Python SQLite3: Cannot Create Table with Variable in Query

Question

I have the following code to create a table if it does not already exist in a database.

TABLE_NAME = 'Test'
sql = sqlite3.connect('DATABASE.db')
cur = sql.cursor()
cur.execute('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS ? (id TEXT)', [TABLE_NAME])
sql.commit()

But I keep getting sqlite3.OperationalError: near "?": syntax error

I have other code such as cur.execute('INSERT * INTO database VALUES(?,?)', [var1, var2]) that works fine.

• R Nar: table names cannot be parameterized. you can use python string formatting to do that

Answer 1

That is correct, parameters cannot be used to substitute for database identifiers, only for values. You will have to build the SQL command, with the table name specified, as a string.

Answer 2

The following code creates the table

import sqlite3
sql = sqlite3.connect('DATABASE.db')
cur = sql.cursor()
cur.execute('CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS Test (id TEXT)')
sql.commit()

• Bijan: I know how to create a table. My problem is I wanted to create a table based on a variable using ? but that is apparently not possible
• karastojko: My bad. Yes, as stated above - parametrized queries are for DML but not for DDL queries.