reading external sql script in python

Your code already contains a beautiful way to execute all statements from a specified sql file

# Open and read the file as a single buffer
fd = open('ZooDatabase.sql', 'r')
sqlFile = fd.read()
fd.close()

# all SQL commands (split on ';')
sqlCommands = sqlFile.split(';')

# Execute every command from the input file
for command in sqlCommands:
    # This will skip and report errors
    # For example, if the tables do not yet exist, this will skip over
    # the DROP TABLE commands
    try:
        c.execute(command)
    except OperationalError, msg:
        print("Command skipped: ", msg)

Wrap this in a function and you can reuse it.

def executeScriptsFromFile(filename):
    # Open and read the file as a single buffer
    fd = open(filename, 'r')
    sqlFile = fd.read()
    fd.close()

    # all SQL commands (split on ';')
    sqlCommands = sqlFile.split(';')

    # Execute every command from the input file
    for command in sqlCommands:
        # This will skip and report errors
        # For example, if the tables do not yet exist, this will skip over
        # the DROP TABLE commands
        try:
            c.execute(command)
        except OperationalError, msg:
            print("Command skipped: ", msg)

To use it

executeScriptsFromFile('zookeeper.sql')

You said you were confused by

result = c.execute("SELECT * FROM %s;" % table);

In Python, you can add stuff to a string by using something called string formatting.

You have a string "Some string with %s" with %s, that’s a placeholder for something else. To replace the placeholder, you add % (“what you want to replace it with”) after your string

ex:

a = "Hi, my name is %s and I have a %s hat" % ("Azeirah", "cool")
print(a)
>>> Hi, my name is Azeirah and I have a Cool hat

Bit of a childish example, but it should be clear.

Now, what

result = c.execute("SELECT * FROM %s;" % table);

means, is it replaces %s with the value of the table variable.

(created in)

for table in ['ZooKeeper', 'Animal', 'Handles']:


# for loop example

for fruit in ["apple", "pear", "orange"]:
    print(fruit)
>>> apple
>>> pear
>>> orange

If you have any additional questions, poke me.