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Why do people use SQLAlchemy instead of MySQLdb? What advantages does it offer?
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SQLAlchemy is a library that facilitates the communication between Python programs and databases. Most of the times, this library is used as an Object Relational Mapper (ORM) tool that translates Python classes to tables on relational databases and automatically converts function calls to SQL statements.
One of the key aspects of any data science workflow is the sourcing, cleaning, and storing of raw data in a form that can be used upstream. This process is commonly referred to as “Extract-Transform-Load,” or ETL for short.
If you have data for which business objects are not needed, use Core. If you view your data as business objects, use ORM. If you are building a quick prototype, use ORM. If you have a combination of needs that really could leverage both business objects and other data unrelated to the problem domain, use both!
You don't use SQLAlchemy instead of MySQLdb—you use SQLAlchemy to access something like MySQLdb, oursql (another MySQL driver that I hear is nicer and has better performance), the sqlite3 module, psycopg2, or whatever other database driver you are using.
An ORM (like SQLAlchemy) helps abstract away the details of the database you are using. This allows you to keep from the miry details of the database system you're using, avoiding the possibility of errors some times (and introducing the possibility of others), and making porting trivial (at least in theory).
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