sqlalchemy, setting MySQL charset as `create_engine` argument

Question

I create sqlalchemy engine connecting to MySQL database. I want to specify charset as create_engine argument.

If I use create_engine

Answer 1

the additional DBAPI arguments, when passed separately, are passed via connect_args.

Answer 2

You can use sqlalchemy.engine.url.URL class

import os
from sqlalchemy import create_engine
from sqlalchemy.engine.url import URL

DB = {
    'drivername': 'mysql',
    'host': '127.0.0.1',
    'port': '3306',
    'username': os.environ['DBUNAME'],
    'password': os.environ['DBPASS'],
    'database': os.environ['DBNAME']
}

engine = create_engine(URL(**DB), connect_args={'charset':'utf8'})

Or even better

DB = {
    'drivername': 'mysql',
    'host': '127.0.0.1',
    'port': '3306',
    'username': os.environ['DBUNAME'],
    'password': os.environ['DBPASS'],
    'database': os.environ['DBNAME'],
    'query': {'charset':'utf8'}
}

engine = create_engine(URL(**DB))

According to the docs URL class has the following parameters

• drivername – the name of the database backend. This name will correspond to a module in sqlalchemy/databases or a third party plug-in.
• username – The user name.
• password – database password.
• host – The name of the host.
• port – The port number.
• database – The database name.
• query – A dictionary of options to be passed to the dialect and/or the DBAPI upon connect.