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Get the Report →How to Connect to EnterpriseDB Data in Using Python: 6 Steps
Create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to EnterpriseDB data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.
The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB and the pyodbc module, you can easily build EnterpriseDB-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to EnterpriseDB data, execute queries, and output the results.
How to Use the CData ODBC Drivers on UNIX/Linux
The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation (installed and found online).
1. Install the Driver Manager
Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:
$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev
For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:
$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:
$ odbcinst -j
The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:
DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini
SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini
FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources
USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini
SQLULEN Size.......: 8
SQLLEN Size........: 8
SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8
2. Install the Driver
You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.
The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb
For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm
Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:
List the Registered Driver(s)
$ odbcinst -q -d
CData ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB
...
List the Defined Data Source(s)
$ odbcinst -q -s
CData EnterpriseDB Source
...
To use the CData ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.enterprisedb.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-enterprisedb), as follows:
cdata.odbc.enterprisedb.ini
...
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16
3. Modify the DSN
The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
The following connection properties are required in order to connect to data.
- Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the EnterpriseDB database.
- Port: The port of the server hosting the EnterpriseDB database.
You can also optionally set the following:
- Database: The default database to connect to when connecting to the EnterpriseDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
Connect Using Standard Authentication
To authenticate using standard authentication, set the following:
- User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the EnterpriseDB server.
- Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the EnterpriseDB server.
Connect Using SSL Authentication
You can leverage SSL authentication to connect to EnterpriseDB data via a secure session. Configure the following connection properties to connect to data:
- SSLClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate. Used in the case of 2-way SSL, where truststore and keystore are kept on both the client and server machines.
- SSLClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
- SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
- SSLClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
- SSLServerCert: The certificate to be accepted from the server.
/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini
[CData EnterpriseDB Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB
Description = My Description
User = postgres
Password = admin
Database = postgres
Server = 127.0.0.1
Port = 5444
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing EnterpriseDB through Python objects.
4. Install pyodbc
You can use the pip utility to install the module:
pip install pyodbc
Be sure to import with the module with the following:
import pyodbc
5. Connect to EnterpriseDB Data
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB};User=postgres;Password=admin;Database=postgres;Server=127.0.0.1;Port=5444')
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData EnterpriseDB Sys;')
6. Execute SQL on EnterpriseDB
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
Select
You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:
import pyodbc
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData EnterpriseDB Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword')
cursor.execute("SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
print(row.ShipName, row.ShipCity)
You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:
cursor.execute(
"SELECT ShipName, ShipCity
FROM Orders
WHERE ShipCountry = ?", 'USA',1)
Insert
INSERT commands also use the execute method; however, you must subsequently call the commit method after an insert or you will lose your changes:
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO Orders (ShipCountry) VALUES ('USA')")
cnxn.commit()
Update and Delete
As with an insert, you must also call commit after calling execute for an update or delete:
cursor.execute("UPDATE Orders SET ShipCountry = 'USA'")
cnxn.commit()
Metadata Discovery
You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.
cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)
You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to EnterpriseDB data, using the CData ODBC Driver for EnterpriseDB.