why can't I fetch sql statements in python?

Question

I have a very large table (374870 rows) and when I run the following code timestamps just ends up being a long int with the value 374870.... I want to be able to grab all the timestamps in the table... but all I get is a long int :S

import MySQLdb

db = MySQLdb.connect(
                host    = "Some Host",
                user    = "SOME USER",
                passwd  = "SOME PASS",
                db      = "SOME DB",
                port    = 3306

        )

sql = "SELECT `timestamp` from `table`"

timestamps = db.cursor().execute(sql)

Answer 1

Try this:

cur = db.cursor()
cur.execute(sql)
timestamps = []
for rec in cur:
    timestamps.append(rec[0])

Answer 2

You need to call fetchmany() on the cursor to fetch more than one row, or call fetchone() in a loop until it returns None.

Answer 3

Consider the possibility that the not-very-long integer that you are getting is the number of rows in your query result.

Consider reading the docs (PEP 249) ... (1) return value from cursor.execute() is not defined; what you are seeing is particular to your database and for portability sake should not be relied on. (2) you need to do results = cursor.fetch{one|many|all}() or iterate over the cursor ... for row in cursor: do_something(row)