title: "Too many SQL variables" error in django with sqlite3
body: <p>I'm getting this error using sqlite3 in django:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Exception Value: too many SQL variables</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>And I think the answer to it is this, <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/limits.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">from here</a>:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Many SQL programmers are familiar with using a question mark (&quot;?&quot;) as a host
  parameter. SQLite also supports named host parameters prefaced by &quot;:&quot;, &quot;$&quot;, or
  &quot;@&quot; and numbered host parameters of the form &quot;?123&quot;.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <blockquote>
  <p>To prevent excessive memory allocations, the maximum value of a host parameter
  number is SQLITE_MAX_VARIABLE_NUMBER, which defaults to 999.&quot;</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>However, there's a remaining oddity that I don't understand, which is that the
  same query runs fine from a django shell session (launched with <code>python manage.py shell</code>), but not when the call is made from my <code>views.py</code>.</p>
  <p>These are the lines of code that are causing the error:</p>
  <pre><code>vals = Company.objects.filter(id__in=comp_ids).values('id', 'name').order_by('name')
  names_map = SortedDict(vals)
  </code></pre>
  <p>where <code>comp_ids</code> is a set containing 1038 integer elements.</p>
  <p>The exact same query, with an even greater no. of <code>comp_ids</code> (3800+) runs fine in
  the django shell (launched with <code>python manage.py shell</code>) - the dictionary gets
  created, and I could iterate through it.</p>
  <p>I've tried breaking up <code>comp_ids</code> into sets of e.g. <code>[:996]</code> (that seemed to be the
  limit before it barfed) i.e. <code>filter(id__in=comp_ids[:996])</code>, then the rest in
  the next iteration, which would be consistent with the &quot;no. of host parameters&quot;
  explanation.</p>
  <p>But why would it work in the django shell but not from <code>views.py</code>?</p>
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> Some more information:
  Entering the query into the sqlite shell (manage.py dbshell) returns the full
  set of results with no errors, same as in the django shell (manage.py shell).</p>
  <p>Here are the exact list of parameters (1039 elements) and the query, if you'd
  like to know the details:</p>
  <p>params</p>
  <pre>
  (2, 3, 4, 2053, 6, 7, 2732, 10, 3737, 13, 2063, 2064, 17, 18, 21, 2393, 2052, 29, 30, 32, 2456, 35, 36, 38, 40, 2396, 42, 2731, 45, 46, 2095, 3343, 49, 2098, 2252, 53, 54, 58, 59, 2058, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 72, 2123, 3426, 3344, 79, 80, 81, 85, 2134, 87, 91, 92, 95, 98, 2747, 2149, 102, 104, 106, 2155, 109, 110, 3773, 2455, 2165, 118, 122, 2171, 2172, 127, 134, 135, 137, 138, 2187, 2413, 145, 148, 2414, 2198, 2199, 152, 153, 154, 2204, 157, 2210, 163, 2417, 169, 170, 2219, 172, 173, 3279, 2077, 179, 180, 181, 2230, 2231, 184, 186, 187, 2237, 190, 191, 2240, 2241, 3787, 2245, 2246, 2247, 2248, 2249, 2251, 204, 205, 207, 208, 209, 210, 213, 214, 2263, 2265, 3450, 222, 2273, 2274, 2275, 228, 2277, 2811, 231, 234, 2283, 2284, 238, 240, 243, 248, 250, 2299, 2300, 254, 2303, 2305, 258, 2307, 2308, 2309, 2310, 2311, 2312, 2313, 267, 269, 2318, 271, 2320, 2321, 2322, 2323, 2325, 278, 2327, 280, 282, 283, 285, 286, 287, 290, 2342, 295, 298, 2347, 2348, 2349, 2350, 2351, 304, 2353, 307, 309, 312, 318, 320, 321, 323, 326, 327, 328, 332, 333, 334, 2385, 338, 2387, 2388, 2389, 2390, 2391, 2392, 345, 2394, 347, 348, 350, 352, 354, 355, 356, 357, 359, 360, 2410, 364, 365, 366, 2415, 2416, 369, 2451, 373, 2422, 375, 377, 2426, 2428, 2429, 2430, 2432, 2433, 387, 2454, 391, 2441, 2443, 398, 399, 400, 401, 2553, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 413, 2462, 3628, 418, 2459, 420, 2469, 2470, 2472, 425, 427, 2476, 2461, 2483, 2485, 440, 441, 2490, 443, 444, 445, 446, 2496, 2497, 2499, 2501, 2502, 455, 2504, 2505, 459, 460, 2466, 2510, 463, 465, 466, 467, 469, 470, 2519, 2520, 2468, 474, 2529, 2531, 484, 486, 487, 488, 490, 491, 493, 2542, 2543, 2544, 497, 498, 499, 500, 2549, 502, 2551, 504, 505, 2554, 2555, 2556, 509, 2558, 511, 2560, 2562, 2475, 2564, 517, 2566, 2567, 2568, 2569, 523, 2572, 526, 527, 529, 536, 538, 539, 2588, 2589, 2590, 2596, 550, 552, 556, 2605, 2607, 2608, 2612, 565, 566, 567, 568, 580, 2634, 587, 2636, 2638, 2639, 2270, 595, 598, 2489, 605, 606, 609, 610, 2407, 615, 618, 619, 620, 2669, 2670, 2493, 2672, 2152, 628, 629, 630, 2680, 2682, 2684, 640, 641, 642, 2691, 645, 648, 650, 2699, 2700, 2701, 2702, 2703, 2705, 659, 2708, 661, 2712, 667, 2718, 2719, 2720, 2721, 2723, 2724, 2725, 2728, 681, 2730, 2614, 684, 2733, 2735, 2736, 689, 2739, 2741, 2746, 699, 701, 706, 707, 2757, 2759, 2760, 2508, 2763, 2766, 721, 2771, 725, 730, 2511, 732, 2170, 734, 2343, 743, 749, 2798, 2799, 752, 753, 2515, 756, 2078, 2807, 2808, 2412, 763, 2813, 766, 769, 2818, 2821, 2822, 779, 2861, 2833, 2834, 2835, 2836, 2837, 790, 802, 2852, 2854, 2856, 2550, 810, 2860, 813, 2862, 2863, 817, 2869, 2870, 2871, 824, 826, 2876, 829, 830, 2882, 836, 2885, 2886, 3574, 2890, 2892, 2893, 847, 2896, 2872, 2899, 2902, 2546, 2909, 2256, 2912, 2913, 870, 2920, 2921, 2922, 876, 2930, 887, 2937, 3903, 892, 893, 894, 895, 896, 897, 898, 899, 900, 901, 903, 904, 905, 906, 907, 908, 909, 910, 911, 2884, 2970, 927, 2977, 2978, 2979, 2980, 2981, 2545, 941, 942, 2205, 948, 949, 950, 951, 952, 953, 954, 955, 956, 957, 958, 959, 960, 961, 962, 963, 964, 965, 3014, 967, 968, 969, 970, 971, 3234, 2552, 980, 981, 982, 983, 985, 2895, 3038, 995, 996, 998, 2897, 2538, 2761, 3051, 1012, 1013, 3062, 3063, 3066, 2559, 3073, 1027, 1028, 1029, 1030, 2421, 3080, 1036, 1038, 1039, 1040, 1041, 3092, 3246, 3853, 1050, 3099, 1057, 3109, 3112, 1067, 1068, 1073, 1074, 1075, 1076, 1078, 1081, 2491, 1086, 2229, 1088, 1089, 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098, 1099, 1100, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1107, 1108, 1109, 1110, 1111, 1112, 3161, 1119, 3170, 2235, 3174, 3176, 3177, 1132, 1133, 1134, 1135, 1136, 3186, 1141, 3192, 3193, 3194, 3195, 3197, 3198, 2425, 1152, 1155, 1156, 3205, 2924, 3214, 1168, 1169, 1171, 1172, 1173, 1174, 1175, 1176, 3225, 1178, 3230, 1186, 1189, 1193, 1194, 1195, 1196, 3245, 1198, 1199, 1200, 1202, 2541, 3273, 1210, 3259, 1213, 1225, 1226, 1228, 1230, 2253, 3280, 3281, 1234, 1235, 1238, 1243, 1244, 1248, 1249, 3298, 3299, 1253, 3302, 2257, 3304, 3305, 3306, 3308, 1262, 2838, 3315, 3317, 3381, 1277, 1278, 3327, 3331, 3332, 1285, 2945, 1288, 1289, 1292, 1295, 1296, 1298, 3347, 3348, 3349, 1302, 3351, 3352, 3353, 1306, 1307, 3356, 1312, 3364, 1320, 3370, 3371, 3372, 3374, 3375, 1328, 3377, 3378, 3380, 1333, 1334, 3388, 3390, 3296, 3394, 3395, 2227, 1350, 2615, 1357, 1361, 1362, 3411, 3412, 3413, 1368, 2276, 1371, 1372, 3105, 1378, 2228, 3428, 3430, 3433, 1400, 1402, 1404, 3453, 3455, 3808, 1409, 3458, 3459, 1412, 1414, 1416, 1417, 1418, 1419, 1420, 2093, 3470, 1437, 3486, 1439, 2571, 3491, 3492, 3493, 1446, 2435, 1454, 1463, 3663, 3523, 1477, 1478, 1479, 1480, 1481, 1482, 3531, 1484, 1488, 1489, 1490, 3540, 1494, 1495, 1496, 3546, 3547, 2298, 1510, 1512, 3666, 1520, 1523, 2302, 1526, 1527, 3584, 1539, 1540, 1542, 1543, 1548, 1549, 3393, 1554, 1555, 1560, 1561, 3079, 1565, 2507, 3616, 3617, 1570, 3619, 3620, 3621, 3622, 1575, 3624, 2817, 3629, 3630, 1583, 1590, 1591, 1592, 2996, 3643, 3645, 2997, 3649, 2781, 3653, 3655, 1608, 3657, 2317, 1618, 3667, 1620, 3669, 1625, 2319, 3002, 2782, 1633, 1634, 3199, 3691, 3346, 3688, 1650, 1656, 3007, 3709, 3008, 1666, 2616, 3009, 2668, 2306, 3723, 3010, 2238, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1687, 3012, 3738, 2671, 1693, 3013, 1697, 1698, 2548, 3749, 3755, 3757, 3758, 2333, 1714, 1718, 3770, 3018, 1729, 3778, 3783, 1739, 1744, 3793, 1746, 1752, 1753, 1755, 3741, 3707, 1771, 1774, 2514, 1779, 2494, 3831, 1788, 2346, 3029, 3840, 3182, 2689, 1802, 1803, 2690, 1811, 1815, 1817, 3011, 2352, 1827, 2467, 1832, 3881, 1839, 1840, 2107, 1848, 1849, 2698, 2653, 1855, 1857, 1864, 1867, 1872, 1873, 3923, 1878, 1882, 1889, 3354, 1903, 1904, 2366, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1931, 3133, 1943, 1947, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1976, 2809, 3612, 1987, 1988, 1989, 3745, 1994, 2000, 2003, 2382, 2008, 3613, 2021, 2022, 3410, 3464, 2033, 2034, 2037, 2038, 2729, 2044)
  </pre>
  <p>query</p>
  <pre>
  'SELECT "screen_company"."id", "screen_company"."name" FROM "screen_company" WHERE "screen_company"."id" IN (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?) ORDER BY "screen_company"."name" ASC'
  </pre>
  <p>(Incidentally, you don't need to use pdb for that - django very helpfully
  displays the backtrace in the browser (in render_to_response()?) when an error occurs, with a
  full list of the local variables at each step, so you can see the full query
  there.)</p>
  <p>I had, however, previously tried stepping into the django code with pdb, and
  found the error was actually originating from python's pysqlite2.dbapi2 (or
  sqlite3.dbapi2) module, at line 200 of django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py:</p>
  <pre><code>return Database.Cursor.execute(self, query, params)
  </code></pre>
  <p>(which was also in the helpful backtrace shown in the error page), where
  Database is an alias for either pysqlite2.dbapi2, or sqlite3.dbapi2, depending
  on your python version.</p>
  <p>But I thought that was too far down the call stack to keep debugging (for now),
  so decided to stop, and started thinking about workarounds and googling for
  answers instead. :)</p>