7. Using Bind Variables

SQL and PL/SQL statements that pass data to and from Oracle Database should use placeholders in SQL and PL/SQL statements that mark where data is supplied or returned. A bind variable placeholder is a colon-prefixed identifier or numeral. For example, :dept_id and :dept_name are the two bind variable placeholders in this SQL statement:

sql = """insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
         values (:dept_id, :dept_name)"""
cursor.execute(sql, [280, "Facility"])

As part of execution, the supplied bind variable values 280 and "Facility" are substituted for the placeholders by the database. This is called binding.

Using bind variables is important for scalability and security. They help avoid SQL Injection security problems because data is never treated as part of an executable statement when it is parsed.

Bind variables reduce parsing and execution costs when statements are executed more than once with different data values. If you do not use bind variables, Oracle must reparse and cache multiple statements. When using bind variables, Oracle Database may be able to reuse the statement execution plan and context.

Note

Never concatenate or interpolate user data into SQL statements:

did = 280
dnm = "Facility"

# !! Never do this !!
sql = f"""insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
          values ({did}, '{dnm}')"""
cursor.execute(sql)

This is a security risk and can impact performance and scalability.

Bind variables can be used to substitute data, but cannot be used to substitute the text of the statement. You cannot, for example, use a bind variable placeholder where a column name or a table name is required. Bind variable placeholders also cannot be used in Data Definition Language (DDL) statements, such as CREATE TABLE or ALTER statements.

7.1. Binding by Name or Position

Binding can be done “by name” or “by position”.

7.1.1. Bind by Name

A named bind is performed when the bind variables in the Python statement use the names of placeholders in the SQL or PL/SQL statement. For example:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:dept_id, :dept_name)""",
        dept_id=280, dept_name="Facility")

Alternatively, the parameters can be passed as a dictionary instead of as keyword parameters:

data = dict(dept_id=280, dept_name="Facility")
cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:dept_id, :dept_name)""", data)

In the above examples, the keyword parameter names or the keys of the dictionary must match the bind variable placeholder names.

The advantages of named binding are that the order of the bind values in the execute() parameter is not important, the names can be meaningful, and the placeholder names can be repeated while still only supplying the value once in the application.

An example of reusing a bind variable placeholder is:

cursor.execute("""
        update departments set department_id = :dept_id + 10
        where department_id = :dept_id""",
        dept_id=280)

7.1.2. Bind by Position

Positional binding occurs when a list or tuple of bind values is passed to the execute() call. For example:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:1, :2)""", [280, "Facility"])

The following example (which changes the order of the bind placeholder names) has exactly the same behavior. The value used to substitute the placeholder “:2” will be the first element of the list and “:1” will be replaced by the second element. Bind by position works from left to right and pays no attention to the name of the bind variable:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:2, :1)""", [280, "Facility"])

The following example is also bind by position despite the bind placeholders having alphabetic names. The actual process of binding uses the list positions of the input data to associate the data with the placeholder locations:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:dept_id, :dept_name)""", [280, "Facility"])

Python tuples can also be used for binding by position:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:1, :2)""", (280, "Facility"))

If only a single bind placeholder is used in the SQL or PL/SQL statement, the data can be a list like [280] or a single element tuple like (280,).

When using bind by position for SQL statements, the order of the bind values must exactly match the order of each bind variable and duplicated names must have their values repeated. For PL/SQL statements, however, the order of the bind values must exactly match the order of each unique bind variable found in the PL/SQL block and values should not be repeated. In order to avoid this difference, binding by name is recommended when bind variable names are repeated.

7.2. Bind Direction

The caller can supply data to the database (IN), the database can return data to the caller (OUT) or the caller can supply initial data to the database and the database can supply the modified data back to the caller (IN/OUT). This is known as the bind direction.

The examples shown above have all supplied data to the database and are therefore classified as IN bind variables. In order to have the database return data to the caller, a variable must be created. This is done by calling the method Cursor.var(), which identifies the type of data that will be found in that bind variable and its maximum size among other things.

Here is an example showing how to use OUT binds. It calculates the sum of the integers 8 and 7 and stores the result in an OUT bind variable of type integer:

out_val = cursor.var(int)
cursor.execute("""
        begin
            :out_val := :in_bind_var1 + :in_bind_var2;
        end;""",
        out_val=out_val, in_bind_var1=8, in_bind_var2=7)
print(out_val.getvalue())        # will print 15

If instead of simply getting data back you wish to supply an initial value to the database, you can set the variable’s initial value. This example is the same as the previous one but it sets the initial value first:

in_out_var = cursor.var(int)
in_out_var.setvalue(0, 25)
cursor.execute("""
        begin
            :in_out_bind_var := :in_out_bind_var + :in_bind_var1 +
                    :in_bind_var2;
        end;""",
        in_out_bind_var=in_out_var, in_bind_var1=8, in_bind_var2=7)
print(in_out_var.getvalue())        # will print 40

When binding data to parameters of PL/SQL procedures that are declared as OUT parameters, it is worth noting that any value that is set in the bind variable will be ignored. In addition, any parameters declared as IN/OUT that do not have a value set will start out with a value of null.

7.3. Binding Null Values

In python-oracledb, null values are represented by the Python singleton None.

For example:

cursor.execute("""
        insert into departments (department_id, department_name)
        values (:dept_id, :dept_name)""", dept_id=280, dept_name=None)

In this specific case, since the DEPARTMENT_NAME column is defined as a NOT NULL column, an error will occur:

oracledb.IntegrityError: ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into ("HR"."DEPARTMENTS"."DEPARTMENT_NAME")

If this value is bound directly, python-oracledb assumes it to be a string (equivalent to a VARCHAR2 column). If you need to use a different Oracle type you will need to make a call to Cursor.setinputsizes() or create a bind variable with the correct type by calling Cursor.var().

7.4. Binding ROWID Values

The pseudo-column ROWID uniquely identifies a row in a table. In python-oracledb, ROWID values are represented as strings. The example below shows fetching a row and then updating that row by binding its rowid:

# fetch the row
cursor.execute("""
        select rowid, manager_id
        from departments
        where department_id = :dept_id""", dept_id=280)
rowid, manager_id = cursor.fetchone()

# update the row by binding ROWID
cursor.execute("""
        update departments set
            manager_id = :manager_id
        where rowid = :rid""", manager_id=205, rid=rowid)

7.5. Binding UROWID Values

Universal rowids (UROWID) are used to uniquely identify rows in index organized tables. In python-oracledb, UROWID values are represented as strings. The example below shows fetching a row from index organized table universal_rowids and then updating that row by binding its urowid:

CREATE TABLE universal_rowids (
    int_col number(9) not null,
    str_col varchar2(250) not null,
    date_col date not null,
    CONSTRAINT universal_rowids_pk PRIMARY KEY(int_col, str_col, date_col)
) ORGANIZATION INDEX

ridvar = cursor.var(oracledb.DB_TYPE_UROWID)

# fetch the row
cursor.execute("""
        begin
            select rowid into :rid from universal_rowids
            where int_col = 3;
        end;""", rid=ridvar)

# update the row by binding UROWID
cursor.execute("""
        update universal_rowids set
            str_col = :str_val
        where rowid = :rowid_val""",
        str_val="String #33", rowid_val=ridvar)

Note that the type oracledb.DB_TYPE_UROWID is only supported in python-oracledb Thin mode. For python-oracledb Thick mode, the database type UROWID can be bound with type oracledb.DB_TYPE_ROWID. See Query Metadata in Thin and Thick Modes.

7.6. DML RETURNING Bind Variables

When a RETURNING clause is used with a DML statement like UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE, the values are returned to the application through the use of OUT bind variables. Consider the following example:

# The RETURNING INTO bind variable is a string
dept_name = cursor.var(str)

cursor.execute("""
        update departments set
            location_id = :loc_id
        where department_id = :dept_id
        returning department_name into :dept_name""",
        loc_id=1700, dept_id=50, dept_name=dept_name)
print(dept_name.getvalue())     # will print ['Shipping']

In the above example, since the WHERE clause matches only one row, the output contains a single item in the list. If the WHERE clause matched multiple rows, the output would contain as many items as there were rows that were updated.

The same bind variable placeholder name cannot be used both before and after the RETURNING clause. For example, if the :dept_name bind variable is used both before and after the RETURNING clause:

# a variable cannot be used for both input and output in a DML returning
# statement
dept_name_var = cursor.var(str)
dept_name_var.setvalue(0, 'Input Department')
cursor.execute("""
        update departments set
            department_name = :dept_name || ' EXTRA TEXT'
        returning department_name into :dept_name""",
        dept_name=dept_name_var)

The above example will not update the bind variable as expected, but no error will be raised if you are using python-oracledb Thick mode. With python-oracledb Thin mode, the above example returns the following error:

DPY-2048: the bind variable placeholder ":dept_name" cannot be used
both before and after the RETURNING clause in a DML RETURNING statement

7.7. LOB Bind Variables

Database CLOBs, NCLOBS, BLOBs, and BFILEs can be bound with types oracledb.DB_TYPE_CLOB, oracledb.DB_TYPE_NCLOB, oracledb.DB_TYPE_BLOB and oracledb.DB_TYPE_BFILE respectively. LOBs fetched from the database or created with Connection.createlob() can also be bound.

LOBs may represent Oracle Database persistent LOBs (those stored in tables) or temporary LOBs (such as those created with Connection.createlob() or returned by some SQL and PL/SQL operations).

LOBs can be used as IN, OUT, or IN/OUT bind variables.

See Using CLOB and BLOB Data for examples.

7.8. REF CURSOR Bind Variables

Python-oracledb provides the ability to bind and define PL/SQL REF cursors. As an example, consider the PL/SQL procedure:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE find_employees (
    p_query IN VARCHAR2,
    p_results OUT SYS_REFCURSOR
) AS
BEGIN
    OPEN p_results FOR
        SELECT employee_id, first_name, last_name
        FROM employees
        WHERE UPPER(first_name || ' ' || last_name || ' ' || email)
            LIKE '%' || UPPER(p_query) || '%';
END;
/

A newly opened cursor can be bound to the REF CURSOR parameter as shown in the following Python code. After the PL/SQL procedure has been called with Cursor.callproc(), the cursor can then be fetched just like any other cursor which had executed a SQL query:

ref_cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.callproc("find_employees", ['Smith', ref_cursor])
for row in ref_cursor:
    print(row)

With Oracle’s sample HR schema there are two employees with the last name ‘Smith’ so the result is:

(159, 'Lindsey', 'Smith')
(171, 'William', 'Smith')

To return a REF CURSOR from a PL/SQL function, use oracledb.DB_TYPE_CURSOR for the return type of Cursor.callfunc():

ref_cursor = cursor.callfunc('example_package.f_get_cursor',
                             oracledb.DB_TYPE_CURSOR)
for row in ref_cursor:
    print(row)

See Tuning python-oracledb for information on how to tune REF CURSORS.

7.9. Binding PL/SQL Collections

PL/SQL Collections like Associative Arrays can be bound as IN, OUT, and IN/OUT variables. When binding IN values, an array can be passed directly as shown in this example, which sums up the lengths of all of the strings in the provided array. First the PL/SQL package definition:

create or replace package mypkg as

    type udt_StringList is table of varchar2(100) index by binary_integer;

    function DemoCollectionIn (
        a_Values            udt_StringList
    ) return number;

end;
/

create or replace package body mypkg as

    function DemoCollectionIn (
        a_Values            udt_StringList
    ) return number is
        t_ReturnValue       number := 0;
    begin
        for i in 1..a_Values.count loop
            t_ReturnValue := t_ReturnValue + length(a_Values(i));
        end loop;
        return t_ReturnValue;
    end;

end;
/

Then the Python code:

values = ["String One", "String Two", "String Three"]
return_val = cursor.callfunc("mypkg.DemoCollectionIn", int, [values])
print(return_val)        # will print 32

In order get values back from the database, a bind variable must be created using Cursor.arrayvar(). The first parameter to this method is a Python type that python-oracledb knows how to handle or one of the oracledb DB API Types. The second parameter is the maximum number of elements that the array can hold or an array providing the value (and indirectly the maximum length). The final parameter is optional and only used for strings and bytes. It identifies the maximum length of the strings and bytes that can be stored in the array. If not specified, the length defaults to 4000 bytes.

Consider the following PL/SQL package:

create or replace package mypkg as

    type udt_StringList is table of varchar2(100) index by binary_integer;

    procedure DemoCollectionOut (
        a_NumElements       number,
        a_Values            out nocopy udt_StringList
    );

    procedure DemoCollectionInOut (
        a_Values            in out nocopy udt_StringList
    );

end;
/

create or replace package body mypkg as

    procedure DemoCollectionOut (
        a_NumElements       number,
        a_Values            out nocopy udt_StringList
    ) is
    begin
        for i in 1..a_NumElements loop
            a_Values(i) := 'Demo out element #' || to_char(i);
        end loop;
    end;

    procedure DemoCollectionInOut (
        a_Values            in out nocopy udt_StringList
    ) is
    begin
        for i in 1..a_Values.count loop
            a_Values(i) := 'Converted element #' || to_char(i) ||
                    ' originally had length ' || length(a_Values(i));
        end loop;
    end;

end;
/

The Python code to process an OUT collection will be as follows. Note the call to Cursor.arrayvar() which creates space for an array of strings. Each string permits up to 100 bytes and only 10 strings are permitted. If the PL/SQL block exceeds the maximum number of strings allowed the error ORA-06513: PL/SQL: index for PL/SQL table out of range for host language array will be raised.

out_array_var = cursor.arrayvar(str, 10, 100)
cursor.callproc("mypkg.DemoCollectionOut", [5, out_array_var])
for val in out_array_var.getvalue():
    print(val)

This would produce the following output:

Demo out element #1
Demo out element #2
Demo out element #3
Demo out element #4
Demo out element #5

The Python code to process an IN/OUT collections is similar. Note the different call to Cursor.arrayvar() which creates space for an array of strings, but uses an array to determine both the maximum length of the array and its initial value.

in_values = ["String One", "String Two", "String Three", "String Four"]
in_out_array_var = cursor.arrayvar(str, in_values)
cursor.callproc("mypkg.DemoCollectionInOut", [in_out_array_var])
for val in in_out_array_var.getvalue():
    print(val)

This will produce the following output:

Converted element #1 originally had length 10
Converted element #2 originally had length 10
Converted element #3 originally had length 12
Converted element #4 originally had length 11

If an array variable needs to have an initial value but also needs to allow for more elements than the initial value contains, the following code can be used instead:

in_out_array_var = cursor.arrayvar(str, 10, 100)
in_out_array_var.setvalue(0, ["String One", "String Two"])

All of the collections that have been bound in preceding examples have used contiguous array elements. If an associative array with sparse array elements is needed, a different approach is required. Consider the following PL/SQL code:

create or replace package mypkg as

    type udt_StringList is table of varchar2(100) index by binary_integer;

    procedure DemoCollectionOut (
        a_Value                         out nocopy udt_StringList
    );

end;
/

create or replace package body mypkg as

    procedure DemoCollectionOut (
        a_Value                         out nocopy udt_StringList
    ) is
    begin
        a_Value(-1048576) := 'First element';
        a_Value(-576) := 'Second element';
        a_Value(284) := 'Third element';
        a_Value(8388608) := 'Fourth element';
    end;

end;
/

Note that the collection element indices are separated by large values. The technique used above would fail with the exception ORA-06513: PL/SQL: index for PL/SQL table out of range for host language array. The code required to process this collection looks like this instead:

collection_type = connection.gettype("MYPKG.UDT_STRINGLIST")
collection = collection_type.newobject()
cursor.callproc("mypkg.DemoCollectionOut", [collection])
print(collection.aslist())

This produces the output:

['First element', 'Second element', 'Third element', 'Fourth element']

Note the use of Object.aslist() which returns the collection element values in index order as a simple Python list. The indices themselves are lost in this approach. Starting from cx_Oracle 7.0, the associative array can be turned into a Python dictionary using Object.asdict(). If that value was printed in the previous example instead, the output would be:

{-1048576: 'First element', -576: 'Second element', 284: 'Third element', 8388608: 'Fourth element'}

If the elements need to be traversed in index order, the methods Object.first() and Object.next() can be used. The method Object.getelement() can be used to acquire the element at a particular index. This is shown in the following code:

ix = collection.first()
while ix is not None:
    print(ix, "->", collection.getelement(ix))
    ix = collection.next(ix)

This produces the output:

-1048576 -> First element
-576 -> Second element
284 -> Third element
8388608 -> Fourth element

Similarly, the elements can be traversed in reverse index order using the methods Object.last() and Object.prev() as shown in the following code:

ix = collection.last()
while ix is not None:
    print(ix, "->", collection.getelement(ix))
    ix = collection.prev(ix)

This produces the output:

8388608 -> Fourth element
284 -> Third element
-576 -> Second element
-1048576 -> First element

7.10. Binding PL/SQL Records

PL/SQL record type objects can also be bound for IN, OUT, and IN/OUT bind variables. For example:

create or replace package mypkg as

    type udt_DemoRecord is record (
        NumberValue                     number,
        StringValue                     varchar2(30),
        DateValue                       date,
        BooleanValue                    boolean
    );

    procedure DemoRecordsInOut (
        a_Value                         in out nocopy udt_DemoRecord
    );

end;
/

create or replace package body mypkg as

    procedure DemoRecordsInOut (
        a_Value                         in out nocopy udt_DemoRecord
    ) is
    begin
        a_Value.NumberValue := a_Value.NumberValue * 2;
        a_Value.StringValue := a_Value.StringValue || ' (Modified)';
        a_Value.DateValue := a_Value.DateValue + 5;
        a_Value.BooleanValue := not a_Value.BooleanValue;
    end;

end;
/

Then this Python code can be used to call the stored procedure which will update the record:

# create and populate a record
record_type = connection.gettype("MYPKG.UDT_DEMORECORD")
record = record_type.newobject()
record.NUMBERVALUE = 6
record.STRINGVALUE = "Test String"
record.DATEVALUE = datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 28)
record.BOOLEANVALUE = False

# show the original values
print("NUMBERVALUE ->", record.NUMBERVALUE)
print("STRINGVALUE ->", record.STRINGVALUE)
print("DATEVALUE ->", record.DATEVALUE)
print("BOOLEANVALUE ->", record.BOOLEANVALUE)
print()

# call the stored procedure which will modify the record
cursor.callproc("mypkg.DemoRecordsInOut", [record])

# show the modified values
print("NUMBERVALUE ->", record.NUMBERVALUE)
print("STRINGVALUE ->", record.STRINGVALUE)
print("DATEVALUE ->", record.DATEVALUE)
print("BOOLEANVALUE ->", record.BOOLEANVALUE)

This will produce the following output:

NUMBERVALUE -> 6
STRINGVALUE -> Test String
DATEVALUE -> 2016-05-28 00:00:00
BOOLEANVALUE -> False

NUMBERVALUE -> 12
STRINGVALUE -> Test String (Modified)
DATEVALUE -> 2016-06-02 00:00:00
BOOLEANVALUE -> True

Note that when manipulating records, all of the attributes must be set by the Python program in order to avoid an Oracle Client bug which will result in unexpected values or the Python application segfaulting.

7.11. Binding Spatial Data Types

Oracle Spatial data types objects can be represented by Python objects and their attribute values can be read and updated. The objects can further be bound and committed to database. This is similar to the examples above.

An example of fetching SDO_GEOMETRY is in Oracle Database Objects and Collections.

7.12. Changing Bind Data Types using an Input Type Handler

Input Type Handlers allow applications to change how data is bound to statements, or even to enable new types to be bound directly.

An input type handler is enabled by setting the attribute Cursor.inputtypehandler or Connection.inputtypehandler.

Input type handlers can be combined with variable converters to bind Python objects seamlessly:

# A standard Python object
class Building:

    def __init__(self, build_id, description, num_floors, date_built):
        self.building_id = build_id
        self.description = description
        self.num_floors = num_floors
        self.date_built = date_built

building = Building(1, "Skyscraper 1", 5, datetime.date(2001, 5, 24))

# Get Python representation of the Oracle user defined type UDT_BUILDING
obj_type = con.gettype("UDT_BUILDING")

# convert a Python Building object to the Oracle user defined type
# UDT_BUILDING
def building_in_converter(value):
    obj = obj_type.newobject()
    obj.BUILDINGID = value.building_id
    obj.DESCRIPTION = value.description
    obj.NUMFLOORS = value.num_floors
    obj.DATEBUILT = value.date_built
    return obj

def input_type_handler(cursor, value, num_elements):
    if isinstance(value, Building):
        return cursor.var(obj_type, arraysize=num_elements,
                          inconverter=building_in_converter)


# With the input type handler, the bound Python object is converted
# to the required Oracle object before being inserted
cur.inputtypehandler = input_type_handler
cur.execute("insert into myTable values (:1, :2)", (1, building))

7.13. Binding Multiple Values to a SQL WHERE IN Clause

To use a SQL IN clause with multiple values, use one bind variable per value. You cannot directly bind a Python list or dictionary to a single bind variable. For example, to use two values in an IN clause:

items = ["Smith", "Taylor"]
cursor.execute("""
    select employee_id, first_name, last_name
    from employees
    where last_name in (:1, :2)""",
    items)
for row in cursor:
    print(row)

This gives the output:

(159, 'Lindsey', 'Smith')
(171, 'William', 'Smith')
(176, 'Jonathon', 'Taylor')
(180, 'Winston', 'Taylor')

If the query is executed multiple times with differing numbers of values, a bind variable should be included for each possible value. When the statement is executed but the maximum number of values has not been supplied, the value None can be bound for missing values. For example, if the query above is used for up to 5 values, the code will be:

items = ["Smith", "Taylor", None, None, None]
cursor.execute("""
    select employee_id, first_name, last_name
    from employees
    where last_name in (:1, :2, :3, :4, :5)""",
    items)
for row in cursor:
    print(row)

This will produce the same output as the original example. Reusing the same SQL statement like this for a variable number of values, instead of constructing a unique statement per set of values, allows best reuse of Oracle Database resources.

If other bind variables are required in the statement, adjust the bind variable placeholder numbers:

items = ["Smith", "Taylor", None, None, None]
binds = [120] + items
cursor.execute("""
    select employee_id, first_name, last_name
    from employees
    where employee_id > :1
    and last_name in (:2, :3, :4, :5, :6)""",
    binds)
for row in cursor:
    print(row)

If a statement containing WHERE IN is not going to be re-executed or the number of values is only going to be known at runtime, then a SQL statement can be built up as follows:

bind_values = ["Gates", "Marvin", "Fay"]
bind_names = ",".join(":" + str(i + 1) for i in range(len(bind_values)))
sql = f"select first_name, last_name from employees where last_name in ({bind_names})"
cursor.execute(sql, bind_values)
for row in cursor:
    print(row)

To exceed the IN clause value limit, you can add OR clauses like:

sql = """select . . .
         where key in (:0,:1,:2,:3,:4,:5,:6,:7,:8,:9,:10,:11,...)
            or key in (:50,:51,:52,:53,:54,:55,:56,:57,:58,:59,...)
            or key in (:100,:101,:102,:103,:104,:105,:106,:107,:108,:109,...)"""

A general solution for a larger number of values is to construct a SQL statement like:

SELECT ... WHERE col IN ( <something that returns a list of values> )

The best way to do the ‘<something that returns a list of values>’ depends on how the data is initially represented and the number of items. For example you might look at using a global temporary table.

One method for up to 32K values is to use an Oracle collection with the TABLE() clause. For example, if the following type was created:

SQL> CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE name_array AS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(25);
  2  /

then the application could do:

type_obj = connection.gettype("NAME_ARRAY")
obj = type_obj.newobject()
obj.extend(["Smith", "Taylor"])
cursor.execute("""select employee_id, first_name, last_name
                  from employees
                  where last_name in (select * from table(:1))""",
               [obj])
for row in cursor:
    print(row)

For efficiency, retain the return value of gettype() for reuse where possible instead of making repeated calls to get the type information.

7.14. Binding Column and Table Names

Column and table names cannot be bound in SQL queries. You can concatenate text to build up a SQL statement, but ensure that you use an Allow List or other means to validate the data in order to avoid SQL Injection security issues:

table_allow_list = ['employees', 'departments']
table_name = get_table_name() #  get the table name from user input
if table_name.lower() not in table_allow_list:
    raise Exception('Invalid table name')
sql = f'select * from {table_name}'

Binding column names can be done either by using the above method or by using a CASE statement. The example below demonstrates binding a column name in an ORDER BY clause:

sql = """
    select *
    from departments
    order by
        case :bindvar
            when 'DEPARTMENT_ID' then
                department_id
            else
                manager_id
        end"""

col_name = get_column_name() # Obtain a column name from the user
cursor.execute(sql, [col_name])

Depending on the name provided by the user, the query results will be ordered either by the column DEPARTMENT_ID or the column MANAGER_ID.