Is there a way to have SQLAlchemy NOT change 1 to True and 0 to False for BIT columns?

I am using SQLAlchemy to read data from a SQL Server database and then turning the table data to a csv file to later hand off.

However, I noticed when there is a 1 or 0 in a SQL Server table field, the csv output has True or False instead. I know to Python, it’s still a number since True == 1 returns True

Is it possible to not have this happen from the get go and have the csv keep 1 or 0?

This my current code:

import pandas as pd
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None)
pd.set_option('max_colwidth', None)

df = pd.read_csv(r'''C:UsersusernameDownloadspy_tma_tables.csv''')

tma_table = df['table_name'].tolist()

servername = 'SERVER'
dbname = 'DATABASE'
sqlcon = create_engine('mssql+pyodbc://@' + servername + '/' + dbname + '?driver=ODBC+Driver+17+for+SQL+Server')

df_list = []
count = 0
while count < 1:
    df1 = pd.read_sql_query("SELECT * FROM " + tma_table[count], sqlcon)
    df_list.append(df1)
    df_list[count].to_csv(tma_table[count] + ".csv", index=False, header=None, encoding='utf-8')
    count += 1

I have about 450 tables that this would be applied to so single table solutions aren’t going to work as I need an automated way to have every table follow this rule I’m aiming for.

I started to go down the route of trying to loop through each column and change the dtype of the column but it seems easier to not have to replace True or False to 1 or 0 in the first place.

dtypes output:

cst_pk                              int64
cst_code                           object
cst_name                           object
cst_clnt_fk                         int64
cst_active                           bool
cst_encumbered                     object
cst_purgeDate                      object
cst_splitBill                        bool
cst_subLabor_fk                    object
cst_subParts_fk                   float64
cst_subOther_fk                    object
cst_subContract                      bool
cst_subContractLabor_fk            object
cst_subContractParts_fk            object
cst_subContractOther_fk            object
cst_balanceType                    object
cst_normalBalance                  object
cst_ay_fk                           int64
cst_header                           bool
cst_beginningBalance               object
cst_alias                          object
cst_modifier_fk                   float64
cst_modifiedDate           datetime64[ns]
cst_creator_fk                    float64
cst_createddate            datetime64[ns]
cst_curr_fk                        object
cst_exch_fk                        object
cst_exch_date                      object
cst_ag_fk                          object
cst_dp_fk                         float64
cst_alternateAccount               object
dtype: object

SQL CREATE TABLE query:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[f_account](
    [cst_pk] [int] NOT NULL,
    [cst_code] [nvarchar](100) NOT NULL,
    [cst_name] [nvarchar](35) NOT NULL,
    [cst_clnt_fk] [int] NOT NULL,
    [cst_active] [bit] NOT NULL,
    [cst_encumbered] [decimal](10, 2) NULL,
    [cst_purgeDate] [datetime] NULL,
    [cst_splitBill] [bit] NOT NULL,
    [cst_subLabor_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_subParts_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_subOther_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_subContract] [bit] NOT NULL,
    [cst_subContractLabor_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_subContractParts_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_subContractOther_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_balanceType] [nvarchar](20) NULL,
    [cst_normalBalance] [nvarchar](20) NULL,
    [cst_ay_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_header] [bit] NOT NULL,
    [cst_beginningBalance] [decimal](10, 2) NULL,
    [cst_alias] [nvarchar](32) NULL,
    [cst_modifier_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_modifiedDate] [datetime] NULL,
    [cst_creator_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_createddate] [datetime] NULL,
    [cst_curr_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_exch_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_exch_date] [datetime] NULL,
    [cst_ag_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_dp_fk] [int] NULL,
    [cst_alternateAccount] [nvarchar](100) NULL

Answer

As explained in

https://github.com/mkleehammer/pyodbc/issues/383

pyodbc returns bit columns as boolean values because that is what most people use bit columns for.

import pandas as pd
import sqlalchemy as sa

engine = sa.create_engine("mssql+pyodbc://scott:tiger^5HHH@mssql_199")

table_data = """
SELECT -1 AS id, CAST(NULL AS bit) AS bit_col
UNION ALL
SELECT 0 AS id, CAST(0 AS bit) AS bit_col
UNION ALL
SELECT 1 AS id, CAST(1 AS bit) AS bit_col
"""

df = pd.read_sql_query(table_data, engine)
print(df)
"""
   id  bit_col
0  -1     None
1   0    False
2   1     True
"""

If you want pyodbc to return bit columns as some other type you can use an output converter function as illustrated in the GitHub issue. The trick is getting SQLAlchemy to use it. That is done using an event listener.

import pandas as pd
import pyodbc
import sqlalchemy as sa

engine = sa.create_engine("mssql+pyodbc://scott:tiger^5HHH@mssql_199")

table_data = """
SELECT -1 AS id, CAST(NULL AS bit) AS bit_col
UNION ALL
SELECT 0 AS id, CAST(0 AS bit) AS bit_col
UNION ALL
SELECT 1 AS id, CAST(1 AS bit) AS bit_col
"""

def handle_bit_type(bit_value):
    return bit_value


@sa.event.listens_for(engine, "connect")
def connect(conn, rec):
    conn.add_output_converter(pyodbc.SQL_BIT, handle_bit_type)


df = pd.read_sql_query(table_data, engine)
print(df)
"""
   id  bit_col
0  -1     None
1   0  b'x00'
2   1  b'x01'
"""

Edit: Or, if you use

def handle_bit_type(bit_value):
    if bit_value is None:
        rtn = None
    elif bit_value == b"x00":
        rtn = "0"
    else:
        rtn = "1"
    return rtn

you’ll get

df = pd.read_sql_query(table_data, engine)
print(df)
"""
   id bit_col
0  -1    None
1   0       0
2   1       1
"""