Database and Interface for Python

[Larry Bates]

Michael Foord wrote:
> I'm writing a couple of modules that store information about user
> 'behaviour'. E.g. a user accesses a certain page of a website at a
> certain date-time with a certain referrer.
> 
> I need to analyse this information by different criteria. E.g. How
> many users accessed the website between August 5th and August 12th,
> listed by refferer !! etc It would be great to have a database engine
> where I could ask these questions in just a couple of queries, rather
> than having to implement all the sort/analyse functions myself.

Yep, databases are fast, reliable and scalable for this.

> 
> I guess this is as bad a time as anyto start to learn to use a
> database !! So I look on google and the situation is a little unclear.
> I can use the database API that will give me a 'consistent
> interface'... but I still need a database engine installed. e.g.
> MySQL. Not only that but I need a python interface to that engine that
> the database API can use ? (or I can just directly use the python
> binding for whichever database I pick ?).

Python has a good DB interface to MySQL that works well.
> 
> I think the web server I use will allow MySQL databases, so if I
> install it on my windoze box and install the MySQLdb python module
> then I'm well away....
> 
> 
> Have I got it right ? Can I do 'date range' queries using MySQL,
> MySQLdb and the Python database API ?

Yes you can.  Dates are stored in special format (not text) in the
database that make searching/sorting possible.  You can also define
index on a date column and jump directly to a specific date (skipping
all dates you don't want to process) or range of dates.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> 
> Fuzzy
> 
> http://www.voidspace.org.uk/atlantibots/pythonutils.html