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# Setup App Database & connect to database

In our example we have the posts that will have to be added to a table in our Database

* The <mark style="color:purple;">**posts**</mark> table will have to have the following columns:

![](/files/juKi7OX1fgdvuo4RM0to)

* Also added 2 mock posts to the database

![](/files/g7pK9DCMQRKwLi1UOv2n)

#### To connect Python to our Database

* We will need a Postgres Driver
* There are multiple libraries that are able to do that but we ill use the [Psycopg Library](https://www.psycopg.org/)
* To set this up for Psycopg3 use [this documentation](https://www.psycopg.org/psycopg3/docs/)
* [Basic module usage](https://www.psycopg.org/psycopg3/docs/basic/usage.html) will help you set up the Database connection

#### To connect to the database we need to set up the following code

```python
import psycopg

try:
    conn = psycopg.connect("dbname=fastapi user=postgres password=Password1")
    cursor = conn.cursor()
    print("Database connection successful")

except Exception as error:
    print("Connecting to database failed")
    print("Error: ", error)
```

* This should either connect or return the error that was raised

{% hint style="info" %}
If there is any python code that can fail, it is best to use the try/except block in order to not break the code
{% endhint %}

* The main problem with the above code is that if the database is not reachable, there is no point in having our server up
* One solution would be to add the whole thing into a <mark style="color:orange;">`while`</mark> loop

```python
while True:

    try:
        conn = psycopg.connect("dbname=fastapi user=postgres password=Password1")
        cursor = conn.cursor()
        print("Database connection successful")
        break

    except Exception as error:
        print("Connecting to database failed")
        print("Error: ", error)
        time.sleep(2)
```

* We will break out of the loop if the connection is successful
* If the connection does not work, it will wait 2 seconds and restart the loop

{% hint style="danger" %}
**Hint**: We have hardcoded our database credentials in our code

This is really bad practice, but as we are learning, this is fine for now.&#x20;
{% endhint %}