Module Interface

cx_Oracle.Binary(string)

Construct an object holding a binary (long) string value.

cx_Oracle.clientversion()

Return the version of the client library being used as a 5-tuple. The five values are the major version, minor version, update number, patch number and port update number.

Note

This method is an extension to the DB API definition and is only available in Oracle 10g Release 2 and higher.

cx_Oracle.Connection([user, password, dsn, mode, handle, pool, threaded, twophase])

cx_Oracle.connect([user, password, dsn, mode, handle, pool, threaded, twophase])

Constructor for creating a connection to the database. Return a Connection object (Connection Object). All arguments are optional and can be specified as keyword parameters. The dsn (data source name) is the TNS entry (from the Oracle names server or tnsnames.ora file) or is a string like the one returned from makedsn(). If only one parameter is passed, a connect string is assumed which is to be of the format user/password@dsn, the same format accepted by Oracle applications such as SQL*Plus. If the mode is specified, it must be one of SYSDBA or SYSOPER which are defined at the module level; otherwise it defaults to the normal mode of connecting. If the handle is specified, it must be of type OCISvcCtx* and is only of use when embedding Python in an application (like PowerBuilder) which has already made the connection. The pool is only valid in Oracle 9i and is a session pool object (SessionPool Object) which is the equivalent of calling pool.acquire(). The threaded attribute is expected to be a boolean expression which indicates whether or not Oracle should use the mode OCI_THREADED to wrap accesses to connections with a mutex. Doing so in single threaded applications imposes a performance penalty of about 10-15% which is why the default is False. The twophase attribute is expected to be a boolean expression which indicates whether or not the attributes should be set on the connection object to allow for two phase commit. The default for this value is also False because of bugs in Oracle prior to Oracle 10g.

cx_Oracle.Cursor(connection)

Constructor for creating a cursor. Return a new Cursor object (Cursor Object) using the connection.

Note

This method is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.Date(year, month, day)

Construct an object holding a date value.

cx_Oracle.DateFromTicks(ticks)

Construct an object holding a date value from the given ticks value (number of seconds since the epoch; see the documentation of the standard Python time module for details).

cx_Oracle.makedsn(host, port, sid)

Return a string suitable for use as the dsn for the connect() method. This string is identical to the strings that are defined by the Oracle names server or defined in the tnsnames.ora file.

Note

This method is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.SessionPool(user, password, database, min, max, increment[, connectiontype, threaded, getmode=cx_Oracle.SPOOL_ATTRVAL_NOWAIT])

Create a session pool (see Oracle 9i documentation for more information) and return a session pool object (SessionPool Object). This allows for very fast connections to the database and is of primary use in a server where the same connection is being made multiple times in rapid succession (a web server, for example). If the connection type is specified, all calls to acquire() will create connection objects of that type, rather than the base type defined at the module level. The threaded attribute is expected to be a boolean expression which indicates whether or not Oracle should use the mode OCI_THREADED to wrap accesses to connections with a mutex. Doing so in single threaded applications imposes a performance penalty of about 10-15% which is why the default is False.

Note

This method is an extension to the DB API definition and is only available in Oracle 9i.

cx_Oracle.Time(hour, minute, second)

Construct an object holding a time value.

cx_Oracle.TimeFromTicks(ticks)

Construct an object holding a time value from the given ticks value (number of seconds since the epoch; see the documentation of the standard Python time module for details).

cx_Oracle.Timestamp(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)

Construct an object holding a time stamp value.

cx_Oracle.TimestampFromTicks(ticks)

Construct an object holding a time stamp value from the given ticks value (number of seconds since the epoch; see the documentation of the standard Python time module for details).

Constants

cx_Oracle.apilevel

String constant stating the supported DB API level. Currently ‘2.0’.

cx_Oracle.buildtime

String constant stating the time when the binary was built.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.BINARY

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are binary (in Oracle this is RAW columns).

cx_Oracle.BFILE

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are BFILEs.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.BLOB

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are BLOBs.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.CLOB

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are CLOBs.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.CURSOR

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are cursors (in PL/SQL these are known as ref cursors).

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.DATETIME

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are dates.

cx_Oracle.DBSHUTDOWN_ABORT

This constant is used in database shutdown to indicate that the program should not wait for current calls to complete or for users to disconnect from the database. Use only in unusual circumstances since database recovery may be necessary upon next startup.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.DBSHUTDOWN_FINAL

This constant is used in database shutdown to indicate that the instance can be truly halted. This should only be done after the database has been shut down in one of the other modes (except abort) and the database has been closed and dismounted using the appropriate SQL commands. See the method shutdown() in the section on connections (Connection Object).

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.DBSHUTDOWN_IMMEDIATE

This constant is used in database shutdown to indicate that all uncommitted transactions should be rolled back and any connected users should be disconnected.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.DBSHUTDOWN_TRANSACTIONAL

This constant is used in database shutdown to indicate that further connections should be prohibited and no new transactions should be allowed. It then waits for active transactions to complete.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.DBSHUTDOWN_TRANSACTIONAL_LOCAL

This constant is used in database shutdown to indicate that further connections should be prohibited and no new transactions should be allowed. It then waits for only local active transactions to complete.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FIXED_CHAR

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are fixed length strings (in Oracle this is CHAR columns); these behave differently in Oracle than varchar2 so they are differentiated here even though the DB API does not differentiate them.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_BINDBYNAME

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIBindByName() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_BINDBYPOS

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIBindByPos() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_DEFINEBYPOS

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIDefineByPos() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_STMTEXECUTE

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIStmtExecute() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_STMTFETCH

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIStmtFetch() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.FNCODE_STMTPREPARE

This constant is used to register callbacks on the OCIStmtPrepare() function of the OCI.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.LOB

This type object is the Python type of BLOB and CLOB data that is returned from cursors.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.LONG_BINARY

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are long binary (in Oracle these are LONG RAW columns).

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.LONG_STRING

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are long strings (in Oracle these are LONG columns).

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.NATIVE_FLOAT

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are of type binary_double or binary_float and is only available in Oracle 10g.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.NCLOB

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are NCLOBs.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.NUMBER

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are numbers.

cx_Oracle.OBJECT

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are objects.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.paramstyle

String constant stating the type of parameter marker formatting expected by the interface. Currently ‘named’ as in ‘where name = :name’.

cx_Oracle.ROWID

This type object is used to describe the pseudo column “rowid”.

cx_Oracle.PRELIM_AUTH

This constant is used to define the preliminary authentication mode required for performing database startup and shutdown.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.SPOOL_ATTRVAL_FORCEGET

This constant is used to define the “get” mode on session pools and indicates that a new connection will be returned if there are no free sessions available in the pool.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.SPOOL_ATTRVAL_NOWAIT

This constant is used to define the “get” mode on session pools and indicates that an exception is raised if there are no free sessions available in the pool.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.SPOOL_ATTRVAL_WAIT

This constant is used to define the “get” mode on session pools and indicates that the acquisition of a connection waits until a session is freed if there are no free sessions available in the pool.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.STRING

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are strings (in Oracle this is VARCHAR2 columns).

cx_Oracle.SYSDBA

Value to be passed to the connect() method which indicates that SYSDBA access is to be acquired. See the Oracle documentation for more details.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.SYSOPER

Value to be passed to the connect() method which indicates that SYSOPER access is to be acquired. See the Oracle documentation for more details.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.threadsafety

Integer constant stating the level of thread safety that the interface supports. Currently 2, which means that threads may share the module and connections, but not cursors. Sharing means that a thread may use a resource without wrapping it using a mutex semaphore to implement resource locking.

Note that in order to make use of multiple threads in a program which intends to connect and disconnect in different threads, the threaded argument to the Connection constructor must be a true value. See the comments on the Connection constructor for more information (Module Interface).

cx_Oracle.TIMESTAMP

This type object is used to describe columns in a database that are timestamps.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition and is only available in Oracle 9i.

cx_Oracle.UCBTYPE_ENTRY

This constant is used to register callbacks on entry to the function of the OCI. In other words, the callback will be called prior to the execution of the OCI function.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.UCBTYPE_EXIT

This constant is used to register callbacks on exit from the function of the OCI. In other words, the callback will be called after the execution of the OCI function.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.UCBTYPE_REPLACE

This constant is used to register callbacks that completely replace the call to the OCI function.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

cx_Oracle.version

String constant stating the version of the module. Currently ‘4.4.1‘.

Note

This attribute is an extension to the DB API definition.

Exceptions

exception cx_Oracle.Warning

Exception raised for important warnings and defined by the DB API but not actually used by cx_Oracle.

exception cx_Oracle.Error

Exception that is the base class of all other exceptions defined by cx_Oracle and is a subclass of the Python StandardError exception (defined in the module exceptions).

exception cx_Oracle.InterfaceError

Exception raised for errors that are related to the database interface rather than the database itself. It is a subclass of Error.

exception cx_Oracle.DatabaseError

Exception raised for errors that are related to the database. It is a subclass of Error.

exception cx_Oracle.DataError

Exception raised for errors that are due to problems with the processed data. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

exception cx_Oracle.OperationalError

Exception raised for errors that are related to the operation of the database but are not necessarily under the control of the progammer. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

exception cx_Oracle.IntegrityError

Exception raised when the relational integrity of the database is affected. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

exception cx_Oracle.InternalError

Exception raised when the database encounters an internal error. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

exception cx_Oracle.ProgrammingError

Exception raised for programming errors. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

exception cx_Oracle.NotSupportedError

Exception raised when a method or database API was used which is not supported by the database. It is a subclass of DatabaseError.

Exception handling

Note

PEP 249 (Python Database API Specification v2.0) says the following about exception values:

[...] The values of these exceptions are not defined. They should give the user a fairly good idea of what went wrong, though. [...]

With cx_Oracle every exception object has exactly one argument in the args tuple. This argument is a cx_Oracle._Error object which has the following three read-only attributes.

_Error.code

Integer attribute representing the Oracle error number (ORA-XXXXX).

_Error.message

String attribute representing the Oracle message of the error. This message is localized by the environment of the Oracle connection.

_Error.context

String attribute representing the context in which the exception was raised..

This allows you to use the exceptions for example in the following way:

import sys
import cx_Oracle

connection = cx_Oracle.Connection("user/pw@tns")
cursor = connection.cursor()

try:
    cursor.execute("select 1 / 0 from dual")
except cx_Oracle.DatabaseError, exc:
    error, = exc.args
    print >> sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Code:", error.code
    print >> sys.stderr, "Oracle-Error-Message:", error.message