Pass column name as parameter to PostgreSQL using psycopg2

Question

I'm trying to add columns to a table using psycopg2

row1 below is a list of column names to be added to the table. I can do it manually but when I try to do it programatically I get an error.

for c in row1:
    cur.execute("ALTER TABLE HHV2PUB ADD COLUMN %s text", (c,))

The error is:

    cur.execute("ALTER TABLE HHV2PUB ADD COLUMN %s text", (c,))
psycopg2.ProgrammingError: syntax error at or near "'HOUSEID'"
LINE 1: ALTER TABLE HHV2PUB ADD COLUMN 'HOUSEID' text

My guess is that it has something to do with the single quotes ''

Answer 1

As of Psycopg 2.7 there is the safe sql module:

from psycopg2 import sql

query = sql.SQL("alter table t add column {} text")

row1 = ('col1', 'col2')
for c in row1:
    cursor.execute(query.format(sql.Identifier(c)))

With 2.6 and earlier:

Use psycopg2.extensions.AsIs

Adapter conform to the ISQLQuote protocol useful for objects whose string representation is already valid as SQL representation.

import psycopg2
from psycopg2.extensions import AsIs

conn = psycopg2.connect("host=localhost4 port=5432 dbname=cpn")
cursor = conn.cursor()

query = "alter table t add column %s text"

row1 = ('col1', 'col2')
for c in row1:
    cursor.execute(query, (AsIs(c),))
conn.commit()