Python and MySQLdb: substitution of table resulting in syntax error

Question

I need to dynamically change tables and variables from time to time, so I wrote a python method like this:

    selectQ =\"\"\"SELECT * FROM  %s WHERE %s = %s         


        

Answer 1

Parameter substitution in the DB API is only for values - not tables or fields. You'll need to use normal string substitution for those:

selectQ ="""SELECT * FROM  %s WHERE %s = %%s;""" % (self.table,self.columnSpecName)
self.db.execute(selectQ,(idKey,))
return self.db.store_result()

Note that the value placeholder has a double % - this is so that it's left alone by the initial string substitution.