What does """ means in python?

[Walter Hurry]

Roy Smith wrote:

> In article <72a7dd52-7619-4520-991e-20db7ce55ba3 at googlegroups.com>,
>  Sam <lightaiyee at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> For string, one uses "" to represent string. Below is a code fragment that 
>> uses """ instead.
>> 
>> cursor.execute("""SELECT name, phone_number 
>>                   FROM coworkers 
>>                   WHERE name=%s 
>>                   AND clue > %s 
>>                   LIMIT 5""",
>>                (name, clue_threshold))
>> 
>> What does """ means in python?
>
> This is what's known as a "triple quoted string"  It's just like a 
> regular string, except that it run across newlines.  Very handy for 
> things like embedding SQL code in a Python program!
>
> It works with single quotes too (i.e. '''this is
> a very long string
> spread out over several lines'''

PMFJI.

When I asked (here) about this a while ago, some kind soul suggested textwrap.dedent.

Any advice as to the pros and cons of the respective approaches (esp. for SQL)?