sqlite - Python sqlite3 parameterized drop table

Question

I have a problem with dropping sqlite3 table in python. I am using standard sqlite3 module.

self.conn = sqlite3.connect(...)

sql = """ drop table ? """
self.conn.execute( sql, (u'table_name',) )

gives me OperationalError: near "?": syntax error

When I change sql to:

sql = """ drop table table_name """

it works fine.

Answer 1

You cannot use parameters for table names nor column names.

Alternatively you could make it a two-step process, e.g.:

sql = """ drop table %s """ % a_table_name
self.conn.execute( sql )

And if you're doing that you may want to explicitly specify which tables can be deleted...

TABLES_THAT_CAN_BE_DROPPED = ('table_a','table_b',)
if a_table_name in TABLES_THAT_CAN_BE_DROPPED:
    sql = """ drop table %s """ % a_table_name
    self.conn.execute( sql )
else:
    pass # handle creatively