Question

## COMMENT OUT below just for reference
""
cursor.execute ("""
    CREATE TABLE yellowpages
    (
        business_id     BIGINT(20) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
        categories_name VARCHAR(255),
        business_name   VARCHAR(500) NOT NULL,
        business_address1 VARCHAR(500),
        business_city VARCHAR(255),
        business_state VARCHAR(255),
        business_zipcode VARCHAR(255),
        phone_number1 VARCHAR(255),
        website1 VARCHAR(1000),
        website2 VARCHAR(1000),
        created_date datetime,
        modified_date datetime,
        PRIMARY KEY(business_id)
    )
""")
""
## TOP COMMENT OUT (just for reference)

## code
website1g = "http://www.triman.com"
business_nameg = "Triman Sales Inc"
business_address1g = "510 E Airline Way"
business_cityg = "Gardena"
business_stateg = "CA"
business_zipcodeg = "90248"
phone_number1g = "[phone]"
phone_number2g = ""
website2g = ""

cursor.execute ("""
    INSERT INTO yellowpages(categories_name, business_name, business_address1, business_city, business_state, business_zipcode, phone_number1, website1, website2)
    VALUES ('%s','%s','%s','%s','%s','%s','%s','%s','%s')
""", (''gas-stations'', business_nameg, business_address1g, business_cityg, business_stateg, business_zipcodeg, phone_number1g, website1g, website2g))


cursor.close()
conn.close()

I keep getting this error

  File "testdb.py", line 51
    """, (''gas-stations'', business_nameg, business_address1g, business_cityg, business_stateg, business_zipcodeg, phone_number1g, website1g, website2g))
              ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

any idea why?

Thanks for the help in advance

---

Update #2, I have removed the double single quote on the “categories_name”, but now even

import MySQLdb  

conn =  MySQLdb.connect(host="localhost",port=22008,user="cholestoff",passwd="whoami",db="mydatabase")  
cursor = conn.cursor()  

## Find mysql version  
cursor.execute ("SELECT VERSION()")  
row = cursor.fetchone()  
print "server version:", row[0]  

website1g = "http://www.triman.com"  
business_nameg = "Triman Sales Inc"  
business_address1g = "510 E Airline Way"  
business_cityg = "Gardena"  
business_stateg = "CA"  
business_zipcodeg = "90248"  
phone_number1g = "[phone]"  
phone_number2g = ""  

cursor.execute ("""
    INSERT INTO yellowpages(categories_name, business_name)
    VALUES ('%s','%s')
""", ('gas-stations', business_nameg))              

cursor.close()  
conn.close()  

still gotten this error

server version: 5.1.33-community  
Traceback (most recent call last):  
  File "testdb.py", line 23, in <module>  
    """, ('gas-stations', business_nameg))  
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\MySQLdb\cursors.py", line 173, in execute  
    self.errorhandler(self, exc, value)  
  File "C:\Python26\lib\site-packages\MySQLdb\connections.py", line 36, in   defaulterrorhandler  
    raise errorclass, errorvalue  
_mysql_exceptions.ProgrammingError: (1064, "You have an error in your SQL syntax; 
check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use 
near 'gas-stations'',''Triman Sales Inc'')' at line 2")

Thanks again for the help

Answer 1

I think your problem is here:

''gas-stations''

This gives a syntax error. You probably want to use one set of quotes:

'gas-stations'

If you want to insert the value 'gas-stations' into the database including the quotes then you can either escape the quotes or surround the string with double-quotes instead of single quotes:

"'gas-stations'"

The reason why the “up arrow” is pointing at the wrong place is because your lines are so long that it is wrapping on your console. Make your lines shorter, or widen your console window to see where the error really is.