A connection string in Oracle is a set of parameters that specify how to connect to a database. It typically includes the name of the host or server where the database is located, the port number, and the name of the database. It may also include the username and password for a user account that has access to the database.
Here is an example of a connection string in Oracle:
This connection string specifies:
- the hostname (target_hostname)
- the port number (1521),
- the service name (ORCL), the user name (target_username)
- and the password (user_password) for connecting to an Oracle database.
The exact format and syntax of the connection string may vary depending on the version of Oracle you are using and the type of connection you are trying to establish.
The purpose of a connection string in Oracle is to specify the details needed to connect to a database.
As demonstrated in the example above, the connection string typically includes the name of the host or server where the database is located, the port number, and the name of the database to which to connect.
For authentication purposes, the connection string may also include the username and password for a user account that has access to the database.
The Oracle client application uses the connection string to connect to the database and establish a session. It provides all the necessary information for the client to locate and connect to the database, including the hostname, port number, and service name. It also allows the client to authenticate the user by specifying the username and password.
Using Oracle Connection String in Python
To use an Oracle connection string in Python, you can use the cx_Oracle library. This library provides a Python interface for connecting to and working with Oracle databases.
Here is an example of using an Oracle connection string in Python to connect to a database and execute a query:
connection_string = 'host=localhost;port=1521;service_name=ORCL;user="sys as sysdba";password="password"'
connection = cx_Oracle.connect(connection_string)
cursor = connection.cursor()
cursor.execute('SELECT * FROM employees where rownum <= 5')
results = cursor.fetchall()
print(results)
cursor.close()
connection.close()
In the example above, we use the connection_string variable to define the details for connecting to the oracle database. This includes the hostname, port, service name, user, and password.
Finally, we can use the cx_Oracle.connect() function and pass the connection string as the parameter. This should open a session to the database with the specified credentials.
Once connected, we can query for data, as shown in the code above. Once completed, we can close the cursor and free up the resources.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we discussed using the Oracle Connection string to provide the details for an application to connect to the Oracle database.
