cx_Oracle question

[Richard Schulman]

I'm having trouble getting started using Python's cx_Oracle binding to
Oracle XE. In forthcoming programs, I need to set variables within sql
statements based on values read in from flat files. But I don't seem
to be able to get even the following stripped-down test program to
work:

import cx_Oracle
connection = cx_Oracle.connect("username", "password")
cursor = connection.cursor()

arg_1 = 2 #later, arg_1, arg_2, etc. will be read in files

cursor.execute("""select mean_eng_txt from mean
                  where mean_id=:arg_1""",arg_1)
for row in cursor.fetchone():
    print row
cursor.close()
connection.close()

The program above produces the following error message:

C:\pythonapps>python oracle_test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "oracle_test.py", line 7, in ?
      cursor.execute('select mean_eng_txt from mean where
      mean_id=:arg_1',arg_1)
TypeError: expecting a dictionary, sequence or keyword args

What do I need to do to get this sort of program working?

TIA,
Richard Schulman
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