def insert_filler(column_names, values, require_all=True):
    '''
    Manually aligning the bindings for INSERT statements is annoying.
    Given the table's column names and a dictionary of {column: value},
    return the question marks and the list of bindings in the right order.

    require_all:
        If `values` does not contain one of the column names, should we raise
        an exception?
        Otherwise, that column will simply receive None.

    Example:
    column_names=['id', 'name', 'score'],
    values={'score': 20, 'id': '1111', 'name': 'James'}
    ->
    returns ('?, ?, ?', ['1111', 'James', 20])

    In context:
    (qmarks, bindings) = insert_filler(COLUMN_NAMES, data)
    query = 'INSERT INTO table VALUES(%s)' % qmarks
    cur.execute(query, bindings)
    '''
    values = values.copy()
    for column in column_names:
        if column in values:
            continue
        if require_all:
            raise ValueError('Missing column "%s"' % column)
        else:
            values[column] = None
    qmarks = '?' * len(column_names)
    qmarks = ', '.join(qmarks)
    bindings = [values[column] for column in column_names]
    return (qmarks, bindings)

def update_filler(pairs, where_key):
    '''
    Manually aligning the bindings for UPDATE statements is annoying.
    Given a dictionary of {column: value} as well as the name of the column
    to be used as the WHERE, return the "SET ..." portion of the query and the
    bindings in the correct order.

    Example:
    pairs={'id': '1111', 'name': 'James', 'score': 20},
    where_key='id'
    ->
    returns ('SET name = ?, score = ? WHERE id == ?', ['James', 20, '1111'])

    In context:
    (query, bindings) = update_filler(data, where_key)
    query = 'UPDATE table %s' % query
    cur.execute(query, bindings)
    '''
    pairs = pairs.copy()
    where_value = pairs.pop(where_key)
    if len(pairs) == 0:
        raise ValueError('No pairs left after where_key.')
    qmarks = []
    bindings = []
    for (key, value) in pairs.items():
        qmarks.append('%s = ?' % key)
        bindings.append(value)
    bindings.append(where_value)
    qmarks = ', '.join(qmarks)
    query = 'SET {setters} WHERE {where_key} == ?'
    query = query.format(setters=qmarks, where_key=where_key)
    return (query, bindings)