mysql encoding issues in python script

Question

I posted this previously but I'm still having issues. I get the wrong output in the database the issue is when the script stores this entry "Ánimo Inglewood Charter High School" it shows "xc3x81nimo Inglewood Charter High School" instead. I am printing the values in the console and it shows properly. I am using collation utf8_unicode_ci in the mysql database here is my code:

import schoolslib, MySQLdb

cities = schoolslib.getcitylist("ca")

for city in cities:
schools = schoolslib.getschoolstest(city)
data = ['gsId', 'name', 'type', 'gradeRange', 'enrollment', 'gsRating', 'parentRating', 'city', 'state', 'districtId', 'district', 'districtNCESId', 'address', 'phone', 'fax', 'website', 'ncesId', 'lat', 'lon', 'overviewLink', 'ratingsLink', 'reviewsLink', 'schoolStatsLink']
db = MySQLdb.connect(host="localhost", user="schools", passwd="", db="schoolinfo", charset = "utf8", use_unicode =True)
cursor = db.cursor()
schooldata = [0]*23
for school in schools.iter('school'):
    for x in range(0, 23):
        schooldata[x] = school.find(data[x])
        if (schooldata[x] == None) or (schooldata[x].text == None) :
            schooldata[x] = ""
        else:
            schooldata[x] = schooldata[x].text
            schooldata[x] = schooldata[x].encode('utf8', "ignore")
            print schooldata[x]

    cursor.execute("INSERT INTO school (gsId,name,type,gradeRange,enrollment,gsRating,parentRating,city,state,districtId,district,districtNCESId,address,phone,fax,website,ncesId,lat,lon,overviewLink,ratingsLink,reviewsLink,schoolStatsLink) VALUES %r;" % (tuple(schooldata),))
db.commit()

Answer 1

To pass values to the database, use the ? placeholder, and let execute quote the values for you. Don't use Python's % or str.format functions, because Python isn't as smart as the database cursor.

cursor.execute("update employee set manager=? where empid=?", (mgrid,empid))

(This shows update , but insert uses the same style.)