FEAT: Adding setdecoding() API for connection

[jahnvi480]

Work Item / Issue Reference

AB#34918

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Summary

This pull request introduces new functionality for configuring and retrieving text decoding settings in the Connection class of the mssql_python package. The main changes add support for a new special SQL type flag (SQL_WMETADATA) to allow explicit control over how column metadata is decoded, and provide two new methods (setdecoding and getdecoding) for managing decoding configuration per SQL type.

Enhancements to decoding configuration:

• Added a new constant, SQL_WMETADATA, in both mssql_python/__init__.py and mssql_python/connection.py, to allow explicit configuration of column name decoding.
• Initialized a _decoding_settings dictionary in the Connection class to store decoding settings for SQL_CHAR, SQL_WCHAR, and SQL_WMETADATA, with sensible Python 3 defaults.
• Introduced the setdecoding method to the Connection class, allowing users to configure the decoding (encoding and ctype) for each SQL type, including validation and error handling.
• Added the getdecoding method to the Connection class, enabling retrieval of the current decoding settings for a specific SQL type, with validation and error handling.

Testing configuration:

• Updated the conn_str fixture in tests/conftest.py to use a hardcoded connection string, likely for local testing purposes.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This pull request introduces a comprehensive encoding/decoding configuration system for the Connection class, enabling users to control how text is encoded and decoded when interacting with SQL Server databases. The changes provide explicit control over text handling for SQL statements and results with Python 3 defaults and include security improvements for logging user input.

• Added setencoding, getencoding, setdecoding, and getdecoding methods for comprehensive text encoding/decoding control
• Introduced module-level constants (SQL_CHAR, SQL_WCHAR, SQL_WMETADATA) and helper functions for encoding validation
• Added sanitize_user_input helper function to prevent log injection attacks

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 10 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
tests/test_003_connection.py	Extensive test suite covering all encoding/decoding functionality with various scenarios
tests/conftest.py	Hardcoded connection string for improved test reliability
mssql_python/type.py	Minor documentation clarification removing pyodbc reference
mssql_python/helpers.py	Added sanitize_user_input function for secure logging
mssql_python/connection.py	Core implementation of encoding/decoding methods with validation and security features
mssql_python/__init__.py	Export of SQL constants for public API access

[sumitmsft]

No major issues were found. This PR is well-implemented and safe to merge.