It tests the speed of building SQL by different ways, really.

test_sql_build.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import sql
from sqlalchemy import MetaData, Table, Column, String, DateTime


metadata = MetaData()

users = Table('users', metadata,
              Column('id', String, primary_key=True),
              Column('name', String),
              Column('email', String),
              Column('created', DateTime))


def use_sqlalchemy():
    return str(users.select().where(users.c.id == '20130215'))


def use_sqlalchemy_mosql():
    return str(sql.select('users', {'id': '20130215'}))


def use_sqlalchemy_sql():
    return str("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '20130215';")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    from timeit import timeit

    print use_sqlalchemy()
    print
    print use_sqlalchemy_mosql()
    print
    print use_sqlalchemy_sql()
    print

    n = 30000

    print '* Using SQLAlchemy'
    print timeit(use_sqlalchemy, number=n)
    print

    print '* Using SQLAlchemy with MoSQL:'
    print timeit(use_sqlalchemy_mosql, number=n)
    print

    print '* Using SQLAlchemy with pure SQL:'
    print timeit(use_sqlalchemy_sql, number=n)
    print


"""
Output:

SELECT users.id, users.name, users.email, users.created 
FROM users 
WHERE users.id = :id_1

SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '20130215';

SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '20130215';

* Using SQLAlchemy
7.11727309227

* Using SQLAlchemy with MoSQL:
1.16956305504

* Using SQLAlchemy with pure SQL:
0.00899291038513

"""