Update (crUd) using cx_Oracle

In this post we’re going to take a look at the U in CRUD: Update.

We use the cx_Oracle driver to update some data in the database tables, using the connection object created in the Initial Setup section of the first post in this series.

PLEASE REVIEW ALL EXAMPLE CODE AND ONLY RUN IT IF YOU ARE SURE IT WILL NOT CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS WITH YOUR SYSTEM.

Helper Function

My helper function get_all_rows() encapsulates a select statement used to verify that the updates worked. The select functionality is covered in the R part of this series, so I won’t go into the details here.

Add this function to the top of your file.

Resetting the data

To keep the examples clean and precise, I will reset the data at times.

Create a new file called reset_data.py with the following code and then run it whenever you would like to reset the data. (Notice this version adds pet data not included in other sections.)

Boilerplate template

The template we will be using is:

For each exercise, replace the “# Your code here” line with your code.

Simple update

We will perform a simple update that modifies a single record in the cx_people table.  These are the steps performed in the code snippet below.

  • Get a cursor object from our connection.  We will use this cursor to perform our database operations.
  • Prepare a SQL UPDATE statement, changing age to 31 for the record with an id of 1.
  • Execute the statement using bind variables.  (See the R part of this series for an explanation of bind variables.)
  • Commit the transaction.
When I run this code in my Python session, I see:

Extra Fun 1

Update Bob’s notes to ‘I like cats’ .

Your results should be:

Answer

Reset the data

Now is a good time to run reset_data.py.

Boilerplate change

Change the boilerplate get_all_rows statements to get pet data.

Make sure your where clause is specific

In the above example, notice that we used the id column in our where clause.  For our data set, id is the primary key.  You do not always have to use a primary key, but you should make sure you only update the rows you intend to.

Next let’s look at updating multiple rows.   We’ll have Bob give his dog Duke to Kim.

  • Get a cursor object from our connection.  We will use this cursor to perform our database operations.
  • Prepare a SQL UPDATE statement, changing owner to 2 (Kim) for the records with an owner of 1 (Bob) and a type of ‘dog’.
  • Execute the statement using bind variables.  (See the R part of this series for an explanation of bind variables.)
  • Commit the transaction.
When I run this code in my Python session, I see:

In our example we only used owner and type, assuming that Bob only had one dog, Duke, as it is in our original data.  With the new reset data function we added a second dog Buster.  This example is intended to demonstrate what may happen when multiple users are working with the same data set.

In our data, the only unique identifier for cx_pets is id.  Bob may have two dogs, or even two dogs named Duke.  Make sure if you intend to change a specific row you use a unique identifier.

It also helps to…

Verify the number of affected rows

Now lets give Buster back to Bob.  This time we will use the unique id column and we will print out the number of rows affected using Cursor.rowcount.

  • Get a cursor object from our connection.  We will use this cursor to perform our database operations.
  • Prepare a SQL UPDATE statement, changing owner to 1 (Bob) for the records with an id of 6 (Buster).
  • Execute the statement using bind variables.  (See the R part of this series for an explanation of bind variables.)
  • Commit the transaction.
When I run this code in my Python session, I see:

Cursor.rowcount will show you the number of rows affected for insert, update and delete statements and the number of rows returned in a select statement.

Extra Fun 2

Give all birds to Kim that she doesn’t already have and print the number of affected rows .

Your results should be:

Answer

Some other things you could try
  • Change multiple column values
  • Preform an update that changes all rows, if the rowcount is greater than 2, rollback the change

Series sections

Initial Setup
Create records
Retrieve records
Update records
Delete records

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