Data Archive

Investigate pyodbc

pyodbc is a Python library that provides an interface to connect to databases using the ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) standard.
It allows Python applications to interact with relational databases such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and others, provided an ODBC driver is installed.

Why investigate?

  • Widely used for enterprise database connectivity.
  • Works across multiple database systems, making it portable.
  • Integrates with pandas for pulling data directly into DataFrames.
  • May be useful for projects requiring Microsoft SQL Server or legacy systems.

Key points to check

  • Required ODBC drivers on your system (depends on target database).
  • Alternatives like SQLAlchemy.
  • Compatibility with Windows environments (relevant for corporate IT setups).

Example Usage

import pyodbc
import pandas as pd
 
# Example connection to SQL Server
conn = pyodbc.connect(
    "DRIVER={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};"
    "SERVER=server_name;"
    "DATABASE=database_name;"
    "UID=user;"
    "PWD=password"
)
 
# Query
query = "SELECT TOP 10 * FROM my_table"
df = pd.read_sql(query, conn)
 
conn.close()

Next steps

  • Test connection to a local/remote SQL Server instance.
  • Benchmark performance against sqlalchemy.
  • Document common connection strings for databases you use.
  • Check driver installation steps on Windows vs Linux.

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