python get elements in array by column name like in php

Question

I want to be able to do something like the code below (which is PHP):

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
    $name = $row['name'];
    $event = $row['event'];

in python. So getting an element by its index. What is the best way?

Use Python Dictionary, Python Lists can only access by their index. — Aamir Rind, Oct 31 '12 at 12:21
do you talk about SQL results array specifically, or general arrays ? — lucasg, Oct 31 '12 at 12:24
Use something like this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/811548/sqlite-and-python-return-a-dictionary-using-fetchone — Paolo Moretti, Oct 31 '12 at 12:26

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:21

3

Yes, using dictionaries, which are built in types.

d = {'name': 'user'}
print d['name']
user

answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:21

jro

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This seems useful. Can you show me how to get my 'name' variable for every row in practice? – trainoasis Oct 31 '12 at 13:09

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:38

You use the DictCursor object from the MySQLdb package. This will produce a dictionary (mapping) in the result set rather than the usual tuples.

import MySQLdb                                                                                                                      
from MySQLdb import cursors

def fetchallmap(self, q, *args):                                                                                                
    """Fetch all rows into a dictionary.                                                                                        
    """                                                                                                                         
    curs = self._connection.cursor(cursors.DictCursor)                                                                                   
    curs.execute(q, args)                                                                                                       
    res = curs.fetchall()                                                                                                       
    curs.close()                                                                                                                
    self._connection.commit()                                                                                                            
    return res

This will return a list of dictionaries (mappings). If you just want one row, just substitute fetchoone instead of fetchall.

def fetchonemap(self, q, *args):                                                                                                
    """Fetch one row into a dictionary.                                                                                         
    """                                                                                                                         
    curs = self._connection.cursor(cursors.DictCursor)                                                                                   
    curs.execute(q, args)                                                                                                       
    res = curs.fetchone()                                                                                                       
    curs.close()                                                                                                                
    self._connection.commit()                                                                                                            
    return res

could you show me how this would work in practice for my case please? How would i get 'name' and other variables for each row given? — trainoasis, Oct 31 '12 at 13:08
here is an example : [http://www.kitebird.com/articles/pydbapi.html#TOC_10](http://www.kitebird.com/articles/pydbapi.html#TOC_10) — lucasg, Oct 31 '12 at 13:21
post as 'answer' so i can accept it :)) that worked! thanks alot — trainoasis, Oct 31 '12 at 13:50

python get elements in array by column name like in php

2 Answers2