Sql alchemy commands used in table info (#1135)

This approach has several advantages:

* it improves the readability of the code
* removes incompatibilities between SQL dialects
* fixes a bug with `datetime` values in rows and `ast.literal_eval`

Huge thanks and credits to @jzluo for finding the weaknesses in the
current approach and for the thoughtful discussion on the best way to
implement this.

---------

Co-authored-by: Francisco Ingham <>
Co-authored-by: Jon Luo <20971593+jzluo@users.noreply.github.com>

langchain/sql_database.py

@@ -1,23 +1,12 @@
 """SQLAlchemy wrapper around a database."""
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-import ast
 from typing import Any, Iterable, List, Optional
 
-from sqlalchemy import create_engine, inspect
+from sqlalchemy import MetaData, create_engine, inspect, select
 from sqlalchemy.engine import Engine
-
+from sqlalchemy.exc import ProgrammingError
-_TEMPLATE_PREFIX = """Table data will be described in the following format:
+from sqlalchemy.schema import CreateTable
-
-Table 'table name' has columns: {
-column1 name: (column1 type, [list of example values for column1]),
-column2 name: (column2 type, [list of example values for column2]),
-...
-}
-
-These are the tables you can use, together with their column information:
-
-"""
 
 
 class SQLDatabase:
@@ -27,6 +16,7 @@ class SQLDatabase:
         self,
         engine: Engine,
         schema: Optional[str] = None,
+        metadata: Optional[MetaData] = None,
         ignore_tables: Optional[List[str]] = None,
         include_tables: Optional[List[str]] = None,
         sample_rows_in_table_info: int = 3,
@@ -53,8 +43,15 @@ class SQLDatabase:
                 raise ValueError(
                     f"ignore_tables {missing_tables} not found in database"
                 )
+
+        if not isinstance(sample_rows_in_table_info, int):
+            raise TypeError("sample_rows_in_table_info must be an integer")
+
         self._sample_rows_in_table_info = sample_rows_in_table_info
 
+        self._metadata = metadata or MetaData()
+        self._metadata.reflect(bind=self._engine)
+
     @classmethod
     def from_uri(cls, database_uri: str, **kwargs: Any) -> SQLDatabase:
         """Construct a SQLAlchemy engine from URI."""
@@ -93,52 +90,53 @@ class SQLDatabase:
                 raise ValueError(f"table_names {missing_tables} not found in database")
             all_table_names = table_names
 
-        tables = []
+        meta_tables = [
-        for table_name in all_table_names:
+            tbl
-            columns = []
+            for tbl in self._metadata.sorted_tables
-            if self.dialect in ("sqlite", "duckdb"):
+            if tbl.name in set(all_table_names)
-                create_table = self.run(
+        ]
-                    (
-                        "SELECT sql FROM sqlite_master WHERE "
-                        f"type='table' AND name='{table_name}'"
-                    ),
-                    fetch="one",
-                )
-            else:
-                create_table = self.run(
-                    f"SHOW CREATE TABLE `{table_name}`;",
-                )
 
-            for column in self._inspector.get_columns(table_name, schema=self._schema):
+        tables = []
-                columns.append(column["name"])
+        for table in meta_tables:
+            # add create table command
+            create_table = str(CreateTable(table).compile(self._engine))
 
             if self._sample_rows_in_table_info:
-                if self.dialect in ("sqlite", "duckdb"):
+                # build the select command
+                command = select(table).limit(self._sample_rows_in_table_info)
+
+                # save the command in string format
                 select_star = (
-                        f"SELECT * FROM '{table_name}' LIMIT "
+                    f"SELECT * FROM '{table.name}' LIMIT "
-                        f"{self._sample_rows_in_table_info}"
-                    )
-                else:
-                    select_star = (
-                        f"SELECT * FROM `{table_name}` LIMIT "
                     f"{self._sample_rows_in_table_info}"
                 )
 
-                sample_rows = self.run(select_star)
+                # save the columns in string format
+                columns_str = " ".join([col.name for col in table.columns])
 
-                sample_rows_ls = ast.literal_eval(sample_rows)
+                # get the sample rows
-                sample_rows_ls = list(
+                with self._engine.connect() as connection:
-                    map(lambda ls: [str(i)[:100] for i in ls], sample_rows_ls)
+                    sample_rows = connection.execute(command)
+
+                try:
+                    # shorten values in the smaple rows
+                    sample_rows = list(
+                        map(lambda ls: [str(i)[:100] for i in ls], sample_rows)
                     )
 
-                columns_str = " ".join(columns)
+                    # save the sample rows in string format
-                sample_rows_str = "\n".join([" ".join(row) for row in sample_rows_ls])
+                    sample_rows_str = "\n".join([" ".join(row) for row in sample_rows])
 
+                # in some dialects when there are no rows in the table a
+                # 'ProgrammingError' is returned
+                except ProgrammingError:
+                    sample_rows_str = ""
+
+                # build final info for table
                 tables.append(
                     create_table
-                    + "\n\n"
                     + select_star
-                    + "\n"
+                    + ";\n"
                     + columns_str
                     + "\n"
                     + sample_rows_str
@@ -147,7 +145,7 @@ class SQLDatabase:
             else:
                 tables.append(create_table)
 
-        final_str = "\n\n\n".join(tables)
+        final_str = "\n\n".join(tables)
         return final_str
 
     def run(self, command: str, fetch: str = "all") -> str:

tests/unit_tests/test_sql_database.py

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 
 from sqlalchemy import Column, Integer, MetaData, String, Table, create_engine, insert
 
-from langchain.sql_database import _TEMPLATE_PREFIX, SQLDatabase
+from langchain.sql_database import SQLDatabase
 
 metadata_obj = MetaData()
 
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ def test_table_info() -> None:
             PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
     )
 
-    SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 3
+    SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 3;
     user_id user_name
 
 
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ def test_table_info() -> None:
             PRIMARY KEY (company_id)
     )
 
-    SELECT * FROM 'company' LIMIT 3
+    SELECT * FROM 'company' LIMIT 3;
     company_id company_location
     """
 
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def test_table_info_w_sample_rows() -> None:
         PRIMARY KEY (company_id)
 )
 
-        SELECT * FROM 'company' LIMIT 2
+        SELECT * FROM 'company' LIMIT 2;
         company_id company_location
 
 
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ def test_table_info_w_sample_rows() -> None:
         PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
         )
 
-        SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 2
+        SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 2;
         user_id user_name
         13 Harrison
         14 Chase

tests/unit_tests/test_sql_database_schema.py

@@ -45,12 +45,17 @@ def test_table_info() -> None:
     """Test that table info is constructed properly."""
     engine = create_engine("duckdb:///:memory:")
     metadata_obj.create_all(engine)
-    db = SQLDatabase(engine, schema="schema_a")
+
+    db = SQLDatabase(engine, schema="schema_a", metadata=metadata_obj)
     output = db.table_info
     expected_output = """
-    CREATE TABLE schema_a."user"(user_id INTEGER, user_name VARCHAR NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY(user_id));
+    CREATE TABLE schema_a."user" (
+        user_id INTEGER NOT NULL, 
+        user_name VARCHAR NOT NULL, 
+        PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
+    )
 
-    SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 3
+    SELECT * FROM 'user' LIMIT 3;
     user_id user_name
     """