title: Cx_Oracle. using to_date in python
body: <p>I want to insert a row into my table, but I am getting an error. Where am I going wrong?</p>
  
  <pre><code>CREATE TABLE  person (
  
    name          VARCHAR(40),
    birthday      DATE,
    PRIMARY KEY (name)
    );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now in python I try to insert a person with the following statement...</p>
  
  <pre><code>     curs = connection.cursor
  
       name = input("Name: ")
       birthday = input("Birthdate(yyyy-mm-dd): ")
  
       insert = """insert into people(name, birthday) values (:name,:birthday)"""
  
       curs.execute(insert,{'name':name,'to_date(birthday, "yyyy-mm-dd")':birthday})
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get the following error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>curs.execute(insert,{'name':name,'to_date(birthday, "yyyy-mm-dd")':birthday})
  cx_Oracle.DatabaseError: ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number
  </code></pre>