MySQL-Python for Windows: 32-bit and 64-bit Versions
MySQL-Python is an interface between the Python programming language and MySQL databases, allowing Python programs to interact with MySQL. It is based on DB-API (Python Database API), a widely used standard API for accessing various database systems.
32-bit and 64-bit Versions
On Windows, MySQL-Python offers two versions: 32-bit and 64-bit, tailored to different operating system architectures of the Python interpreter. It's crucial to choose the correct version, as an incompatible version can lead to import errors or runtime issues.
Downloading the Right Version
If you are using Python 2.7 and your system is 64-bit, you need to download MySQL-python-1.2.5.win-amd64-py2.7.exe. For a 32-bit environment, download MySQL-python-1.2.5.win32-py2.7.exe.
Installation Steps:
- Download the appropriate installer.
- Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
- During installation, you might encounter a requirement for Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler, which is necessary to build some components of MySQL-Python.
- After installation, try importing the
MySQLdbmodule in your Python environment to ensure a successful installation.
Key Operations with MySQL-Python
Once installed, you can:
1. Connect to a MySQL server using MySQLdb.connect() by specifying server address, username, password, and database name.
2. Create a cursor object with cursor = connection.cursor(). Cursors allow you to execute SQL queries and retrieve results.
3. Execute SQL commands using cursor.execute(sql), such as insert, update, delete, or select queries.
4. Fetch results with rows = cursor.fetchall().