Can't connect to remote postgreSQL using psycopg2

Question

I am trying to connect to a remote postgreSQL database, using the following code:

import psycopg2
try:
 # this:
 conn = psycopg2.connect(database="A B C", user="user", password="pass", host="yyyy.xxxxx.com", port= 5432)
 # or this:
 conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname=A B C user=user password=pass host=yyyy.xxxxx.com port=5432")
 # or this:
 conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname='A B C' user='user' password='pass' host='yyyy.xxxxx.com' port=5432")
 print "connected"
except psycopg2.Error as e:
 print "I am unable to connect to the database"
 print e.pgcode
 print e.pgerror

So if I am sure I have the correct database name, which has spaces in it like "A B C" in my example, and the correct username/password/host/port, why can I not connect? Also, why does no error get passed onto the exception handler? I am using python 2.7.9. Here is the output, which is the same for any of the psycopg2.connect statements:

I am unable to connect to the database
None
None

• Klaus D.: AFAIK spaces are not allowed in PostgresQL schema names. Which is also what I read from postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/…
• Lukas Graf: Not every psycopg2 exception has pgcode or pgerror set. You should print e as well to see the actual exception message.
• traggatmot: Thanks, big help from both of you. My colleague insists that database name is as presented, which maybe incorrect since the error I can now see says it is not.
• traggatmot: Checked the name using pgAdmin and it is definitely correct without the spaces even though I am being told by psycopg2 that it doesn't exist.

Answer 1

You should see more info in e exception and also use very useful traceback module:

import traceback
...
except psycopg2.Error as e:
 print "I am unable to connect to the database"
 print e
 print e.pgcode
 print e.pgerror
 print traceback.format_exc()