Reading/writing a database

Python is often referred to as a language that has batteries included, thanks to its very complete standard library, and one of the best features it provides is reading and writing from a full-featured relational database.

Python ships with the SQLite library built in, meaning that we can save and read database files stored by SQLite.

The usage is pretty straightforward and most of it actually just involves sending SQL for execution.

How to do it...

For this recipes, the steps are as follows:

1. Using the sqlite3 module, it's possible to create a new database file, create a table, and insert entries into it:

import sqlite3


with sqlite3.connect('/tmp/test.db') as db:
    try:
        db.execute('''CREATE TABLE people (
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL, 
            name TEXT, 
            surname TEXT, 
            language TEXT
        )''')
    except sqlite3.OperationalError:
        # Table already exists
        pass

    sql = 'INSERT INTO...