Unpacking a Python list in a query.

From: Sukhbir Singh <singheinstein(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: psycopg(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Unpacking a Python list in a query.
Date: 2011-06-24 19:05:08
Message-ID: BANLkTimSngQwS=uTopoKptur1+JxS8u0+w@mail.gmail.com
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Hi,

I am using the psycopg2 adapter on Python 2.6.

There was a requirement to automate certain UPDATE queries, so I
designed the program in such a way that the end of the queries are in
a list. I will illustrate with an example.

The query is:

    UPDATE foobartable SET name = 'FooBar' WHERE name = %s OR name = %s

And say I have a list:

    ["Foo", "Bar"]

So, I want to execute the complete query as: substituting element by
element from the list for each %s:

UPDATE foobartable SET name = 'FooBar' WHERE name = 'Foo' OR name = 'Bar'

The question is: how do I pass this list to the query?

I tried using the format method and list unpacking (*list) and it
works. But the docs recommend otherwise: "Warning Never, never, NEVER
use Python string concatenation (+) or string parameters interpolation
(%) to pass variables to a SQL query string. Not even at gunpoint"
This is what I did:

curr.execute("UPDATE foobartable SET name='FooBar' WHERE
name='{0}' or name='{1}';".format(*list))

... which I am certain is wrong.

How can I get this working with something safe and the recommended way
of doing it?

--
Sukhbir.

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