PostgreSQL Python: Connecting to PostgreSQL Server

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to connect to the PostgreSQL server in Python using the psycopg2 package.

Creating a virtual environment

First, open the Command Prompt on Windows or Terminal on Unix-like systems.

Second, create a new directory to store the project files such as suppliers:

mkdir suppliers

Third, create a new virtual environment called venv using the built-in venv module:

python -m venv venv

Finally, activate the virtual environment on Windows:

venv/scripts/activate

on Unix-like systems:

source venv/bin/activate

Installing the psycopg2 module

First, install the psycopg2 package using the following pip command:

pip install psycopg2

Second, create the requirements.txt file:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

Creating a new database

First, connect to the PostgreSQL server using the psql client tool:

psql -U postgres

Second, create a new database called suppliers:

CREATE DATABASE suppliers;

Third, exit the psql:

exit

Connecting to the PostgreSQL database from Python

First, create a configuration file called database.ini in the project directory to store database connection parameters:

[postgresql]
host=localhost
database=suppliers
user=YourUsername
password=YourPassword

In the database.ini file, you need to replace the YourUsername and YourPassword with the real ones.

Second, create a new file called config.py in the project directory and define a function called load_config() that reads configuration data from the database.ini file:

from configparser import ConfigParser

def load_config(filename='database.ini', section='postgresql'):
    parser = ConfigParser()
    parser.read(filename)

    # get section, default to postgresql
    config = {}
    if parser.has_section(section):
        params = parser.items(section)
        for param in params:
            config[param[0]] = param[1]
    else:
        raise Exception('Section {0} not found in the {1} file'.format(section, filename))

    return config

if __name__ == '__main__':
    config = load_config()
    print(config)

The config.py module uses the built-in configparser module to read data from the database.ini file.

By using the database.ini, you can change the PostgreSQL connection parameters when moving the code to different environments such as testing or production.

Notice that if you git source control, you need to add the database.ini to the .gitignore file to avoid committing sensitive information to a public repository like GitHub:

database.ini

Third, create a new file called connect.py that uses the config.py module to read the database configuration and connect to the PostgreSQL:

import psycopg2
from config import load_config

def connect(config):
    """ Connect to the PostgreSQL database server """
    try:
        # connecting to the PostgreSQL server
        with psycopg2.connect(**config) as conn:
            print('Connected to the PostgreSQL server.')
            return conn
    except (psycopg2.DatabaseError, Exception) as error:
        print(error)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    config = load_config()
    connect(config)

To connect to the suppliers database, you use the connect() function of the psycopg2 module.

The connect() function creates a new database session and returns a new instance of the connection class.

To call the connect() function, you specify the PostgreSQL database parameters as a connection string and pass it to the function like this:

conn = psycopg2.connect("dbname=suppliers user=YourUsername password=YourPassword")

Alternatively, you can use keyword arguments:

conn = psycopg2.connect(
    host="localhost",
    database="suppliers",
    user="YourUsername",
    password="YourPassword"
)

The following is the list of the connection parameters:

database: the name of the database that you want to connect.
user: the username used to authenticate.
password: password used to authenticate.
host: database server address e.g., localhost or an IP address.
port: the port number that defaults to 5432 if it is not provided.

Since we use the config.py module, we can pass the configuration to the connect() function and unpack it using the ** operator:

with psycopg2.connect(**config) as conn:

In psycopg2, the with statement doesn't automatically close the database connection — only the transaction is closed. However, in psycopg3, using with connection will close the connection at the end of the with block. See with connection in the psycopg documentation for details.

Executing the connect.py module

To execute the connect.py file, you use the following command:

python connect.py

Output:

Connected to the PostgreSQL server.

The output indicates that you have successfully connected to the PostgreSQL server.

Download the project source code

Summary

Use the psycopg2 package to connect to the PostgreSQL server from Python.
Call the connect() function of the psycopg2 module to connect to the PostgreSQL server.

PostgreSQL Python: Connect to PostgreSQL Database Server