to execute with a tuple, and a tuple must contain at least one ,. In Python for a single value this means:
mycursor.execute(sql, (symbol,))
Which does look a bit weird, but it’s just how it is. For multiple values it looks more normal, no trailing , is necessary.
In addition to what tadman says, strings need quotes:
... ("%s") ...
table name: ‘tickers_list’ (table has only 1 column)
column name: ‘Ticker’
The following works:
sql = "INSERT INTO tickers_list (Ticker) VALUES ('AAPL')"
mycursor.execute(sql)
mydb.commit()
But when I try to set it up to accept variables, it’s not working:
symbol = 'AAPL'
sql = "INSERT INTO tickers_list (Ticker) VALUES (%s)"
mycursor.execute(sql, symbol)
mydb.commit()
ProgrammingError: 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ‘%s)’ at line 1
Where am I going wrong?
You need to execute with a tuple, and a tuple must contain at least one ,. In Python for a single value this means:
mycursor.execute(sql, (symbol,))
Which does look a bit weird, but it’s just how it is. For multiple values it looks more normal, no trailing , is necessary.
In addition to what tadman says, strings need quotes:
... ("%s") ...