Using the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Informix in PyCharm

The CData ODBC Drivers can be used in any environment that supports loading an ODBC Driver. In this tutorial we will explore using the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Informix from within PyCharm. Included are steps for adding the CData ODBC Driver as a data source, as well as basic PyCharm code to query the data source and display results.

To begin, this tutorial will assume that you have already installed the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Informix as well as PyCharm.

Add Pyodbc to the Project

Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.

1. Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
2. Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
3. To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
4. Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to IBM Informix

You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. See the Getting Started section in the CData driver documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on your OS.

Set the following properties to connect to IBM Informix

• Server: Set this to the name of the server running IBM Informix.
• Port: Set this to the port the IBM Informix server is listening on.
• Database: Set this to the name of the IBM Informix database.
• User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
• Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

[CData Informix Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for IBM Informix
Description = My Description
Server = 10.0.1.2
Port = 50000
User = admin
Password = admin
Database = test

Execute SQL to IBM Informix

Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.

import pyodbc

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Informix};Server = 10.0.1.2;Port = 50000;User = admin;Password = admin;Database = test;')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT Id, Price FROM Books WHERE Category = 'US'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
 print(row.Id, row.Price)

After connecting to IBM Informix in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to IBM Informix data as if it were a standard database. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this tutorial, please contact us at [email protected].