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

Did you mean to write:

selectQ = """SELECT * FROM %s WHERE %s = %s;""" % (self.table,self.columnSpecName,idKey) #maybe the idkey should be self.idkey? don't know the rest of the code

self.db.execute(selectQ)

and this is just a mistake with string formatting?

Btw why do you write explicit SQL for this kind of work? better use magical sqlalchemy for python sql manipulation..