Connect Using the SAP HANA Python Interface

The first step is to check if Python is installed.

Enter the commands below.

python --version
python3 --version

If Python is installed, the command will return a value such as Python 3.7.4. Use whichever command returns a Python 3.4 or greater version number.

If Python is not installed, it can be downloaded from Python downloads.

On Microsoft Windows, be sure to download the 64-bit version of Python, since the 32-bit version is not supported by SAP’s Python client. The 64-bit version will have a file name like python-3.8.2-amd64.exe.

Check the box that says Add Python 3.x to PATH as shown below to ensure that the interpreter will be placed in your path.

You should now be able to open a new shell and verify that Python is installed.

The standard package installer for Python is pip. The following commands will check the version of pip and attempt to upgrade it to the latest available version. Again, use the pip or pip3 command that returns a version 3.4 or greater of Python.

pip --version
pip3 --version
pip install --upgrade pip

On Linux or Mac, if you encounter permission issues, one way to solve the issue is to use sudo before the command.

The repository that contains Python packages is PyPI and includes a package for the SAP HANA client for Python.

The pip command can be used to list the currently available version of the SAP HANA database driver for Python on PyPI.

pip search hdbcli

Run the following command to download and install the SAP HANA client for Python from PyPI:

pip install hdbcli

If an error is displayed that mentions "No matching distribution found for hdbcli, an alternate method is to install it from the SAP HANA client install folder as shown below.

cd C:\SAP\hdbclient
pip install hdbcli-2.5.86.zip

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To upgrade to the latest available version, enter the following command:

pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade hdbcli

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To uninstall hdbcli, run the following command:

pip uninstall hdbcli

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A specific version can be installed using the following command.

pip install hdbcli==2.4.167

1. In a shell, create a folder named python, enter the newly created directory, and open an editor on a file name pythonQuery.py.

   mkdir %HOMEPATH%\HANAClientsTutorial\python
   cd %HOMEPATH%\HANAClientsTutorial\python
   notepad pythonQuery.py
   

   Substitute pico below for your preferred text editor.

   mkdir -p $HOME/HANAClientsTutorial/python
   cd $HOME/HANAClientsTutorial/python
   pico pythonQuery.py
   

2. Add the code below to pythonQuery.py.

   #Import your dependencies
   import platform
   from hdbcli import dbapi
   
   #verify that this is a 64 bit version of Python
   print ("Platform architecture: " + platform.architecture()[0])
   
   #Initialize your connection
   conn = dbapi.connect(
       key='USER1UserKey', # address, port, user and password are retrieved from the hdbuserstore
       #address='10.7.168.11',
       #port='39015',
       #user='User1',
       #password='Password1',
       encrypt=True, # must be set to True when connecting to HANA Cloud
       #As of SAP HANA Client 2.6, connections on port 443 enable encryption by default
       sslValidateCertificate=False #Must be set to false when connecting
       #to an SAP HANA, express edition instance that uses a self-signed certificate.
   )
   #If no errors, print connected
   print('connected')
   
   cursor = conn.cursor()
   sql_command = "select TITLE, FIRSTNAME, NAME from HOTEL.CUSTOMER;"
   cursor.execute(sql_command)
   rows = cursor.fetchall()
   for row in rows:
       for col in row:
           print ("%s" % col, end=" ")
       print (" ")
   cursor.close()
   conn.close()
   

   Note that the address, port, UID and PWD will be retrieved from the hdbuserstore.

3. Run the app.

   python pythonQuery.py
   

   You may replace python with python3 if the above command doesn’t work.

   

The code in pythonQuery.py uses PEP 249 – Python Database API Specification, which defines a set of methods that provide a consistent database interface, independent of the actual database being used.

• For further examples of accessing a database from Python, see Python and SQL and Python MySQL.

• For information on the SAP HANA Python client, see Python Application Programming.

• For further details on secure connections from Python to SAP HANA see Connect to SAP HANA with a Secure Connection from Python and Secure connection from Python to SAP HANA.