The evolution of coolness string interpolation in SQL in python

Phase 1, tuples:

c.execute("update person set name=%s, address=%s where id=%s", ('Bob Smith', '3 Red Rock Rd', 1))

Phase 2, dicts:

c.execute("update person set name=%(name)s, address=%(addr)s where id=%(id)s", {'name':'Bob Smith', 'addr':'3 Red Rock Rd', 'id':1))

Phase 3, locals():

name = 'Bob Smith'

addr = '3 Red Rock Rd'

id = 1

c.execute("update person set name=%(name)s, address=%(addr)s where id=%(id)s", locals())

Most people don't seem aware of dict string interpolation, which is really much more convenient when you're using a large number of variables. This was cool but seemed annoying because you now need to make a large dict, requiring more typing. Now, locals() returns a dict of all of variables that exist in the local scope. Since we probably have all of the stuff you want to stick into an SQL statement sitting in other variables anyway, combine dict interpolation and locals() and we can stick variables into SQL much more conveniently.