Python MySQL Tutorial – How to Create a Database Using Python

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Tags:- MySQL Python

When building a data-driven application, the first step is often creating a database. Python, paired with MySQL, makes this process smooth and efficient. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a MySQL database programmatically using Python and the mysql-connector-python package.


Table of Contents

  1. What You Need

  2. Install MySQL Connector

  3. Connect to MySQL Server

  4. Create a MySQL Database

  5. Check if a Database Exists

  6. Handle Errors Gracefully

  7. Full Working Example

  8. Tips and Common Pitfalls


✅ What You Need

Before you begin, ensure the following:

  • Python 3 is installed

  • MySQL server is installed and running

  • You have MySQL user credentials

  • You’ve installed the MySQL Connector for Python (we’ll cover that next)


Step 1: Install MySQL Connector

Use pip to install the mysql-connector-python library:

pip install mysql-connector-python

This library allows Python to communicate with MySQL databases.


Step 2: Connect to MySQL Server

Before creating a database, you need to connect to the MySQL server:

import mysql.connector

mydb = mysql.connector.connect(
    host="localhost",
    user="your_username",
    password="your_password"
)

print("Connected to MySQL server!")

Replace "your_username" and "your_password" with your actual MySQL credentials.


Step 3: Create a New Database

Once connected, you can create a new database using a SQL CREATE DATABASE statement:

mycursor = mydb.cursor()
mycursor.execute("CREATE DATABASE mytestdb")
print("Database created successfully.")

Step 4: Check If Database Exists

You can list all databases and check if one already exists:

mycursor.execute("SHOW DATABASES")

for db in mycursor:
    print(db)

✅ It's a good idea to check before creating a database to avoid errors.


Step 5: Handle Errors Gracefully

Wrap your code in a try-except block to catch connection or execution errors:

import mysql.connector
from mysql.connector import Error

try:
    mydb = mysql.connector.connect(
        host="localhost",
        user="your_username",
        password="your_password"
    )

    if mydb.is_connected():
        mycursor = mydb.cursor()
        mycursor.execute("CREATE DATABASE mytestdb")
        print("Database created successfully.")

except Error as e:
    print("Error:", e)

finally:
    if mydb.is_connected():
        mydb.close()
        print("Connection closed.")

 Complete Working Example

import mysql.connector
from mysql.connector import Error

def create_database(host, user, password, db_name):
    try:
        # Connect to MySQL server
        connection = mysql.connector.connect(
            host=host,
            user=user,
            password=password
        )

        # Create cursor and database
        cursor = connection.cursor()
        cursor.execute(f"CREATE DATABASE {db_name}")
        print(f"Database '{db_name}' created successfully.")

    except Error as err:
        print("Error:", err)

    finally:
        if connection.is_connected():
            connection.close()
            print("MySQL connection is closed.")

# Run function
create_database("localhost", "root", "your_password", "mytestdb")

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

Pitfall Solution
Access denied for user Ensure username/password is correct
Can't connect to MySQL server Make sure MySQL server is running
Database already exists Use SHOW DATABASES before creation
Not closing connection Use finally block or with statement

Tips

  • ✅ Use parameterized queries when working with user input

  • ✅ Always close your database connections

  • ✅ Use a try-except block to catch connection or SQL errors

  • ✅ Use lowercase, underscore-separated names for database naming consistency


Summary

Action Code
Install connector pip install mysql-connector-python
Connect to MySQL mysql.connector.connect()
Create database cursor.execute("CREATE DATABASE mydb")
Show databases cursor.execute("SHOW DATABASES")
Handle errors Use try-except block

Final Thoughts

Creating a MySQL database using Python is straightforward, thanks to the mysql-connector-python package. This foundational step allows you to build powerful applications that interact with structured data stored in MySQL. With proper error handling and clean connection management, your code will be more reliable and scalable.

 

Tips and Tricks


What is pass in Python?

Python | Pass Statement

The pass statement is used as a placeholder for future code. It represents a null operation in Python. It is generally used for the purpose of filling up empty blocks of code which may execute during runtime but has yet to be written.

 

def myfunction():
    pass

 


How can you generate random numbers?

Python | Generate random numbers

Python provides a module called random using which we can generate random numbers. e.g: print(random.random())

 

 

We have to import a random module and call the random() method as shown below:

 import random

 print(random.random())

The random() method generates float values lying between 0 and 1 randomly.


To generate customized random numbers between specified ranges, we can use the randrange() method
Syntax: randrange(beginning, end, step)
 

import random

print(random.randrange(5,100,2))

 


What is lambda in Python?

Python | Lambda function

A lambda function is a small anonymous function. This function can have any number of parameters but, can have just one statement.
 

 

Syntex: 
lambda arguments : expression
 

a = lambda x,y : x+y

print(a(5, 6))

It also provides a nice way to write closures. With that power, you can do things like this.

def adder(x):
    return lambda y: x + y

add5 = adder(5)

add5(1)    #6

As you can see from the snippet of Python, the function adder takes in an argument x and returns an anonymous function, or lambda, that takes another argument y. That anonymous function allows you to create functions from functions. This is a simple example, but it should convey the power lambdas and closures have.
 


What is swapcase() function in the Python?

Python | swapcase() Function

It is a string's function that converts all uppercase characters into lowercase and vice versa. It automatically ignores all the non-alphabetic characters.
 

string = "IT IS IN LOWERCASE."  

print(string.swapcase())  

 


How to remove whitespaces from a string in Python?

Python | strip() Function | Remove whitespaces from a string 

To remove the whitespaces and trailing spaces from the string, Python provides a strip([str]) built-in function. This function returns a copy of the string after removing whitespaces if present. Otherwise returns the original string.
 

string = "  Python " 
 
print(string.strip())  

 


What is the usage of enumerate() function in Python?

Python | enumerate() Function

The enumerate() function is used to iterate through the sequence and retrieve the index position and its corresponding value at the same time.
 

lst = ["A","B","C"] 
 
print (list(enumerate(lst)))

#[(0, 'A'), (1, 'B'), (2, 'C')]

 


Can you explain the filter(), map(), and reduce() functions?

Python | filter(), map(), and reduce() Functions

  • filter()  function accepts two arguments, a function and an iterable, where each element of the iterable is filtered through the function to test if the item is accepted or not.
    >>> set(filter(lambda x:x>4, range(7)))
    
    # {5, 6}
    
    

     

  • map() function calls the specified function for each item of an iterable and returns a list of result

    >>> set(map(lambda x:x**3, range(7)))
    
    # {0, 1, 64, 8, 216, 27, 125}

     

  • reduce() function reduces a sequence pair-wise, repeatedly until we arrive at a single value..
     

    >>> reduce(lambda x,y:y-x, [1,2,3,4,5])
    
    # 3
    

    Let’s understand this:

    2-1=1
    3-1=2
    4-2=2
    5-2=3

    Hence, 3.

 


What is a namedtuple?

Python | namedtuple

A namedtuple will let us access a tuple’s elements using a name/label. We use the function namedtuple() for this, and import it from collections.

>>> from collections import namedtuple

#format
>>> result=namedtuple('result','Physics Chemistry Maths') 

#declaring the tuple
>>> Chris=result(Physics=86,Chemistry=92,Maths=80) 

>>> Chris.Chemistry
# 92

 


Write a code to add the values of same keys in two different dictionaries and return a new dictionary.

We can use the Counter method from the collections module

from collections import Counter

dict1 = {'a': 5, 'b': 3, 'c': 2}
dict2 = {'a': 2, 'b': 4, 'c': 3}

new_dict = Counter(dict1) + Counter(dict2)


print(new_dict)
# Print: Counter({'a': 7, 'b': 7, 'c': 5})


 


Python In-place swapping of two numbers

 Python | In-place swapping of two numbers

>>> a, b = 10, 20
>>> print(a, b)
10 20

>>> a, b = b, a
>>> print(a, b)
20 10

 


Reversing a String in Python

Python | Reversing a String

>>> x = 'PythonWorld'
>>> print(x[: : -1])
dlroWnohtyP

 


Python join all items of a list to convert into a single string

Python | Join all items of a list to convert into a single string

>>> x = ["Python", "Online", "Training"]
>>> print(" ".join(x))
Python Online Training

 


python return multiple values from functions

Python | Return multiple values from functions

>>> def A():
	return 2, 3, 4

>>> a, b, c = A()

>>> print(a, b, c)
2 3 4

 


Python Print String N times

Python | Print String N times

>>> s = 'Python'
>>> n = 5

>>> print(s * n)
PythonPythonPythonPythonPython

 


Python check the memory usage of an object

Python | Check the memory usage of  an object

>>> import sys
>>> x = 100

>>> print(sys.getsizeof(x))
28