Assignments > Lab 8: Database + ORM Lab

Due on Fri, 11/07 @ 11:59PM. 6 Points.

1. Introduction

The goals of this lab are as follows:

1. Set up a docker container with a postgres tutorial
2. Get some basic experience with SQL
3. Get experience interacting with a Postgres database from Python
4. Get experience querying the database via an ORM

2. Setup

Version Control Stuff

Before you begin, get the latest code from class-exercises-fall2025.

On GitHub:

• Sync the latest changes from the class version of class-exercises-fall2025 to your copy of the repo on GitHub.

On your local computer:

• Make sure that all of your changes from the last lab are staged and committed.
• Checkout your main branch: git checkout main
• Pull down the latest changes: git pull
  • If you did it correctly, you will notice that a new lab08 folder has been created.
• Create a new branch called lab08-b: git checkout -b lab08-b
• Verify that you’re on your new branch: git branch

Build and run your Docker file

Navigate to your lab08 directory and type:

docker compose up -d

As you may recall, this command builds your Docker container and runs it. Keep your terminal running and do the remaining tasks on anther terminal.

3. SQL Exercises

Run the Postgres SQL Client

In the new terminal window we’ll run psql (the postgres SQL client) on the your running container.

# get container id:
docker ps -la

# connect to the docker container
docker exec -it <pid> psql -U postgres

If you did this correctly, you should see a PostgreSQL shell that looks like this:

postgres=#

Now let’s confirm things are working. Try typing in the \list command and confirm you see the dvdrental database.

postgres=# \list

If that works, let’s change to the dvdrental database and run a simple sql query to list all customer’s first names.

postgres=# \c dvdrental
dvdrental=# select first_name from customer;

[Optional] Using a GUI Client

For those of you who would like to look at the data in a visual way, feel free to use DBeaver (which you can download here). Once downloaded and installed, you can preview the DVD Rental database by using the following connection information for a PostgreSQL connection:

• host: localhost
• database: postgres
• username: postgres
• password: postgres
• port: 5433

Also, make sure that the “Show all databases” option is checked (as pictured in the screenshot below):

Tutorial

Now that you’re all set up, please answer the 10 SQL questions (listed below) in the “SQL” section of your lab08/answers_sql.md file. Here are some references from the PostgreSQL tutorial to help you:

• Select
• Where
• Limit
• Joins
• Table Aliases
• Inner Join
• Insert
• Insert Multiple Rows

SQL Questions

1. SELECT - Retrieving Data. Write a query to list the titles and release years of all movies in the film table.
2. WHERE - Filtering Data. Write a query to find all customers whose last name starts with the letter ‘S’.
3. ORDER BY - Sorting Results. List all film titles and their rental durations, sorted by rental duration in descending order.
4. JOIN - Combining Tables. Write a query to list all films along with their categories. Show the film title and category name.
5. AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS - Counting and Grouping Rows. Write a query to count how many films there are for each rating (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17). Show the count and the rating.
6. AGGREGATE FUNCTIONS - Counting and Grouping Rows. Write a query to count how many films are in the Action category.
7. INSERT - Adding Data. Insert a new customer into the customer table. The new customer should have a first name, last name, email, and be linked to an existing store.
8. UPDATE - Modifying Data. Update the rental rate of all films in the Comedy category, increasing it by 10%.
9. DELETE - Removing Data. Write a query to delete a rental from the rental table.

4. SQL Alchemy / Python Exercises

Now, you’re going to try connecting to your postgres database using python on your local computer.

Open a terminal window, navigate to your lab08 directory, and install the dependencies in the pyproject.toml file:

poetry install

You should now be able to run the orm_samples.py file as usual from your local terminal:

poetry run python orm_samples.py

Take a look at the file and try to understand what it does. The code samples are very similar to SQLAlchemy tasks you will be completing (below).

SQL Alchemy Questions

You will be implementing some python functions in the answers_orm.py as instructed below. Before you begin, please run the answers_orm.py script first to see what it does:

poetry run python answers_orm.py

Note that the first exercise has already been completed for you.

1. print_titles_and_release_years Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to print the titles and release years of all movies in the film table.
2. print_customers_starting_with Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to print all customers whose last name starts with the character passed into the function.
3. print_film_titles_and_durations Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to print all films titles and their durations, sorted by their rental duration in descending order. If two films have the same rental duration, sort them alphabetically by title.
4. print_film_titles_and_categories Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to print all films along with their categories. Show the film title and category name.
5. print_num_films_in_action_category Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to print the number of films in the Action category.
6. create_new_customer Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to create a new customer into the customer table. The new customer should have a first name, last name, email, and be linked to an existing store.
7. delete_customer_by_id Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to delete a customer from the database based on the id argument.
   • Note that many of the customers in the database are referenced in other tables (e.g., each customer is associated with a record in the store table, the address table, etc.). Given this, be sure to test your delete functionality with one of the customers you created in the previous exercise (which has no dependencies yet).
8. update_customer_email Write a function that uses SQLAlchemy to update a customer’s email. Required arguments are the customer’s id and the new email address.

What to Submit

Before you submit, make sure you’ve completed the two sets of tasks:

• SQL tasks: you have written the SQL for the 9 SQL tasks in answers_sql.md
• SQLAlchemy tasks: you have successfully written and invoked the 8 SQLAlchemy-based functions using asynchronous database queries in answers_orm.py.

When you’re done, please push your lab08-b branch to GitHub and make a pull request. Please ensure that the destination (left-hand side) is pointing to the main branch of your repo and the source (right-hand side) is pointing to the lab08-b branch of your repo. Then, please paste a link to your PR in the Moodle.