MySQLdb returns "ValueError: invalid literal for float():" for cursor.execute('show databases')

[Tim Williams]

I'm trying to write a simple python program to access a MySQL
database. I'm having a problem with using MySQLdb to get the results
of a SQL command in a cursor. Sometimes the cursor.execute works,
sometimes not.

>From mysql:

mysql> show databases;
+-----------+
| Database  |
+-----------+
| menagerie |
| test      |
+-----------+
2 rows in set (0.09 sec)


This is the database that comes with the MySQL tutorial.  I'm trying
to keep things simple here.

When I try the same thing in Python 2.3.2 using MySQLdb I get:

Python 2.3.2 (#6, Dec 10 2003, 08:44:50) 
[GCC 3.2 20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2-7)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import MySQLdb
>>> db=MySQLdb.connect(unix_socket='/tmp/mysql.sock')
>>> c=db.cursor()
>>> c.execute('show databases')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 95, in execute
    return self._execute(query, args)
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 114, in _execute
    self.errorhandler(self, exc, value)
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py",
line 33, in defaulterrorhandler
    raise errorclass, errorvalue
ValueError: invalid literal for float(): menagerie
>>>

It seems that if I do a c.fetchall(), I can at least do c.execute
every *other* time:

>>> c.fetchall()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 274, in fetchall
    self._check_executed()
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 53, in _check_executed
    self.errorhandler(self, ProgrammingError, "execute() first")
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py",
line 33, in defaulterrorhandler
    raise errorclass, errorvalue
_mysql_exceptions.ProgrammingError: execute() first
>>> c.execute('show databases')
2L
>>> c.execute('show databases')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 95, in execute
    return self._execute(query, args)
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py",
line 114, in _execute
    self.errorhandler(self, exc, value)
  File "/project/c4i/Users_Share/williams/Linux/lib/python2.3/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py",
line 33, in defaulterrorhandler
    raise errorclass, errorvalue
ValueError: invalid literal for float(): menagerie
>>> c.execute('show databases')
2L
>>> c.fetchall()
(('menagerie',), ('test',))
>>>

Thanks in advance for any help.

----
Tim Williams