I’m working on a bit of python code to run a query against a redshift (postgres) SQL database, and I’m running into an issue where I can’t strip off the surrounding single quotes from a variable I’m passing to the query. I’m trying to drop a number of tables from a list. This is the basics of my code:

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7def func(table_list):

drop_query = 'drop table if exists %s' #loaded from file

table_name = table_list[0] #table_name = 'my_db.my_table'

con=psycopg2.connect(dbname=DB, host=HOST, port=PORT, user=USER, password=PASS)

cur=con.cursor()

cur.execute(drop_query, (table_name, )) #this line is giving me trouble

#cleanup statements for the connection

table_list =

1['my_db.my_table']

when func() gets called, I am given the following error:

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3syntax error at or near "'my_db.my_table'"

LINE 1: drop table if exists 'my_db.my_table...

^

Is there a way I can remove the surrounding single quotes from my list item?

for the time being, I’ve done it (what think is) the wrong way and used string concatenation, but know this is basically begging for SQL-injection.