Query result list contains pyodbc.Row instead of python tuples about robotframework-database-library HOT 4 CLOSED

If there is no returnAsDict specified, DatabaseLibrary will return whatever given database module is returning by default. According to https://peps.python.org/pep-0249/ module implementing DB API 2.0 should return list of tuples - but I guess some of the modules (like pyodbc) are more liberal and return list of objects like pyodb.Row.

We have two solutions here:

a) either forcefully convert output to tuples (which will fix issues like yours but may cause other issues if the objects can't be converted to Tuple or someone rely on module specific return type)
b) or fix the docs to mention exact behaviour (something along .. to query for the values that will be returned. Type of the values depends on the database module used but it should be tuple-like. - but I'm bad at writing docs ;) )

I'm leaning forward b)

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@touchedthecode Thanks for submitting the issue!

I believe, we shouldn't convert all results to tuples by default, because:

1. As mentioned above, somebody might indeed want to use the module specific types
2. It can introduce backwards incompatibility if somebody is already using module specific types
3. We'd dive into a rabbit hole of one more custom handling of DB behavior

We definitely should updated the docs, as you mentioned above in b)

From the other side, I can see the issue when using the comparisons like Lists should be equal.
@bhirsz what do you think about introducing an optional parameter force_return_tuples (default would be False) in the Query keyword - and do explicit converting to tuples if requested?

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We can introduce it, though if someone needs converting the type there is returnAsDict already. Would having two types of converters for output be okay? It still would need to be explicit configured

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You're right, with a new parameter you'd need to set the conversion explicitly anyway - and for this case the returnAsDict is already enough.
Good, then we'll just update the docs here.

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