Is python good for making database work short?

[Paul McNett]

Ben Finney writes:

> I certainly hope so; I'm soon going to embark on a very similar task
> (like countless others around the world), an automated process to move
> data from one database to another with a totally different schema.
>
> I really want to do it in Python, and my brief glimpse at Python's ODBC
> capability is encouraging.  (The source database can only be accessed by
> a proprietary ODBC layer.)
>
> I'll be very interested to see what response people give to this query.

Hmm. I've found myself thinking recently (look out! <g>) about this same 
problem. Say I'm developing an application, and I want the user to be able 
to determine the backend database, but I still need to code at least some 
of the logic for retrieving/manipulating/updating that data. IOW, what the 
table names, field names, keys, indexes etc. are is up to me, but the 
actual backend is up to the end user. 

I as the developer need to use a common dialect of SQL that will work with 
whatever backend the user chooses, whether it is Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, 
Gadfly, or whatever. 

It would be really nice to code SQL to a standard Python-SQL format or 
something, and then to be able to plug in various modules for runtime 
conversion from the Python-SQL format into whatever format the backend ends 
up being. 

Thoughts on this?


-- 
Paul McNett