SQLite error in Python

Question

I have a simple piece of code to update a row in sqlite:

def UpdateElement(new_user,new_topic):
 querycurs.execute('''INSERT into First_Data (topic) values(?) WHERE user = (?)''',([new_topic], [new_user]))

However, this gives me the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:/Python27/Database.py", line 40, in <module>
 UpdateElement("Abhishek Mitra","Particle Physics")
 File "C:/Python27/Database.py", line 36, in UpdateElement
 querycurs.execute('''INSERT into First_Data (topic) values(?) WHERE user = (?)''',([new_topic],[new_user]))
OperationalError: near "WHERE": syntax error

Answer 1

You should be using an UPDATE statement instead of INSERT:

def UpdateElement(new_user,new_topic):
 querycurs.execute('''UPDATE First_Data 
 SET topic = ? 
 WHERE user = ?''', (new_topic, new_user))

Answer 2

The problem arises from the use of the parentheses and sending in new_user as an array, I believe. Values is an array, user is not.

You want something like:

cur.execute("UPDATE table SET value=? WHERE name=?", (myvalue, myname))

But yes, UPDATE sounds like what you wanted in the first place.