How Do I Connect to a MySQL Database Using Python?

Connecting to a MySQL Database with Python

Connecting to a MySQL database using a Python program involves three main steps: installation, setup, and usage.

Installation

Before you can connect to a MySQL database, you must install the MySQL driver. For Python 2, the recommended driver is MySQLdb. You can download an executable for Windows or install a package for Linux or Mac using your package manager.

Setup

Once the MySQL driver is installed, you must provide connection parameters when establishing a connection to the database. These parameters include the hostname, username, password, and database name.

Usage

After connecting to the database, you can create a cursor object to execute SQL queries. These queries can be used to retrieve, update, and delete data from the database.

Advanced Usage

In addition to basic SQL manipulation, you can use Object-Relational Mappers (ORMs) to interact with the database. ORMs allow you to represent database tables as Python objects, simplifying data access and manipulation. Some popular ORMs for Python include SQLAlchemy and Peewee.

Example

Here's an example of connecting to a MySQL database using Python:

import MySQLdb

# Connection parameters
host = "localhost"
user = "john"
password = "megajonhy"
database = "jonhydb"

# Establish a connection
db = MySQLdb.connect(host, user, password, database)

# Create a cursor
cursor = db.cursor()

# Execute a query
cursor.execute("SELECT * FROM YOUR_TABLE_NAME")

# Retrieve results
for row in cursor.fetchall():
    print(row[0])

# Close the connection
db.close()

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