1 - option sqlContext.sql("use %s" % db)

2 - option

>>> db = "juliodb" >>> print(db) juliodb >>> query = 'use {}'.format(db) >>> sqlContext.sql(query) DataFrame[] >>> b = sqlContext.sql("show tables") >>> b.show() +---------+-----------+ |tableName|isTemporary| +---------+-----------+ | firsttb| false| +---------+-----------+

>>>