I also recommend learning SQL. It is not very hard to learn, and sometimes it may be advantageous to do data manipulation directly in the database, rather than with Python. As far as databases go, I would recommend Firebird, as I have found that it has a good number of features, is free, and yet is also fairly easy to install and run, even on Windows (I could never get MySQL to work quite right). FlameRobin (http://flamerobin.sourceforge.net/) is a nice GUI interface for Firebird.

(Maybe I could do a SQL primer as part of my advanced
topics section in the tutorial... hmm. An intro to SQL then
the next topic showing how to use the Python DBAPI to
link SQL and Python - any takers for that idea?)

Alan G

I would love to read an in depth explanation of the Python DBAPI. The only thing preventing me from connecting my Python and SQL programs is a lack of understanding of the API, which boils down to ( I think ):

1. How to actually pass SQL code to the database using the API (A good example is all I really need).
2. Why does the API use cursor objects to pass commands to the database? Isn't this inefficient from the SQL point of view?
3. What is the best way to deal with the returned result set? Can I assign it to a list or dictionary?


I apologize if any of these questions are overly ignorant, and would be very appreciative for any help.

Bill
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